Group Discussion Topic: How to Control What You See

Howdy, edutooters! As creator of this group, I thought I'd share some quick reflections and tip.

1-SIZE AND GROWTH
Last time I looked, this group had 658 members, and 2400 posts. That's great.

Given the wide variety of members, I hope the group serves its original purpose. That purpose was to bring together and allow educators to connect with each other.

It's accomplishing that, especially as more educators involved in #TwitterMigration make their way onto Mastodon.

2-TYPES OF POSTS
While anyone can follow and post to the edutooters group, my hope is that posts would focus on education topics and resources, and/or exploring questions and responses that are academic, research, classroom, and/or practitioner oriented.

TIP: HOW TO MUTE
For example, I encountered a post advocating school board action and seeking donations (which is political, which I agreed with), but I wasn't sure it was appropriate for edutooters.

I could have sent that account a DM version of Cease-and-Desist. But the post was tastefully done, and I decided to reflect prior to taking action. Being apolitical hasn't worked out well for educators, IMHO. That said, I didn't want to impose my perspective on all of you.

So, I took action in my account, and exercised the MUTE option. That means, I won't see the poster's contributions in the future.

You, as a edutooters group member, however, who enjoy that type of post, may still get to see it.

If you're not aware of how to MUTE someone, let me know and I'll add it to my step by step videos at https://go.mgpd.org/feditoots.

The person you mute won't know you silenced them, either temporarily or permanently.

Please know that a.gup.pe doesn't appear to have any way for me to moderate members or posts. So, knowing how to mute/block people on Mastodon is really our only defense along with cultural norms.

Of course, you can also choose to stop following the edutooters group if you find it veers in a direction you would rather not go. I suspect hashtags will eventually take over as the best way to find and share content.

Please do continue to boost education/academic/research related posts, using hashtags and copying @edutooters group when appropriate.

The more professional content we engage with (and share), the richer the dialogue and learning. I invite you to share blog entries, published articles, insights/ideas about education, K-16 focused, graduate/post-doctoral, etc. #OER is also welcome, along with other areas appropriate for K-16 academia.

Or Primary School and Secondary School. Student creations (when allowed by student/parents), teacher creations, that amazing Google Slides you made, your conference presentation you are dying to share, online courses you like (without getting to sales-sy), etc.

Thanks so much for reading this long missive! Apologies to those of you who are reading this on smartphones.