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Ever wondered what Hashtags are on Twitter? They’re words with #’s in front of them. Today Sherice Jacob (follow her at @sherice) from iElectrify explains what hashtags are and how to use them. Twitter is a great place to find and follow people with the same hobbies and interests as you have. Unfortunately, once you have as many followers as Darren does, it starts to get overwhelming to stay in touch with them all, and make sure the right information goes to the right people.

By simply monitoring what people are saying about you, you’re using Twitter better than 95% of the companies out there.

Don’t be shy about asking people on Twitter to spread the word for you.

most people don’t have the chutzpah to ask for help.

I think where I’m going with this is that I worry that the ed. tech. blogosphere is reasonably saturated.  Related to Darren Draper’s post on Twitter Set Theory, I feel like there are some central figures whose spheres overlap considerably and a whole lot of us outsiders trying to penetrate that inner circle.  It’s as if folks like Will Richardson, David Warlick, Wes Fryer, Vicki Davis, Dean Shareski, Stephen Downes, Chris Lehmann…(and, yes, you Scott) are having an awesome cocktail party conversation and I’m standing on the outside staring over their shoulders and listening in, trying to get a word in, but not penetrating that conversation at all.  I know there are LOTS of us on the outside looking in. 

My theory is– don’t worry about getting your voice out there, or comments, or rankings, or even being invited to the right parties (inner circle) — rather focus intently on children, your vision, and leaving education better than you found it. Concentrate on helping those within your sphere of influence to make principled changes in education that is in the best interest of kids.

As many of you know, who follow me on Langwitches, I am working on a Digital Storytelling Guide for Educators. I will be using Wordle to create a storytelling cloud with words that come to mind when you think what Digital Storytelling means to or for you. Please contribute keywords, that come to YOUR mind when you think of storytelling in a comment. Don’t hesitate to add duplicate keywords what digital storytelling means to you. That way Wordle will highlight more important keywords. I will add your reponses through the comments and through Twitter and Plurk to Wordle and add the collaborative cloud to this post and as part of the cover art of the hardcover book that will be available for free download on Lulu.com . This cloud will be a digital story in itself, told by all of us!

The nonsense du jour is the “proposal” by both Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton to suspend the federal gasoline tax. I put the word proposal in quotes because it’s obvious that neither candidate is serious about this. Both must know that it won’t happen, and both must know why it shouldn’t.