#BYOD4L Day 2: Communicating, networking, and noise

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Communication is big news. Unless you’re in the same room as the person you’re talking to you will be using some form of technology, whether it’s a home phone, mobile phone, computer (Skype, Instant Messenger or Chat, Google Hangouts, etc.) or a ‘new’ device like a tablet or smartphone(FaceTime, Skype, IM, etc.). But communication is now enhanced, and sometimes replaced, by social tools like Facebook, Twitter, blogging, commenting, even Instagram or Vine. What you use says as much about you as the tools you don’t.

So here, on day two of BYOD4L, the theme/topic makes us consider these different tools or techniques and our personal preferences for communicating. The Twitter chat posed some serious questions which was tweeted and discussed at length. How do we engage, how we want others to engage with us, and how we use these interactions is paramount to making those interactions matter.

We asked the following questions. Remember, each one was being tweeted to we were limited to 140 characters … well, more like 126 after you remove the ‘#BYOD4Lchat’ hashtag and ‘Q1’ and spaces, then drop another 30 or so for the ‘please use A1 and hashtag in your reply’ … so we only had about 80-90 characters to play with. Here’s what we asked: 

  • Q1 What does communicating mean to you?
  • Q2 What mobile device(s)/tool(s) and apps do you use for communication?
  • Q3 How do you reach out to likeminded people?
  • Q4 Do you use your device more for instructions (broadcast) or dialogue (conversation)?
  • Q5 Do you have a favourite communicator? Someone you think is a good example, you would recommend?
  • Q6 Do you communicate differently with different tools? Eg. Facebook vs Twitter?

The responses came in thick and fast, from people I’ve known for a couple of years and from new contacts and people I hope to spend some time making contact with.

This is how I worked Twitter tonight, as one of the facilitators on the #BYOD4Lchat hashtag:

BYOD4Lchat - communication

I used Google Chrome browser with three tabs open, these being:

This meant I could monitor tweets to the main #BYOD4L hashtag and respond or direct to the chat tag, monitor and engage on the main nightly #BYOD4Lchat hashtag, and keep up to date with replies and conversations that included me.

On top of this (as if this wasn’t enough) I had the iPad where I was logged in on the @melsiguk account so I could pepper the questions and a few responses through the event, and make sure anyone asking questions or had problems were also looked after. I also had my iPhone on hand in case one or both devices died on me (the battery was running low on the laptop towards the end, I was at the wrong end of the room to reach the charging cable).

BYOD4L - Communication
Instagram / hopkinsdavid

Yes, it was tiring, but an excellent event with some excellent engagement and feedback. it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you will never keep up with all tweets and threads and conversations so, as Chrissi said to me at the start, don’t try! What I did was get involved when or where I could, left conversations to develop and diverge, and watch the topic and theme blossom as it was shared and discussed. I loved it!

For the third and subsequent evenings I can go back to being a participant but will dip and and help out my fellow facilitators  when I can (now I know how tiring it can be).