One of the best aspects of twitter as a place for professional conversation and growth is the ability to hear other opinions and beliefs. It’s amazing how many differing viewpoints one can discover just by searching a few popular hashtags or via threads on behavior, engagement, assessment, et cetera. Just yesterday, I asked the following question:
Here’s a link to the tweet and wonderful conversations that followed. Again, many different ideas, many different beliefs…and all very respectfully discussed. Just wonderful. Edutwitter at its finest.
So, I was a little taken aback when I was recently asked by someone in the edutwitter world to stop using their hashtag.
There are a few things disturbing about this:
- No one owns a hashtag.
- The thought that someone believes they can control a hashtag or what his ‘audience’ can/should read is quite disturbing.
- The silencing of an educator who has different beliefs because it is contrasting and may mislead his audience.
Be afraid of the silencing of ideas on edutwitter. Whenever discussion is respectful and civil, all opinions and ideas should be allowed. You don’t want to enter into a discussion with someone? Fine. Don’t want to respond to a tweet? Okay. But don’t attempt to hide counterpoints simply because it doesn’t fit in with your mantra…especially if you believe the intentions of the person are genuine:
Twitter is a wonderful place for professional growth. So many differing ideas and opinions to help one question their beliefs and introduce others. A teacher can log on for 10 minutes and interact with any number of teachers, researchers, experts, and authors from around the globe. Amazing.
Why would anyone genuinely want to stifle that experience? I don’t understand. Be wary of those people/hashtags/companies.
For what it’s worth, this is the post that led to the DMs asking me to stop using his hashtag. Please notice the comments he posted and judge for yourself.
