Top Tips: Hosting Tips from UConn

Follow these tips for a smooth sailing #TeachAgChat:

●       Review http://teachagchat.blogspot.com/ as soon as you start planning as there is LOTS of information that could be very helpful to begin preparation for a great chat.

●       Definitely recruit & “Agvocate” to get people aware of the #TeachAgChat so that you can maximize the information you are trying to get out. Invite participants early – send personal emails to invite participants for the chat.  Provide detailed information on the purpose of the chat and role of the participants you are inviting.  Some people may be unsure about your expectations for them, and others may need some guidance on using Twitter.

●       Participate in #TeachAgChat prior to when you host as participating in one makes hosting one a tad bit easier with understanding how it all runs.

●       Prepare your tweetdeck prior to the chat, so that you can see the #TeachAgChat tweets as they are coming in from around the country.

●       Scheduling tweets makes it very easy so that your answers come right out after the questions without rushing to complete them in time.  Preparing the answers prior to the chat makes it helpful to keep up with all the questions and responses.

●       Before the chat, prepare a shared document, like google docs, with all host members’ planned tweets so that you can share ideas, stimulate additional comments, and work around what others are going to be saying during the chat.

●       Try to retweet fellow participants to further the knowledge and continue the legacy of #TeachAgChat.  Connect with the other participants through your answers and vice versa.

●       Don’t forget to use the hashtag #TeachAgChat (and remind others to include it) during the chat and in all responses/ tweets.  Feel free to use other relevant hashtags as the chat continues as well.

●       Learn how to block a participant or mute them as some participants may come in and provide inappropriate or unrelated responses or questions to the chat.

●       Search for free analytics after the chat is completed using sources such as  http://Keyhole.co and www.hashtracking.com

Our results indicated approximately:

58 participants

265 original tweets
124 @message tweets
83 retweets
472 total tweets
111, 170 total reach
520,679 total impressions

A Huge Shout-out to Daniel Foster for assisting us in leading our very first #TeachAgChat

Top Tips: Hosting tips from the National FFA Education Development and Assessment Team

The Education Development and Assessment Team at the National FFA Organization hosted the #TeachAgChat on June 16 from 8-9 p.m. EDT. What a great opportunity to share resources! Based on the experience we had, we wanted to share a few helpful tips on how to prepare for a Twitter chat.

1.        Clear Instructions. Keep in mind you could have people join the chat who may not be familiar with Twitter.  Be sure to provide clear instructions that everyone can understand. 

2.        Be alert – It moves fast!  Stay focused on the tweets.  Some questions may have a ton of responses and others may not.  Keep your eyes on the tweets!

3.        Label the question.  Since the tweets can move rapidly, it is important to label the question with “Q” and the number of the question.  For example, label the first  question “Q1.”  The same for answers – if it is the answer to the first question, label it “A1.”  This will help keep the tweets organized.

4.       Hashtags. They’re important to keep people in the loop. Pro tip: Remember to include hashtags in your scheduled answers (especially #TeachAgChat).

5.       Tweetdeck. This resource will change your life! If nothing else, it simplifies monitoring/hosting a chat for you.

6.       Elicit the image. Sharp graphics are everything and help promote, draw attention and bring people to the chat. The clearer and more visual the graphic, the better.  

 

Huge thanks to Dr. Foster and The Pennsylvania State University for giving us this opportunity. We look forward to joining other chats in the future.

Sarah Dickinson (sdickinson@ffa.org) and Casey Zufelt (czufelt@ffa.org)

Top Tips: Hosting tips from Texas A&M & AET

Tips for an Ag Chat Session - Lessons from Texas A&M and The AET on Financial Literacy in SAEs

Use the following tips to make your session work.

#1. - Develop questions or areas you would like to cover, then break each one into smaller questions that cover the main point. Twitter sessions move fast and your space to respond is very limited. Breaking your ideas into smaller questions may help in developing shorter responses.

