Posts Tagged ‘#edsg’
Suggestions for #edsg
Posted on: January 14, 2013
#edsg in Twitter is used by a few groups of people.
Singapore’s Ministry of Education has an official voice there, as do lay folks who occasionally say something about education. Of late, several teens retweeted the official announcement of the release of O-level examination results. A TV programme also leveraged on #edsg to get comments on hot-button topics on Singapore schooling last year.
I dare say that a motley crew of educators started using #edsg first with a purer intention: To bring educators in the region together like the way #edchat does more “internationally”.
But I think that it is time for some change because change is already upon us.
Any loosely formed online community will be in a state of flux. That is both its strength and weakness. If the community already has critical mass, it is a strength because the flux is a form of quality control. It is a weakness if the community is small and the flux is downward.
I have two suggestions to deal with what I perceive to be weaknesses in our processes in #edsg. Our efflux is greater than our influx and we are using a noisy shared space.
The regular contributors to #edsg share resources and ideas 24×7. We also meet to chat synchronously on Tuesdays, 8-9pm (Singapore time).
A fixed time and day has not suited everyone. That is valuable family time that I set aside for #edsg. Others in the community may not feel the same way or choose to do the same thing.
I suggest that we change our mode to a more distributed chat throughout the week. Immediacy has its benefits, but so has time for research and reflection.
This mode of chatting does not mean we do away with synchronous chat. Such chats are more spontaneous and lively. You have to think on your feet. So we might vote for some other time(s) if the week night is not good.
My second suggestion is that we use a different hashtag. The original #edsg is short and accurate. But I think that it has been misappropriated in a system where no one can really lay claim to a hashtag.
#edsg is no longer a room where you can meet to just discuss Singapore education and share relevant resources. It has announcements, spam bots, postings from folks who do not get what it is for, and more.
As an alternative, we might use #edusg, #edchatsg, #teachsg, #learnsg, #unpdsg… there are many possibilities.
I wonder what the rest of the regular #edsg community (participants and lurkers) thinks.
In my mind, responses mean there is hope yet. A lack of them means making funeral arrangements for #edsg.
