#engchat, #iste, and the power of pause
Last week, I found myself wandering the streets around the Philly Convention Center in search of a gathering of educators who happen to have a connection as teachers of English/language arts in their day jobs. I usually find some, or all of them, hanging out on Monday nights at 7 p.m. on Twitter virtually engaged in #engchat, but on this night they’d decided to meet up during #ISTE and gather campfire style around tables at a small pub.
I watched the #engchat community in silent conversation that night. It was a night of learning enchantment. I couldn’t help but feel that I was in the midst of Jedi knights of the teaching world as their words flowed in 140 characters. Ben Grey wandered, capturing the story in video. No one seemed to notice.
That night something unexpected also happened. Bud Hunt facilitated a collaborative writing response about the power of pause. The #engchatters engaged together in a deeper kind of collaborative writing that took them to a learning space in which Twitter’s linear quick time slowed to what felt almost like circular time. The Google doclengthened moment by moment as each of the writers added their own perspectives on the power of pause in
