I just got back from an inspirational day of learning, collaborating, connecting, talking, sharing and all-round enjoyment. The #edchatnz conference, thoughtfully and inspirationally crafted in just 12 weeks by 7 passionate NZ educators. They were supported by over 350 equally passionate educators who all meet via Twitter each Thursday evening to chat about teaching and learning.

The #edchatnz conference demonstrates the power and potential of social media to bring people together. The #edchatnz twitter chats already represent one of the best PLNs for NZ educators but developing it into a Face to Face opportunity brings the essential human element to our PLN. We know that relationships are key to building trust, mutual respect and connections that lead to much more effective learning both for our students and for us as adult learners.

However, conferences don’t just happen. The seed of an idea is planted, a dream is vocalised, a crazy “what if..” is encouraged and supported by passion and “we can…”. It needs a group of people who, together, can make crazy ideas come to fruition. It was an idea who’s time has come, teacher (tweechers) are ready for it, we are ready to take control of our own learning and the momentum is growing. @MissDtheTeacher and her team have started the ball rolling, they have proved that if you dare to dream big then you can make things happen and people respond to your passion.

View my story of the Tweets of the #edchatnz conference from Saturday onwards – there were just too many to deal with over the full two days and since I was only lucky enough to attend on Saturday I will leave Friday to someone else to record!