Last week I had a great discussion with my class about the use of hashtags (#). What is appropriate, how many to put in a post, what they really mean. Talking about hashtags in the classroom always reminds me of Diane Main. When I attended the Google Teacher Academy in 2012, she was the one that had the revelation on their meaning and how to use them in the classroom. Diane’s ‘ah-ha’ moment included the idea that hashtags were much like the main idea.
So keeping this in the back of my head, I brought it up to my class last week. We were doing a lesson on dialog. I asked them how they would hashtag the lesson (after explaining that it was the main idea). At this point, I realize that they had missed the point of the entire lesson. Yup, a fail.
So after going back and re-explaining the lesson, they came up with #quotations and #dialog. This has lead me to the conclusion, that I need to ask students, “How would you hashtag this lesson?” Using Diane’s idea – Main Idea – I can quickly get a pulse on the class if they ‘got the point’ of the lesson.
My point? Hashtag your lessons! It’s relevant. It’s fun. It’s informative. And Diane is/was brilliant!
Nowa Techie 