Tag Archives: wasting time

06.07.13
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Follow me in the land of hashtags

Follow me in the land of hashtags

I’m officially on twitter https://twitter.com/MrHooper_Bio and it’s as terrible as I imagined.  I don’t get it.  Help me understand.  What am I suppose to be doing? Is it about making trendy hashtag comments?  What does this offer that facebook doesn’t? Why would anyone need both twitter and facebook?

On facebook I can watch/listen to soundcloud, youtube, etc links right in my browser. I don’t have to open another window. Same for my news.  I get a picture/image, and a whole bunch more characters to explain what the information is about.  I know both facebook and twitter require a separate link to read entire stories, but I feel less compelled to click on those links on twitter.

Is it that on twitter you can have nationwide discussions because of hashtags?  That could be useful if you have the right circle of people in the discussion.  It’s the dummies I worry about.  I’ve heard of these twitter fights/wars between athletes/celebrities.  I hear about twitter all the time, but never for redeeming qualities.  It’s usually someone said something stupid on twitter. The only positive news I remember about twitter was how crucial it was during the uprising overseas.

Having said all that I know that my students care way more about twitter then facebook.  Their parents are on facebook, so i get that they want to be somewhere else.  I guess I have to figure out why this is the platform they choose to express themselves.  I worry though by the time I do figure out why, and more importantly how to communicate with them via twitter, they will be moving on to the “NEXT THING.”

I chose to open a twitter account over the other options (tumblr,instagram, already have personal facebook) because it’s the most relevant platform. I hope to use this opportunity to learn why people use it, and how it can benefit me as a teacher.  My first strategy is to follow educational sites I like and see what they post about to find more things to follow.  I use soundcloud/facebook for my DJ and personal use, so I plan to use Twitter as a teacher resource only.  Maybe I will follow a few celebrities that have similar ideas about schools, teaching, learning and lifestyles.

If you read this please tell me your thoughts.  If twitter is great, tell me why?  What does it offer that facebook doesn’t?  What am I missing?  And how could I use it to be a great teacher?

PS.  I was just editing myself and I noticed on the edit page I can link related articles to my post.  Very cool. Facebook hashtags are on the way.  Guess I better learn about them asap.

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