Mathematics educators on Twitter

Twitter launched in July of 2006 and offers asynchronous following (you can follow someone without them following you back), a mostly chronological timeline (some conversations are pulled together in users' timelines to make them easier to follow), direct messaging, and relatively short posts limited to 140 characters. Originally described as a "microblogging" service, Twitter use for many has evolved into something more conversational as small groups chat back-and-forth and share links and pictures.

Twitter is home to one of the most active online communities of mathematics educators. Mathematics teachers who regularly use Twitter generally use it to converse and share links to resources or information relevant to mathematics education. Some math teachers on Twitter refer to their community as the "MathTwitterBlogoSphere," or MTBoS. Twitter's key organizational feature is hashtags, and mathematics teachers on Twitter use them to organize "chats" (such as #mathchat) or to share during conferences or other events.

It is difficult to estimate the number of mathematics teachers who use Twitter and how many of those primarily use their account to communicate about issues related to mathematics education. As of May 2015, a directory built by Jed Butler for people who identify themselves as part of the MathTwitterBlogoSphere (https://sites.google.com/site/mtbosdirectory/) had 280 self-registered users. A Twitter list maintained by Raymond Johnson (https://twitter.com/MathEdnet/lists/mathed) had over 1100 users, while David Wees, whose following list is mostly made of people related to mathematics education, had more than 5200 people.

Organization

Twitter's popularity among mathematics educators relative to other social networks seems to come from its low barriers to creating an account and some sense that posting is low-risk due to the size of a Tweet and the ephemeral nature of Twitter content. The asynchronous following structure is also useful, allowing new users to follow many others without needing those users to follow back.

Defining a "community" on Twitter is difficult because the service itself does little to help users identify themselves as part of a community. Each user chooses their own set of accounts to follow, unlike an internet forum or listserv where joining automatically connects a user with other users joining the same service. The primary Twitter feature used to bring people together are hashtags, labels typed into posts that can identify the post as part of a larger conversation, or "chat."

The MathTwitterBlogoSphere

Origins, Explore MTBoS, TMC, presentations and promotional efforts

Use at Conferences

Twitter's real-time, chronological nature makes it ideal for following an ongoing event like an educational conference. [Say more, include reports/stats from prior conferences]

Twitter Hashtags

Hashtags (named for the use of the #, or "hash" symbol) are commonly used on Twitter to make it easier for users to find messages related to a specific theme, content, or event. They were first suggested by Chris Messina in 2007 and inspired by the use of channels on IRC networks. As hashtag use evolved, Twitter adopted them into the service by making them links that trigger a Twitter search, making it easier to follow a hashtag that signifies an ongoing conversation without the need to follow all the users contributing to that conversation. Users often use hashtags informally to express some context or feeling about their tweet without trying to label that tweet as part of a larger, ongoing conversation. For example, math teachers may use the hashtag "#nguyening" as a form of the hashtag "#winning" but associated with the Twitter-using math teacher Fawn Nguyen.

Chats

• #SlowMathChat -
• #MathChat -
• #probchat prob=problems, not probability!
• #iledchat
• #colchat
• #MSMathChat -
• #ElemMathChat -
• #Spedmath -
• #Edchat
• #Edtechchat
• #CCSSchat - Common Core State Standards Chat
• #educoach

Conferences and Events

• #NCTMBoston
• #ShadowCon
• #TMC15
• #PiDay

Other Uses

• #educolor (educators of color)
• #Stem
• #mathsTLP
• #tmwyk - Talking math with your kids <---Did I solve this one on my own?
• #wcydwt
• #INB
• #dok
• #SBG, #SBAR