USING HASHTAGS AS A TEACHING RESOURCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

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10 years together for education.
10 years together for education.
10th International
Technology, Education and
Development Conference
10th International
Technology, Education and
Development Conference
7-9 March, 2016
Valencia (Spain)
7-9 March, 2016
Valencia (Spain)
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10th International
Technology, Education and
Development Conference
7-9 March, 2016
Valencia (Spain)
CONFERENCE
PROCEEDINGS
CONFERENCE
PROCEEDINGS

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INTED2016 Proceedings
10th International Technology, Education and Development Conference
March 7th-9th, 2016 — Valencia, Spain
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ISBN: 978-84-608-5617-7
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USING HASHTAGS AS A TEACHING RESOURCE IN HIGHER
EDUCATION
V. Delgado Benito, D. Hortigüela Alcalá, V. Ausín Villaverde, V. Abella García
Universidad de Burgos (SPAIN)
Abstract
In recent years, social networks have been gradually incorporated into the educational landscape,
becoming formative educational resources that integrate the teaching-learning processes. In addition,
they constitute powerful tools for permanent lifelong education, which may ensure the autonomous
use by students outside of the classroom. In this regard, much evidence exists which demonstrates
that students have a positive attitude towards its academic use, fostering their involvement and
knowledge. Among the most popular social networks in use Twitter can be singled out, as it is
currently having the greatest impact on the world of education due to its large size and ease of use.
In this submission we show the usefulness of hashtags in the field of higher education via an
experiment carried out during the course "Information Technology and Communication applied to
Education", taught in the first year of the Degree in Elementary Education at the University of Burgos.
Eighty-three Elementary Education degree students took part in this trial and all used Twitter as an
educational tool. Profiles were individually created by them and, simultaneously, a subject hashtag
was generated: #PRIMUBU15.
Over the course of the subject students’ tweeted diverse content related to information and
communication technology for education using the hashtag created. At the same time, an educational
radio project was developed, creating a new hashtag called #RadioEdUBU. This was used as a
channel for the distribution of their projects, the progress made at the time and the results obtained.
Once the experiment was finalised, and with a view to understanding the usage and development of
hashtags, various monitoring tools were employed: TAGS (Twitter Archiving Google Spread sheet),
TweetReach and Tweet Binder. All these tools were used in their free version, affirming their
importance and significance while reflecting the evolution of these training processes.
Finally, we can conclude that students were satisfied with their experience, which was demonstrated
by their massive involvement in the subject through the use of hashtags as a teaching resource.
Keywords: Twitter, Higher Education, hashtags, lifelong learning.
1 INTRODUCTION
Currently, social networks form a part of the social interaction process of our students, who live
continuously connected through applications in widespread use like Facebook, Tuenti, LinkedIn, My
Space, Hi5 and Ning, among others. These are used as a space and means of communication,
information and entertainment [1].
In this regard, university students that we find in our classrooms today belong to the so-called "App
Generation", that understand the world as a set of applications that provide them with everything they
may need [2]. As such, university classrooms require a multimodal teaching-learning process that
responds to the needs of twenty-first century students.
Social networks, as a didactic resource, have been incorporated into the educational landscape
gradually. In this respect, mention should be made of the experiment conducted by teachers from
Marquette University in Wisconsin (USA), who used Twitter to share information between educational
communities [3].
When considering the academic use of social networks, there exists abundant evidence that students
demonstrate a positive attitude, enhancing their involvement and learning [4]. In addition, social
networks contribute to permanent lifelong learning, which ensures the autonomous use by the
students outside of the classroom.
Proceedings of INTED2016 Conference
7th-9th March 2016, Valencia, Spain
ISBN: 978-84-608-5617-7
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According to Santoveña [5], some of the advantages of the use of social networks at University level
are as follows:
• They allow you to create a new form of socialization, view content from a specific community or
a minimalized unit, such as a class.
• They could be established as a tool to support inclusive education.
• They can be used as relationship spaces, creating working groups and carrying out activities
with the entire educational community.
• Some networks such as LinkedIn constitute links with companies and organizations.
• Their use as private spaces provides students with a safe environment for building relationships
within the educational community.
• To participate in international networks or with students from other countries, facilitate the
learning of foreign languages.
