how we used hashtag to promote our statewide math pd event & new standards

"Without the participation of the attendees, the backchannel will not function as a way of connecting people elsewhere to the conference." (Dennen, 2011)

Dr. Dennen's paper Conversations on the hashtag: Does conference Twitter use promote professional discourse? really resonated with my experience using Twitter to promote our last two statewide summer math training for Florida educators. 

I began working for the department maybe two years before the implementation of the new B.E.S.T. Standards for Mathematics...2020. We spent the remainder of 2020 and 2021 planning the first statewide events, three regional events around Florida. There were four tracks participants could attend, K-5, 6-8, 9-12, and a track for school/district leadership. Participants of this event received a teacher kit filled with math manipulatives and supplies they can keep and take back to their classroom. 

The goal of the department and our team was to promote the new standards since many school districts, educators, and parents were not fully aware that new standards were adopted.  We decided to come up with a hashtag to be used during all the events. Participants attending the events were encouraged to tweet about their experience using the hashtag for a chance to win more math manipulatives. We thought maybe this was an excellent way to spread the word about our event and the new math standards. You can see tweets of last year's event by searching #BESTmathjourney. 

Many folks tweeted and used the hashtag. It was pretty cool seeing the engagement on Twitter. I would say the tweets being shared were about the experience more so than people engaging in discourse. It would be great for more events to not only share experiences but engage in discourse as well. 

Guess who had to go through the hashtags and count tweets to determine the winners of the prizes? This girl here!

References
Dennen, V. P. (2011). Conversations on the hashtag: Does conference Twitter use promote professional discourse? Paper presented at International Conference on the e-Society. Berlin: Germany.

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