Introducing the West Virginia Physical Education Chat #wvpechat

Join us on Twitter on Wednesday 16th November 2016, 8pm EST

Myself (@drstephenharvey) and Rick Thomas (@HealthandPE20) would like to announce the start of a monthly West Virginia Physical Education Twitter Chat, or what we want it to be known as, #wvpechat. Twitter is a microblogging service that was established in 2006. While it began as a site for people to send and receive brief messages of 'what they were up to...' in no more than 140 characters, which are public on the internet. Messages, known as 'tweets' can also include weblinks, pictures, GIFs and videos, and members can also 'tag' other members Twitter 'handles' in tweets and as part of pictures, GIFs and videos. Twitter members follow each other, gaining updates on what this person is 'up to'.  Another feature of Twitter is the ability for members to include 'hashtags' on messages, such as '#wvpechat', ensuring that these members can keep abreast of 'news' related to these specific hashtags. Since Twitters inception, educators have began to create a number of specialized hashtags, and use these hashtags to host chats centered around these hashtags. These 'Twitter Chats' are synchronous in the sense that tweets appear at the same time or concurrently allowing participants in these chat to follow a specific line of focused discussion on a topic. Usually, these Twitter Chats are moderated by educators for educators. The use of a moderator (or more than one moderator) allows the discussion to stay on track around a set of questions on a specific topic area. A brief YouTube video describing how a Twitter Chat works can be seen at the end of this post.

Myself and @HealthandPE20 recently hosted two presentations on using social media for continuing professional development and learning (CPDL) at the West Virginia Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Conference in Glade Springs on October 20th. At these presentations we overviewed some of the benefits of using Twitter for CPDL and held a pilot Twitter Chat using the #wvpechat hashtag. At the conclusion of the presentation, we challenged the participants to 'do something' related to our presentation in the 30 days after the presentation. @HealthandPE20 and me also took that challenge to establish a regular monthly #wvpechat beginning in November 2016. After the conference presentation, I posted a vote on Twitter using the #wvpechat hashtag and the majority of votes requested we focus on 'Assessment in Physical Education' (see picture at the end of this post).

Consequently, me and @HealthandPE would be grateful if we could gain a decent showing at the Inaugural #wvpechat on the 16th November 2016, 8pm EST. I will prepare a list of questions we will discuss on the evening on this blog, and via the #wvpechat hashtag before the event. If you have any questions, contact me (@drstephenharvey) or @HealthandPE20 with your questions. Before the #wvpechat remember to:

• Sign up for a Twitter account, and make sure this account is a professional account to avoid breaking any policies of your local school district.
• Use the 'must follow' list below to make sure you can begin to familiarize yourself with the information shared on Twitter by physical educators.
• Send, reply, quote a tweet, or simply 'like' or 'retweet' a tweet. 
• Look at the #wvpechat hashtag by typing '#wvpechat' into the magnifying glass search on Twitter so you can scroll through 'All Tweets' and see what has been going on prior to the synchronous Twitter Chat on the 16th November.
• You can also search related hashtags such as: #pechat, #espechat, #physed, etc.
• Send a tweet to @drstephenharvey or @HealthandPE20 if you have any questions.

We look forward to having you participate at the Inaugural #wvpechat Twitter Chat to help us inspire everyone in West Virginia to live a healthy and physically active lifestyle!!!

Questions for #wvpechat on 16th November 2016 - Assessment in Physical Education
Q1: What is the importance of assessment in #physed?
Q2: How do you currently assess ur students in #physed?
Q3: Who usually conducts ur assessments in #physed?
Q4: To what extent are ur assessments ‘authentic’?
Q5: What e.g.’s of ‘authentic assessment’ do u currently use that u can you share w’others?