• They are potential spaces for the organization of conferences and seminars, allowing the virtual
presentation of communications and their defence through synchronous communication and/or
asynchronously.
• They can facilitate the reduction of the digital divide.
• Social networks and communities can serve as facilitators in the development of digital identity
and dynamic spaces.
In summary, we can say that social networks, in the field of education, facilitate immediate feedback,
the possibility of sharing documentation and thoughts on certain concepts [6].
Among the most used social networks within the world of education we can highlight Twitter since it
has a number of features that allow its implementation within the formative processes: facilitates
interaction between all the educational agents [7] allows for constant accessibility to messages; the
possibility to participate regardless of the place in which the subject is located [8]; improved self-
regulated learning [9] as well as the inclusion of real-world examples [10] and direct contact with
experts in different disciplines [11; 12]. In addition, it contributes to professional development and
permanent continuous learning [13].
According to Duke, del Moral Pérez & de Guevara [14], two uses of Twitter in the University context
stand out:
• Teaching, as support and development of experiences related to any subject, on the proposal of
the teachers.
• As a tool for the transmission of institutional information, promoting communication between the
institution and the students.
At present experiences of the educational use of Twitter in the Spanish University sector proliferate.
(Table 1) In these pages, we will describe our experiment focusing attention on the use of hashtags as
a didactic resource.
Hashtags are labels that are preceded by a pound sign (#) that allow you to classify and categorize
the subject of messages that are published in social networks. Their widespread use started with
Twitter but has been extended to other networks such as Facebook and Instagram.
On Twitter, because of the brevity of tweets (140 characters), it is recommended that the hashtags are
short, so that the user has more space to write what they want to about the subject at hand and easy
to memorize to encourage viral dissemination and interaction between users. There are tools that
allow you to record and define the subject matter to which the hashtag is concerned, one such
example is Tagdef.
Uses that can be given to Hashtags can be diverse [20]:
• Circumstantial; used for grouping comments relating to a topical subject.
• Expressionist; precede a comment and serve to emphasise the tone of the message.
• Categorical; group comments within a specific category to be localized with ease.
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Table 1: Educational experiences with Twitter in Higher Education.
Authors
Title of Experience
Link to the Experience
Montero, E. G., De la
Morena, M. & Melendo, L.
Analysis of the communicative value of the social
networks in the university scope: study of the uses
of Twitter in the classroom [15]
http://bit.ly/1Ru4cow
López Zapico, M. A. &
Tascón Fernández, J.
Twitter as a teaching tool in the social sciences
faculties. A case study from the economic history
[16]
http://bit.ly/1OkaZuE
Martínez-Rodrigo, E., &
Raya-González, P.
The microblogging in the teaching-learning process.
Academic experience with Twitter [17]
http://bit.ly/1RDawZe
Abella García, V., &
Delgado Benito, V.
Learning to use Twitter and use Twitter to learn [6]
http://bit.ly/1K6DLx2
Hortigüela Alcalá, D. &
Pérez Pueyo, A.
Use of social networks as a strategy formative in
the classroom: Analysis of university students
motivation [18]
http://bit.ly/1OVLp55
Rodríguez, H., & Restrepo,
L.F.
Skills and the use of Twitter by higher education
students [19]
http://bit.ly/1mNpm4h
In the field of education, hashtags can be used to identify themes by way of keywords, which favour
address specific content in the classroom for easy accessibility to the student.
Another aspect that is becoming increasingly important today are the tools for the monitoring and
analysis of social networks. By Focusing on the hashtags, these tools allow you to gather information
on the activity of users who have participated, published content, number of tweets, major contributors
etc., this data can be very useful in the evaluation of the use of social networks as a teaching
resource, as well as to observe the evolution of the formative process.
There exist a great many tools of this type, both free and paid. In this experiment we will describe
T.A.G.S. (Twitter Archiving Google Spreadsheet), Tweetreach and Tweet Binder since they are the
ones that we used.
2 OBJECTIVES
• Use a social network from an educational perspective, which allows us to bring students closer
to the professional reality, encouraging interaction and communication with teachers in service.
• Contribute to informal learning and lifelong learning as a basic element of your personal
learning network (PLN), circulating through the social networks the work done on the subject.