#2. - Be familiar with Twitter and Tweetdeck well before getting started. Tweetdeck is a great tool and essential for this session, so be sure to explore and even test before you actual session.

#3. - Dr. Foster has some great educational materials to get started, so be sure to also review these materials to get you prepared for the session.

#4. - Have references already open and prepared to use in links, which of course relate to your topics and questions. These materials of course need to be online to share, but also be prepared to use Google Shortener to have the URL address better formatted to link into Twitter.

#5. - Recruit and advertise to your contacts!  The sessions are in the evening and everyone is so busy that getting a large audience will be hard.  It sounds from previous experiences of others that connecting this session with a group or other meeting can help raise participation and value for the event.

So here are some ideas, see what you can do to have a great session and support the growth of agricultural education!

Top Tips: Hosting tips from Biotechnology: A World of Opportunity

Top Tips from Biotechnology: A World of Opportunity

We had a great on the 5/20 #TeachAgChat focusing on biotechnology education.  Really enjoyed being able to hear so many perspectives.  It is something we would definitely like to be a part of again.  

• As recommended in our advance planning, we contacted a number of different "experts" into the conversation.  
• I am glad that we contact plenty of folks - some of our experts didn't chat much during the #TeamAgChad (though they definitely enjoyed being a part of it - even just listening) and two had last minute schedule changes.  
• Based on input from past #TeamAgChat participants, I kept in touch with the experts and gave plenty of reminders.  I also mentioned them by name in Tweets leading up to the chat, thinking that might nudge them a bit more.
• We had a variety of experts, which I thought was very helpful.  
• We had three folks from 2 different Universities.
• Five industry leaders were involved, from a variety of areas within the seed industry.
• There were two high school instructors, one with a great deal of experience and one fairly new to biotechnology.
• There was one University professor that didn't Tweed - but he was sure to be an excellent resource.  So, he teamed up with another instructor who did Tweet and it worked well.
•  I wish that I could have done a better job of specifically calling out to those experts.  For example, when a specific question or comment came across, I would have liked to be able to direct that question a little better to a specific expert.
• Really glad that we used Hootsuite to schedule Tweets and TweetChat to follow the conversation during the Tweet. 
• I am echoing what NAAE noted in their blogspot:  "Pay close attention to the responses. The #TeachAgChat is a great learning tool for everyone involved. Make sure to have a follow-up plan for what you will do with the information you receive from the chat."  I did follow up with a number of people following the Chat.
• It took more times to prepare than I had initially expected, but enjoyed all of it - and felt that it went well when all was said and done.

Again, we really enjoyed the opportunity and feel that it was successful.  We didn't know quiet how we would measure success in this BUT we all agreed it was a success at the end!  See the full story at https://storify.com/biotech_edu/teachagchat.

Top Tips: Hosting a #TeachAgChat, by Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE)

Future #TeachAgChat Hosts:

CASE enjoyed hosting the #TeachAgChat on Using Inquiry-Based Learning to Elevate Learning in Your Classroom on April 21, 2016. We appreciated the wonderful conversations throughout the one-hour live event and were amazed by the total number of contributors! According to our hashtag review data, there were 95 tweeters who created over 500 original tweets!  When we added up the replies and retweets, there were over 800 total tweets! The #TeachAgChat total reach was over 28,000! We were stunned at the involvement and enjoyed hosting the #TeachAgChat.

Tips for Future Hosts:

1. Promote, Promote, Promote!
1. We used social media as the main way to tell people about the #TeachAgChat. We also shared the information about the chat in the Monday Morning Monitor and over US Agricultural Education and AAAE listservs. This is a great way to reach people who are interested about your topic, but may not follow on social media.
2. Be Visual
1. People like easy to read, quick information with images. There are a lot of “how-to” design types of resources online. Canva is a great website to create visual announcements, infographics, and social media images by using templates. It’s free!
3. Put people in a room together!
1. We hosted our twitter event during CASE Lead Teacher Orientation in Minneapolis. It was amazing to see people working together to create tweets. It elevated the energy in the room. Once they saw their tweets on TweetDeck, it encouraged them to participate more! We also provided a “how-to” participate guide for people who may not be as familiar with Twitter and/or TweetDeck to learn how to participate.

