Hashtags as Community and Learning Focal Points

#dLRNtags

Jeffrey M. Keefer | Whitney Kilgore | Maha Bali | Joyce Seitzinger

#dLRN15 (Digital Learning in Higher Education) Conference Making Sense of Higher Education 2015Stanford University, Stanford, California

October 16-17, 2015

@JeffreyKeefer @whitneykilgore @Bali_Maha @catspyjamasnz

Tags You’ve Used

Have you used hashtags other than #dlrn15 during this conference?

Please tweet using the hashtag #dlrntags

Discussion

How do we go about creating a vocabulary to explain new experiences? Only then can we really try to process and make sense of the experiences themselves.

Blending Hashtags (using two different hashtags together) -- e.g., using #rhizo15 and #et4online

Branching Hashtags (organically creating a more specific tag within another discussion for a more focused subset of the community) -- e.g., #CLmooc and #clPoem - branching can be intended as a “polite” gesture (e.g. #et4ukulele, #rhizo15dg)

SubTweeting (a response to something that is happening that is only understood by those directly connected and in-the-shared-know). #et4snark

P.S. Have you been branching or blending? #dlrntags and/or #dlrn15

Different Types of Hashtags● Wide area of interest and ongoing, e.g. #edtech #highered

● Chat e.g. #edchat, #lthechat, #facdevchat

● Conference or other short-term event e.g. #dlrn15, #et4online

○ Sub-conference hashtags e.g. #et4buddy, #et4women, #et4ukulele, #et4snark

○ Can be institutionally-pre-defined or emergent

● MOOC or other medium-term event, e.g. #rhizo15, #clmooc

○ Sub-MOOC hashtags e.g. #rhizo15dg, #rhizoradio, #clpoem

○ Can be pre-defined by facilitator(s) or emergent from participants

Communities (COPs) forming around online events

Perhaps these just-in-time tags are more for information professional development?

Maybe the learning conversations are more informal in short-term, massive events?

This speaks to the importance of a shared location to list these?

Spontaneous without sharing the info or specs about it can exclude?

#CLmooc also had these sorts of tags, such as #clPoem or #clPoet

Element of using two different tags together to therefore ping the wider community / multi-communities?