3 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Participants Subsection
This educational experience was carried out during the first semester of the academic year 2015/2016
within the subject "Information and Communication Technologies Applied to Education", imparted in
the first course of the Masters Degree in Primary Education at the Faculty of Education, University of
Burgos.
The activity started in the last week of September 2015 and ended the last week of December of the
same year (14 weeks in total). Participating students were 83 in total; 50 women (60.3%) and 33 men
(39.7%), with an average age of 19,97 years (SD=3.38).
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3.2 Contextualization of the experience
Students used the social network Twitter as an educational tool. To do this, the use of this network
was explained, although most were familiar with it and even had an account already. After the
explanation, the students individually created their profiles and the subject hashtag #PRIMUBU15 was
generated.
Once the accounts and the hashtag had been created, individually during the course of the subject the
students had to complete the following steps:
• Include a photo to their profile and add a brief description.
• Customise the layout of the Twitter page.
• Follow at least 30 teachers, for which a list of teachers on Twitter was provided to them
(http://goo.gl/cHsHD).
• Write tweets (thoughts, web links, news, etc.) related to the Technologies of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) as applied to education and make retweets (RTs) with the
hashtag of the subject #PRIMUBU15.
• Disseminate the progress made, as well as the results obtained, through the educational radio
project via the hashtag #RadioEdUBU.
The final objective was that each student reached at least 100 tweets of educational content related to
the subject within the hashtag #PRIMUBU15 during the course.
In order to understand the use and the evolution of the hashtags, various monitoring tools were used
at the end of the course: T.A.G.S. (Twitter Archive Google Spreadsheet), tweetreach and Tweet
Binder. All these tools were used in their free versions, which therefore, had limitations when it came
to retrieving the tweets (usually limited to the last week). Despite this limitation of a temporary nature,
these applications represent an interesting research resource for educators and researchers alike [21].
4 RESULTS
Next, we will provide the results obtained after the analysis of the hashtag #PRIMUBU15 with the
various monitoring tools used. It is worth mentioning that 95.2% of the participating students met the
objectives proposed in the activity.
4.1 T.A.G.S. (Twitter Archiving Google Spreadsheet)
This free monitoring tool was created by Martin Hawksey [22] and operates on Google Apps under a
Creative Commons license, in such a way that any user is free to copy, use and improve it. Via Twitter
Archiving Google Spreadsheet (T.A.G.S.) we can obtain data on Twitter related to a single word or
various, as well as interesting metrics that allow us to perform a thorough analysis not only of the
content of the tweets but also of those who are its authors and to whom they are directed. It also
provides other interesting information such as the date and time of publishing, total retweets (RTs) and
other indicators of activity.
In order to use T.A.G.S. it is necessary to make a copy of a Google Spreadsheet (available on the
creator’s web site), authorize the use of the associated tool to email and register an application on
Twitter Developers. The process can be complex; therefore it is recommended to refer to the free e-
book by Ordás [23], which explains step by step how to use T.A.G.S.
The hashtag of the subject was analysed using T.A.G.S. v6.0 in the period between 19th November
2015 and 7th January 2016. As can be seen in Figure 1 below, 1280 tweets were obtained; with 1140
links and 213 RTs. Looking at the volume of tweets in the period studied we can see that mid-
December was when the most activity was registered with the hashtag. Another interesting fact
highlighted by the report was the people who have written the most tweets (Top Tweeters), indicating
the number, references, the percentage of RTs and a graph of their activity on Twitter.
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Fig. 1: Summary report of #PRIMUBU15 with T.A.G.S. (Twitter Archiving Google Spreadsheet).
TAGSExplorer, a tool included in v6.0 of T.A.G.S., was used to visualize hashtag discussions. In
Figure 2 below you can see the network of nodes through which content has been shared and
conversations generated. Using the application, it is possible to click on each node and analyse how
different Twitter profiles are related to each other. In addition, detailed information can be obtained
about each individual profile (Figure 3).
Fig. 2: Network of Nodes of Conversation on TAGSExplorer.
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Fig. 3: Example of a user’s network of conversation with TAGSExplorer.
4.2 Tweetreach
This is one of the most widely used tools for monitoring social networks (RRSS) since it offers the
most comprehensive report of a hashtag including data such as the scope, exposure, activity, most
active Tweeters and the latest tweets. It provides free of charge a report of activity during the last 8
days, to obtain more complete reports there are various payment plans available.