A few things we reflected upon after the #TeachAgChat:

1. We participated and watched #TeachAgChats prior to hosting the CASE chat to see what was working well. One thing we would like to improve upon for next year is using a hashtag reviewing website throughout the time we promoted the Twitter Chat event. This would help us see our promotion reach before the event.
2. We used Storify as a way to share the #TeachAgChat in review. It is a great way to share every tweet from the chat, some of which may have been missed by participants during the live Twitter event.
3. Get familiar with the hashtag impact data website you plan to use before the chat. Some sites have time constraints that can affect your results. Keyhole.co, Hashtracking.com and Hashtagify.me are three good sites to check out before your #TeachAgChat!

We really enjoyed participating in the #TeachAgChat! Good luck to future #TeachAgChat hosts and participants!

Top Tips: ISU 450 Lessons Learned from Hosting

What we learned from hosting #TeachAgChat - ISU 450 Farm Students

On Thursday April 7th the Iowa State Ag 450 Farm PR committee hosted a #TeachAgChat focused on Experiential Learning in the classroom. We had a great time hosting and got to hear from many other Ag teachers and experts in the field.

How the chat went and what we learned:

1. We consulted with two individuals known for their work in the area of Experiential Learning. Both confirmed that they would assist us during the actual chat, however, only one individual actively participated. What we learned: it is very important to include experts in #TeachAgChat to help provide 'expert' advice to questions we may not have answers for. It is important to be in constant contact with your identified experts. However, as with life, stuff happens! We think it was a successful chat!

2. Getting the word out to our followers on Twitter and Facebook is important to having many different types of ideas and replies during the #TeachAgChat.  Actively advertising the event is helpful in gaining participants, and we could have done a better job making frequent advertisements, but overall, the event went well.

3. Because the topic we chose was more applicable to Ag educators, we had a tough time answering a few of the questions.  However, we had a unique perspective to use when responding to some of the other participants' answers.  It was also interesting to learn about the theory that goes into planning these activities.

This session of the #TeachAgChat went pretty well despite the low number of participants.  We look forward to participating in future #TeachAgChats and learning about information that will be relevant to our future careers.

Top Tips: Advancing Your Professional Development as a Teacher Candidate #TeachAgChat

What a great discussion we had on 3/24 about advancing preservice teachers through professional development opportunities!

We absolutely LOVED hosting the #TeachAgChat and hope to participate and even host again in the future! With that in mind, there were several things that we learned by hosting this chat that we hope you can find useful as you host yours.

• We asked specific preservice teachers to participate in the chat and they confirmed, however, they did not participate. We aren’t sure if they forgot or just didn’t know how to respond, even though we sent them the questions well in advance. We thought that maybe next time we would have more back-up questions to help facilitate the discussion and make our participants feel more comfortable.
• Make sure to use a website like Hootsuite or TweetChat to follow the conversation. It makes the whole chat a lot more organized and helps you to keep track of who you have responded to.
• Pay close attention to the responses. The #TeachAgChat is a great learning tool for everyone involved. Make sure to have a follow-up plan for what you will do with the information you receive from the chat.

Overall, we count this #TeachAgChat as a success and look forward to using the information we received to help develop our programming. See you on the next chat! #agedu

Top Tips: What we learned from hosting by the Idaho FFA Association

The Idaho FFA Association hosted the #TeachAgChat on Thursday, March 10 and we'd love to share a few tips:

#1- Use the manual created by Dr. Foster and his students! We followed the "to-do" list in the manual in preparation for the chat. We utilized Canva- one of the sites suggested in the manual, to create a promotional graphic with the questions.

