What's in a hashtag?
What's in a hashtag? That which we call a hashtag by any other word would still mean the same thing. Okay, okay enough of the Bill Shakespeare. Really though why do we use hashtags? I really never considered the answer to this question. I always thought that hashtags were there just to continue a joke or find away to be clever. For instance, my favorite hashtags to use were #merica and #hashtag. I know pretty dumb right? Well after figuring out what the actual purpose of hashtags are I have a new understanding of them.
We can use hashtags to categorize many things especially for learning. This past year I participated in learning walks. These were for a select group of teachers who volunteered to go out into different schools and figure out what are the best practices for teachers to help students. I thought this was a fantastic idea. It worked to because I saw a lot of differnt things to show how we can be better teachers. The people in my group also learned a whole lot as well. We had very rich conversations and we able to move up the ladder of student engagement. The only problem with the group is that we did not have great communication with other teachers in the learning walk groups. We also did not have an opportunity to share what we learned with those we were in the class observing. During this week it came to me, hashtags. If we could have had a social media group set up for all teachers in the county we could have shared instantly what we were doing by simply using a hashtag. We could have notified other teachers to look out for it and bam!!! Collaboration!!! I hope to in the future be able to implement this type of strategy for the county I work in and in my classroom.
How do you guys use hashtags? Professionally? Personally?
If you do not know how to use them here is an article that explains how to use them and some data that goes along with it.
Have a great week guys!!
How to use hashtags!
We can use hashtags to categorize many things especially for learning. This past year I participated in learning walks. These were for a select group of teachers who volunteered to go out into different schools and figure out what are the best practices for teachers to help students. I thought this was a fantastic idea. It worked to because I saw a lot of differnt things to show how we can be better teachers. The people in my group also learned a whole lot as well. We had very rich conversations and we able to move up the ladder of student engagement. The only problem with the group is that we did not have great communication with other teachers in the learning walk groups. We also did not have an opportunity to share what we learned with those we were in the class observing. During this week it came to me, hashtags. If we could have had a social media group set up for all teachers in the county we could have shared instantly what we were doing by simply using a hashtag. We could have notified other teachers to look out for it and bam!!! Collaboration!!! I hope to in the future be able to implement this type of strategy for the county I work in and in my classroom.
How do you guys use hashtags? Professionally? Personally?
If you do not know how to use them here is an article that explains how to use them and some data that goes along with it.
Have a great week guys!!
How to use hashtags!
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ReplyDeleteHi Chris,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your sharing. I agree with you that the hashtag is an excellent tool to categorize many things, especially for learning. At times, we need to message not only one to one, but also one to many( broadcast messaging). Indeed, most of the people know hashtags, but a small part of them can use it correctly. Thanks for your useful link to study hashtags.
I use hashtags to aggregate -- for class, at a conference, etc. However, when being playful among friends I've found myself using performative hashtags. No one will aggregate with these, but they're kind of fun. #stilljetlagged #sotiredimrambling #yougetthepoint
ReplyDeleteDepending on the time and place I use hashtags both professionally and personally. I find that they are starting to be used a lot more in professional settings such as conferences and lecture events because people want to be able to share things on a larger scale, so hashtags are a great way to dos so.
ReplyDelete