How to Moderate a #Edmodochat!

There are many different ways in which to moderate a Twitter Chat.  The first suggestion I would make would be to use a program in which you are comfortable using to moderate the chat.  I personally enjoy using Tweetdeck as it is easy to have a column with the chat and interactions up at one time it also allows you to schedule tweets as well.  Once you find a program that you find comfortable for you to use the next is deciding upon which questions you will use and the order in which you want to put them in.  When planning an Edmodochat please make sure to use the edmodochat planner which can be found here: Depending on the topic will sometimes cause the questions to take a certain order other times it is a matter of preference or what you as the moderator will think will flow the best.

Once you have established an order, it is always great to share with a a co-moderator for a second set of eyes.   Remember we are representing Edmodo as ambassadors when we are moderating twitter chats, so make sure the questions are engaging and at Edmodo's expectation level.  Once you have decided on the questions and the order you can always schedule your questions ahead of time so you will not forget to tweet out the questions at the correct time.  When scheduling a tweet for a chat make sure you put question number with the question for example if you were doing questions one your tweet should be Q1 and remember the #Edmodochat.  This allows the participants to respond with A and the number of the questions which helps for an easy to follow the chat.  

The number of moderators will determine who is asking the questions but the best way to do a chat with multiple moderators is to take turns asking questions.  Moderators should remember a few items when hosting a chat and those include:

• make sure you welcome as many people as you can to the chat.  You want to make people feel welcomed thinking of it as part of your ambassador duty people want to feel like they are encouraged and positive to participating in the chat a simple Welcome, Glad to Have you, Good Evening makes someone feel special.  
  
• It should be planned with your co-moderator as to who will retweet and reply to the participants, it could be either or both.
  
• keep the conversation going is the most important job as a moderator.  It is only a short time we can engage with participants so make it memorable and keeping the flow of the conversation will help with that.  
  

When the chat is over there are a number of ways to archive the chat.  The best program to use to archive chats is Participate Learning (https://www.participate.com/chats/edmodochat ) which easy to use you just need to select the time in which you want to archive the chat from and the date.  Participate learning also allows for participation during chats as well and has areas in which the questions are posted.  The archive includes the conversations along with any links that are shared during the chat.

And have fun!

For more information on how to use Twitter in Education Purchase  140 Twitter Tips for Educators: Get Connected, Grow Your Professional Learning Network and Reinvigorate Your Career.

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