Figure 4 shows a summary of the report for #PRIMUBU15. Due to the time limitation Tweetreach data
shown relates to only the last week of hashtag activity. The estimated range is 17.828 accounts, with
147.308 prints (The graph shows the number of tweets sent by users in relation to the number of
followers that they have). Considering the activity during the last 8 days, 38 tweets were obtained (36
were RTs) from 25 contributors.
Finally, the main contributors, as can be seen in this case is @agirregabiria (Professor of Teaching of
Mathematics and Experimental Sciences and responsible for Educational Innovation in the
administration of the Basque Country). Also tweets with more RTs are included.
4.3 Tweet Binder
Similarly to the applications previously used, Tweet Binder allows you to analyse hashtags as well as
any term, keyword, account or quoted text on Twitter. Free of charge it provides us with statistics of
the impact and scope of the hashtags in tweets posted over the past week through graphical reporting
of the most significant data of the last 1,500 tweets.
Among the options included in paid versions, "Tweet Walls" stands out, which is designed to monitor
events on large screens, showing the tweets published, photographs, rankings of active users and/or
the most often mentioned, etc.
In the Tweet Binder report we get general statistics of the activity of the hashtag during the last week.
As can be seen in Figure 5 below, the results obtained are similar to those provided by Tweetreach,
however, it provides more detailed information on the ranking of contributors (most active, with more
RTs, original tweets, the users with the most followers, those with a greater impact and those who
have shared more images). The option that allows you to view the images shared in the hashtag is
also interesting.
Finally, it includes a graph of the activity in the different time slots for the temporary period analysed.
In addition, the colours of the graph vary depending on the shared content.
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Fig. 4: Activity Report for #PRIMUBU15 prepared via Tweetreach.
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Figure 5: Activity Report for #PRIMUBU15 produced with Tweet Binder.
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5 CONCLUSIONS
Despite the increase in the use of social networks in the field of education and, specifically, in Higher
Education, little scientific evidence exists regarding their use and their effects on learning.
Some experiences of using Twitter in Higher Education have shown that it contributes to increasing
the level of engagement in the activities of teaching and learning, by both students and teachers alike
[7; 24] and is a good instrument for fostering informal learning [25] and professional development [13].
That said, we must consider whether social networks are going to actually improve the quality and
effectiveness of learning of the students.
In our experience, students demonstrated a positive attitude towards the use of Twitter as a didactic
tool. This is reflected in the activity of the hashtag #PRIMUBU15 for the subject and the evaluation of
the same, since 95.2% of participants met the proposed objectives. Note also that the most activity
was recorded during the middle of the month of December.
At the end of the experience, we held a brainstorming session with participating students to discuss
the possibilities of using Twitter in the educational field, and they confirmed that they were very
satisfied with the activity. The main ideas drawn are summarised and listed as follows:
• Allows you to know and research topics of interest.
• Possibility of disseminating and highlighting educational content.
• Via hashtags interesting discussion are generated.
• Contributes to permanent and continuous learning.
• It serves as a channel of communication between teachers and students, as well as between
students themselves.
• Facilitates the establishment of contacts with professionals in the field of education.
• Can be used as a teaching tool for assessing students.
• Develops the capacity to summarise as a tweet can have only 140 characters.
For the reasons mentioned above, we believe it is important to reflect upon the educational
opportunities presented by the use of social networks in the field of education and, in particular, the
use of hashtags in Higher Education in the context of a subject as it is a resource that can be used
interchangeably in any field and/or university degree.
Regarding the use of hashtags as a didactic resource, the teacher has to show that it is a tool to
support the work in the classroom, which helps to promote active participation and cohesion as a
group, through the contents generated and by transferring part of their learning into it.
Among some of the constraints encountered, the restrictions of the monitoring tools used stand out, as
their limited access to the tweets sent did not allow for a complete analysis of all data throughout the
temporary period during which the experience was conducted.
As a line of future research, we believe that it would be interesting to delve into the use of hashtags as
a teaching resource in a specific time period (due to the limitation of the existing free tools),
conducting an exhaustive analysis of the published content, as well as the network of discussions and
interactions established between users.
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