NYNP blog post 2-23-10

Weekly Live Twitter Event for Trainers
Community Offers Collegial Support, Ideas, and Humor

Last Thursday, I participated for the first time in a weekly live online Twitter event called #lrnchat. This is a weekly guided discussion about training and learning, organized around a particular topic, with participants joining in from around the world via Twitter or a Twitter conferencing suite (I used twubs.com/lrnchat). #lrnchat's tagline is "Where Learning & Social Media Meet." Participants range from newcomers to widely known experts in the education/training/learning/e-learning fields. Transcripts of the chats are posted on the @lrnchat Twitter page, and are also searchable using the hashtag #lrnchat.

What are these about?
Thursday's topic was "Your perfect learning environment?" and the questions were
Q1) If you had a blank slate, what would your ideal learning environment look like?
Q2) what are the barriers keeping your ideal learning experience from becoming real?
Q3) What would be the most important positive thing that could happen to make that ideal state become real?
Bonus) How could #lrnchat as a community, help with either boosting the positive or beating back the negative?

The previous week's topic was "Confessions of trainers and learners," and this week's topic is "The Learning Delta," with questions about how training has changed over the years and how it will change in the future.

How could it benefit nonprofit trainers?
Chatting with training and learning enthusiasts last week was a great way to step back from the day-to-day of my job and hear other professionals' ideas about the field. The conversation was informal and honest, which encouraged participants to take a risk and share their thinking. When patterns emerged, it was interesting to see where folks shared idealist hopes or pet peeves, and it was also interesting to see where people respectfully disagreed.

For trainers who work in small departments or as the only trainer at their organization -- which is the case in many nonprofits -- #lrnchat offers a community of like-minded professionals to learn from, bounce ideas off of, and provide mutual support.

Participating in #lrnchat also taught me a bit about the potential and limitations of using Twitter as a learning tool. As a new Twitterer, it let me jump right into a new type of learning and try it out in a safe environment, and it was a lot more fun and useful than I'd expected. At first, with so many Tweets going by really quickly at times, it felt a little overwhelming, like trying to take a sip from a waterfall, and it was an adjustment to be in such an informal learning environment, with a lot of joking around and friends greeting friends. However, it didn't take much time to get comfortable, and the value of the event quickly became clear.

If you'd like to give it a try
Events take place on Thursday nights at 8:30EST and last for 90 minutes; this week they are adding an ongoing afternoon event at 4:30EST on the same topic. #lrnchat is hosted by@marciamarcia, @quinnovator, @moehlert, @koreenolbrish, and @janebozarth (I first heard about this on one of Jane Bozarth's webinars). Artwork is by@delanotho. For more information, you can go to http://lrnchat.wordpress.com/