Thanks for coming to read this. I need your help please, if you can spare a few minutes of your precious time.
As might have seen from twitter, #eltchat is going to have a symposium at IATEFL about social networking. My talk is going to centre on hashtagging.
I’ve decided it would also be a good talk to do at a conference in early January. The downside of that decision is that I now need to plan and write the talk. I thought I’d try and use social networking to provide the content for the talk and that’s where you come in.
I’d like to talk about both the positive and negative things of hashtagging – I think it is important to look at the downsides as we can learn from this as much as the positives.
For me the use of hashtags has made it easier to find everything from activities to apps to conferences. What about you?
What I’d like is short audio and video clips along with some comments from as many of you as possible on the topic ‘What has / hasn’t hashtagging done for you’?
Please send me your contributions via twitter, email (shaunwilden@gmail.com) or via this post.
Thanks
Shaun
As a further point of reference, this is my absract for IATEFL along with the proposed running order of the talk
Abstract
23.08. 07, the day the first # was used on twitter. Since then they’ve come a long way especially for teachers. From an online staffroom to a never-ending resource list, the # is an important part of the ELT. This talk addresses the benefits of hashtagging and answers the doubters by asking what has #hashtagging ever done for us?
Proposed running order
The talk begins with reference to the python sketch discussing ‘What the Roman’s have done” during their occupation of Judea. It uses this to make the analogy to the use of the hashtag on twitter.
In the ‘Roman’s sketch’ people list things that the Roman’s have done while under the impression they have done nothing much. Using this idea, the talk will ask the audience in the room and online to consider what hashtagging has done for them.
It will move on to explore a number of the negative comments people have put forward about hashtags and the use of twitter as a means of teacher education and development. These criticisms include factors such as 140 characters is not a good forum for critical discussion, it’s just a bunch of mates, people simply retweet, there’s too much to read, there’s no control of who says what and so on.
Each comment will be addressed with reference to positive aspects of hashtagging drawing on the work of #eltchat and making reference to other groups such as #breltchat #eltpics, #iatefl etc.
Finally by using ‘talking heads’ video recordings of teachers around the world and the live #eltchat twitter stream, the talk will conclude by looking at how #hashtagging has benefitted teachers in a number of different teaching contexts.
