Since I still have a few weeks before FW resumes, I decided to take an opportunity to go on #OTalk/#Occhat to take a look and see what they are all about. What I found was very fascinating! I got a chance to talk about OT to some students and practitioners in the UK. Simply put, you can say I did a little "cultural exchange" with the OT enthusiasts from the UK for the most part.
As I found out, it is a weekly chat on Tweeter on different topics of OT. I was like, "This is another opportunity to expand my horizons in OT." However, pretty much most of Tweeters in the audience (maybe except me) were from the UK. This means that a lot of OT enthusiasts who want to participate in the U.S. were not able to make it. So, what I am wondering is, will this be a good idea to be organized in the U.S.? If so, by whom?
1st question- After having been on the chat myself, it's a wonderful idea! Of course, it does mean that some people need to know how to get on Twitter and use it properly.
2nd question- It could be done a variety of ways. For one, it could be done for each time zone (eastern time, central time, mountain time, and pacific time, for example). Of course, the other way could be like how last night's advocacy call was setup, where people try to tweet in whenever they can. Then, perhaps it could be done within each state. Moreover, maybe there could be a chat specifically for OT and OTA students, and one strictly for OT professionals. Simply put, this chat can be done in a multitude of different ways. In terms of who should be organizing this, perhaps it could be by AOTA (if it's a national level thing), state OT associations (if it's within a state), or simply a few passionate OT enthusiasts (in any of the ways), to name a few.
Why do I think is good? As I experienced in OT conference, some people can just go on and on about OT all day! So, why not give them a medium to do so aside from OT conferences every year? I believe it could be another way to cultivate and garner the OT community's interest in the profession.
Thoughts?