When new users who happen to be educators sign up, I usually send them something like what appears below. I thought I would back this instruction up by including a link to this blog entry so that folks could read it via the web, and watch the video tutorials.

Getting organized can be different than what we’ve all grown accustomed to.

Standard Welcome Announcement

First, let’s review the announcement that I send to new users:

Welcome! 🖖 😀 Glad you could make it. My apologies if you’ve seen these tips below. I share them with educators who appear to be new to Mastodon and follow me. They may save you some isolation.

There are many educators, including teacher-librarians, here. Some tips to connect:

1) Add #EduTooter hashtag to your toots/posts to reach educators of all sorts. If a librarian, add #K12Librarian or #Librarian hashtag. Include other hashtags like #EdTech #Education #SocialStudies #Science #Math #TCEA #ISTE #GoogleEDU as appropriate to reach people who have subscribed to those hashtags. You can add a hashtag to a List. That way, multiple hashtags feed into one timeline.

2) Join the EduTooters and/or K12 Librarian List at https://tinyurl.com/joinedutooters;

3) While searching hashtags then adding results to a List is the best way to go, you can also augment your reach through the use of a Guppe group. To do that, follow and include the appropriate group (edutooters, googleedu, K12Librarian are three off the top of my head) you want to connect with. You’ll need to add each group address using the instructions found online at this blog entry. Instructions on how to create a group appear at this link as well. Blog entry:

4) Boost anything you find of interest, and follow people. You can import the EduTooters/K12Librarian lists into your FollowingList (Preferences on Mastodon web browser). There are over 400 and growing every day.

5) Post a hashtag rich #Introduction so people can find you more easily, and pass these instructions on to other educators you know. Add a profile pic and hashtag rich bio. You can pin multiple items to your profile, so don’t be afraid to do that.

6) Finally, check out these “tootorials” at https://go.mgpd.org/feditoots for quick tips. I have a few video tutorials there, including how to import Following lists, set up your profile and bio, etc. 🙂

Introducing Guppe Groups

Ok, now that is out of the way, let’s take a look at the Guppe Groups.

Guppe brings social groups to the fediverse — making it easy to connect and meet new people based on shared interests without the maniuplation of your attention to maximize ad revenue nor the walled garden lock-in of capitalist social media.

Guppe is brought to you by Immers Space, the Immersive Web freelancer cooperative that uses its margins to fund the development of free software that breaks down the walls between metaverse platforms. (source)

There are a LOT of groups, here are four popular ones:

Let’s learn a little more about each.

Joining Guppe Groups

Ready to join a group? While hashtags are the best way to share and connect, you can also invite people to join an existing group. There are quite a few available online already. For educators, the main groups that I’m aware of include these below. Simply add the address below to every toot/post you send that’s K-12 education appropriate.

• @edutooters@a.gup.pe
• @K12Librarian@a.gup.pe

A sample toot that tags the 630 people in the edutooters group would look like this:

Following Guppe Groups 

You can also follow a group as if it were another user. Simply copy-n-paste the address above and paste it into the search box on your Mastodon web browser or app.

Another way to follow a Guppe Group has you going to the individual account (such as EduTooters group shown below) and then click FOLLOW. The best way to follow anyone is by finding them via the search box, then clicking the FOLLOW button. However, you can take the long way and follow someone this way:

Creating Guppe Groups

Want to create your own Guppe group? You’re not alone. Lots of folks want to do that. Here’s how per the website.

New groups are created on demand, just search for or mention @YourGroupNameHere@a.gup.pe and it will show up

Yes, it’s that simple!

Conducting Hashtag Searches

Adding hashtag searches, Guppe groups, and people to a list is a way to quickly see content you are interested in. This can be complicated since it varies by what Mastodon instance you are on. I’m on Qoto.org, so I have the ability to add hashtags and groups to a list. This is really cool and looks like this:

Unfortunately, looking on my mas.to Mastodon instance, following hashtags and adding them to a list isn’t possible (at least, not so I can see). This means you’re really just stuck following hashtags in your Mastodon SEARCH box, and then waiting for the results to pop up.

Unless I’m missing something, searching and finding stuff in vanilla Mastodon…well, stinks. It intentionally goes out of its way to NOT show you anything. That’s why following groups like @edutooters@a.gup.pe is so helpful.