In one of my education
classes, we talked about using Twitter as an educational tool. At first, I
thought he was kidding. I have a Twitter but to say I use it would be a joke. I
didn’t know of its uses beyond posing quick questions, quotes, and anecdotes. But
in reality, Twitter and the hashtag system can be used to search for
educational theories, lesson ideas, and much more.
This got me thinking. With
the rise of electronic books, is there a way to combine the hashtags with
ebooks? If they already do then maybe it’s me that needs to get with the times.
But I wonder if it’s possible to connect these two technologies. Say I’m reading
a book about dinosaurs on an e-reader (why not right?). I come across a topic in the book that interests
me, and at the end of the section is a hashtag, #brontosaurus. I click or select it and
immediately I have access to articles on the subject, as well as links to other
books, and I would see that brontosaurus was never its real name, but apatosaurus. Who knew?
Anyways back to the point. The more I write about it,
the more it sounds like a Google search. But I know how effective hashtags are
on social media. One click and I can see everyone who has ever posted #coffee,
which is what I am currently drinking by the masses. Maybe this would be
overkill, just another thing for us to add. But I figure, since most of our
generation already knows how to use hashtags, why not give it a try.
This is super interesting! I never thought about that. I think this could be such an awesome tool as a future teacher. If my students are reading a text on an e-reader and don't know the meaning of a word, they could click on it and find out more. I think this would be really helpful because so many students tend to skip over words they know. Because hashtags are such a big part of our culture right now, they could be a great way to motivate students to look up words.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really interesting concept. Think about it, when we're reading we are constantly grabbing our phones or PC's to google terms that we aren't familiar with in order to understand the concept or the meaning of what's going on in the book. The hashtag system in some weird was is sort of already happening because we flock to secondary sources to better understand. I think it would be really convenient to e-reader users to be able to do their research within the text by means of a hashtag system, it can also be a way to connect reader to reader, because they aren't getting the advantage of reading a second-hand book that may have prior notes or underlinings in it. I think it's a pretty cool concept and one I could see receiving a really huge following in the future.
ReplyDelete