#2- Speaking of graphics, after analyzing Twitter data on posts with and without a graphic, we can difinitively say that the tweet with a graphic reached many more people. Our first tweet, posted March 5 without a graphic, made 492 impressions and had 13 total engagements. The next day, we posted a very similar tweet but added the graphic. This tweet made 7,974 impressions and had 360 total engagements. Graphics work!

#3- Send personal invites to colleagues, related Twitter accounts, and other organizations. In our case, we tagged all the state FFA associations we could find on Twitter in invitation tweets. We also sent direct messages to National FFA staff members involved in service learning. We also used our state ag teacher listserv and the national ag teacher listserv to promote, promote, promote.

#4- Don't try to tweet from two different Twitter accounts! Jaysa Fillmore, Idaho FFA Service Development Coordinator, was trying to participate from her personal account, @MrsAgTeacher, and the @IdahoFFA account. It would be been much easier to schedule responses to the questions from one account and then use the other live. It was also helpful to use Tweetdeck during the chat.

We were excited to claim the title of the first state FFA association to host a #TeachAgChat and would encourage other states to jump on board! Dr. Foster and his #TeachAg crew have done a great job creating this awesome resource for ag teachers- past, present, and future! Thanks for the opportunity!

Top Tips: What we learned from hosting by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

On February 11, the PA Department of Agriculture (@PAAgriculture) hosted a #TeachAgChat on Careers in the Agriculture and Food Industry: The Role of #AgEdu.  It was a lively discussion with a variety of folks involved. 

PDA learned that we need to do more work with our agriculture education partners in talking about the connection between production agriculture and the broader food processing and food distribution system. 

Along the same lines, people in ag ed know quite a bit about the jobs in production agriculture but they are a little less knowledgeable about careers in the broader industry.  Farmers, veterinarians, and dairy herdsmen are critically important to agriculture production but so are machine operators, industrial maintenance technicians, and truck drivers for food processing. 

Finally, we learned again what we already know...that agriculture education has many resources for work-based learning.  It knows how to do it; we just need to work on applying it in a broader context.

Top 3 Hosting Tips from TAAE

Hey #TeachAgChat -ers! If you're here, you're most likely getting ready to host your own chat. We wish you the best of luck. Michael and I had a blast hosting in late January. We want to share our Top 3 Hosting Tips!

1. Promotion, promotion, promotion!: Infographics are a must for promotion. Data has shown that tweets and FB posts are more likely to be read when they contain a picture or infographic.  (We loved using Canva!) They also allow you more than 140 characters to get potential Tweeps excited about your upcoming #TeachAgChat. Also, consider that many people do not use Twitter as frequently, so cross-promote across various social media platforms. Be willing to share how a Twitter chat works with the less experienced educators. You may be the bridge into this new experience for them!
2. Be Quick on the Draw: The actual event is very fast-paced. One hour is not much time for 8-9 #TeachAgChat questions. In fact, we only posted 6 questions for our chat, and it still felt very rushed. It is very important to structure your questions with a time limit in mind. Some Q’s require more time than others. You should also remind people constantly to respond with the proper Twitter chat format (A# and #TeachAgChat) in their post so that things can be easily followed and archived well.
3. Practice Makes Perfect: Practice before you host. It is very important to participate in a few Twitter Chats before your big night of hosting #TeachAgChat A great one to visit is #AgChat every Tuesday night. Also, since you know the prompts ahead of time, prepare your answers and just paste them into Twitter the night of, so you can spend more time introducing new members and helping with the flow of the chat. In the same vein, make sure to get your prompts to your experts as early as possible so they are free to gather resources.

Bonus Tip: Use the manual Dr. Foster and his students developed! It has great suggestions for a host, but also basic information that you could share with teachers who want to participate but don't know how or even what a Twitter chat is. Information for all levels of experience!

We'd love to connect with you! (@jlumpffa and @tnagteacher) Thanks to Dr. Foster for allowing the Tennessee Association of Agriculture Educators host. To all future hosts, we'll see you in the chat!

-Jessie Lumpkins and Michael Shirley