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"One of the very interesting aspects of Twitter is the ability to have online chats about specific subjects, usually lasting for an hour or so. These chats utilise a particular hashtag, and people who want to engage in the chat will keep an eye out for the particular tag, and will use it themselves if they want to become involved. There are hundreds of chats taking place on a regular basis and there's a useful community run document that lists many of them."

A useful guide to hosting or joining a Twitter chat, as well as some description of some of the different Twitter tools available

If you enjoy being involved in Twitter chats you may sometimes find it difficult to keep up with the discussions - you might find that running a search for the appropriate hashtag and then refreshing the search just doesn't really cut it for you. If that's the case, you might want to explore TWchat They say of themselves: "Our public service allows you to create realtime chat rooms based on twitter hashtag. Invite users and perform the presentations online without any additional software! Add your friends or colleagues to help you with moderation."

Interesting commentary on the benefits of teachmeets and Twitter chats from Chris Betcher.

A great overview of how to go about organising and hosting a Twitter chat

"chat on twitter in real-time." Good way of monitoring and participating in Twitter chats

List and schedule for all the weekly Twitter chats

I use TweetDeck. It is a useful tool for following along during a Twitter chat as it allows you to build columns that help to keep track of the many different feeds, notifications, mentions, etc. It can be difficult to check out the resources shared and keep up with it all. There are many methods for 'saving' the resources shared. Kelly Fitzgerald @LISDTechie uses the collections feature in TweetDeck to gather those resources to review at a later time. Here she offers advice about how to add a collection and start saving those wonderful resources people are sharing.

Back channel and chat tools suitable for classroom use.

This is an interesting Twitter client for following hashtags in a chat-room type environment. Speed of update can be controlled or paused

"Using a combination of Google Spreadsheets as a data source and a simple web interface to add interactivity it's possible to let users explorer your entire event hashtag and replay any of conversations."

Followed the instructions and BOOM! An interactive visualisation of the relationships within a Twitter chat e.g. http://bit.ly/HhvBGo

Cool back channel- easy setup with option to have twitter feed as well.

"The idea behind FireChat is simple. It's a chatting app. After registering with a name - no email address or other personal identifiers required - you're dropped into a fast-moving chatroom of "Everyone" using it in your country. The interesting aspect, however, is the "Nearby" option. Here, the app uses Apple's Multipeer Connectivity framework, essentially a peer-to-peer feature that lets you share messages (and soon photos) with other app users nearby, regardless of whether you have an actual Wi-Fi or cellular connection."

"apple apps peer to peer security FOLLOW WIRED Twitter Facebook RSS This Little-Known iOS Feature Will Change the Way We Connect"

"GoSoapBox is used during class to break down participation barriers, keeping students engaged, and giving teachers insight into student comprehension that was never before possible." An interesting looking backchannel tool that enables a range of interactions plus having the capability to export data only problem it does cost.