This is the story of how real relationships can be formed using social media technologies. A group of us who were in Orlando for the Learning Solutions Conference had formed relationships online because of #lrnchat.

For those of you who have no idea what that is, #lrnchat is an organized Twitter chat that happens every Thursday. It happens at a time convenient for people in North America and recently it has been held during a time that is better for folks in Europe. There is a topic selected and socialized ahead of time, on Twitter and the lrnchat website. And for a couple of hours, educational professionals discuss the burning issues of our profession. You can read more about it at lrnchat.com.

Those of us at the conference met in a room with our smart phones and laptops in tow. We went around the room introducing ourselves (real name and Twitter handle, plus where we work). We also were treated to @marciamarcia’s family hanging out with us.

I stayed for the entire #lrnchat, but this is probably the least I have contributed to that conversation. This weird thing happened – everyone in the room was actually talking to each other. So real conversation became the #lrnchat back channel!!

Here’s the video I took, some late arrivals didn’t make the video.