“The hashtag, that ubiquitous pound sign followed by a keyword, are part of the language of social media.”- Neil Patel, Forbes
In August 2007, Chris Messina introduced hashtags (#) into Twitter’s code, which meant anyone using the platform could add a # sign front of any word(s) without spaces to make it a clickable link leading to a page where all tweets with this hashtag were aggregated. Hashtags are now used on other social media sites, like Facebook, Instagram, and GooglePlus.
Hashtags are your key to reaching your professional goals in 2016. Here are a few ideas on how to use hashtags to help empower you as an educator:
- Use hashtags to help you connect with other educators who teach students of the same age group (ex. #Kinderchat, #Midleveled, #HigherEd) or the same subject (ex. #Engchat, #Mathchat, #STEAM)
- Use hashtags to see real examples of teachers integrating various instructional trends (ex. #flippedclass, #hourofcode, #growthmindset)
- Explore hashtags to discover free web tools and resources (ex. #GAFE, #edtech, #edapps, #ipaded, #mlearning)
- Use hashtags to find your educator community (ex. #EdAdmin, #ELTChat, #Edchat)
- Create a hashtag to use with your students to share resources or have a backchannel during a class discussion
- Create a hashtag to start a movement or Twitter chat! I have been the founder of various education hashtag movements including #Edchat, #30GoalsEDU,#Edspeakers, and #EbookEVO.
- Add hashtags at the end of your blogs posts to reach a target audience.
- Participate in Hashtag chats to connect with teachers worldwide and build your Personal/ Passionate Learning Network (PLN).
- Create a hashtag to collect resources from other teachers or students for a project (ex. #ELTPics)
- Add hashtags to your posts and resources to brand yourself. If you blog about education technology then share with the hashtag #Edtech. Sites like Hashtagify list the top hashtags and sharer of those hashtags.
- Here is a clickable word cloud list of 100+ Edhashtags to help you grow your Personal/ Passionate Learning Network (PLN).
- Stay on Top of Teaching Trends with These 36 Hashtags
- 10 Hashtags Every Education Leader Should Follow
- Follow These 14 Hashtags for Education Technology Updates
- The 10 Twitter Hashtags All Teachers Should Follow
- 15 Must-Follow Hashtags for Parents
- @Cybraryman1 has a list of Edhastags here.
- This is the official Twitter chat schedule here.
cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com
Shelly Terrell is an education consultant, technology trainer, and author. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.
