Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This story is amusing from a distance and in retrospect, but I'm sure it was less funny for those involved at the time. MTBos - which stands for "Math Twitter BlogoSphere" - was set up as a hashtag and web site in order to welcome math teachers to the online community. It was not well received. People didn't know what it meant. People thought it was elitist. Were people 'qualified' to be a member of MTBos? It probably didn't help that it was set up with a limited list of tweeters. Anyhow, in this post Dan Meyer suggests that the term be retired. I'm not sure #iteachmath is the best replacement - I would have chosen something simpler, like #teachmath or even #mathK12. But the story does illustrate just what is in a name. And it's funny how passive people are - why would you need permission to use a hashtag? Nobody can own a hashtag, not even if they set up a Twitter identity and lay claim to it.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 1:00 p.m.

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