Dive Brief:

• Every Sunday night, teachers from across Wyoming connect on Twitter to discuss issues and share advice.    
• The discussions were started by James Kapptie, a school technology director, and a principal after the two mulled over ways to connect more of the state's teachers.  
• Each week, a different moderator sends out a set of questions over the course of an hour, and respondents can then answer in, of course, 140 characters or less.  

Dive Insight:

Some of the discussion questions that Kapptie asked recently: What strategies can we use to move past 'just' Twitter collaborations? Is there technology you’d recommend that can help support my child in self-directed learning? What can I do to support literacy in my home?

One exciting aspect of the weekly discussions is that people are there on their own accord, which is something Kapptie is proud of and believes sets the Twitter chats apart from typical teacher training. “The people that are on there, one way or the other, whether it’s a big group or a small group, are excited about education and they want to talk about education,” he told the Associated Press.

Already, #edchat is a popular tag on Twitter and a great way to start talking with others. While those sorts of discussions include anyone anywhere, the idea of starting a more localized discussion group has a lot of pros. It means the conversation can really be tailored to the needs of the state, district, or school, depending on how micro you decide to get.