Are Hashtags Pedagogical Tools?

Image by Jesse Stommel

I’ve just written an article on my hashtag project for Hybrid Pedagogy

called ‘Hashtag Classroom’. It begins:

Hashtags are taxonomic and pedagogical tools (with citation standards to boot). The Twitter hashtag was born in 2007. Invented by Chris Messina (then with the consulting firm Citizen Agency, now an open web advocate for Google), the first tweet with a hashtag read as follows: “how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?”’. As Messina himself explains in a discussion group on the question and answer website Quora, he was trying to find a simple way for people to engage in group discussion. One that would work whether you were tweeting from your mobile phone or your bells-and-whistles iMac. And one that would be as easy to follow as ignore. Popular hashtags include ‘#fail’, which is usually used humorously to point out either your own mistake or that of someone else, and #nom a hashtag based on the sound Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster makes when he eats cookies, marking a moment of culinary delight.’ – See more at: http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/Hashtag_Classroom.html#sthash.AwT8YOeM.dpuf

And on Friday 2nd August at 6.00pm I’ll be taking part in a live Twitter discussion on hashtags in teaching/learning. We’ll be using the #digped hashtag – so come join in!