The Butterfly Effect: Bluesky Basics for Teachers
For a while now, educators have been transitioning away from X to other platforms like Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky.
The level of interaction on Bluesky has really taken off. If you used to like Twitter, I think you’ll enjoy the community that’s evolving on Bluesky.
Bluesky has a mobile app, and you can access it from a web browser. It’s so similar to Twitter and X that you might forget that you’re on Bluesky.
Let me tell you some things about Bluesky.
Go to bsky.app to create an account for free. It’s easiest if you choose Bluesky Social as the hosting provider. Be sure to enter a profile description and upload a profile picture.
Usernames include a domain name. My username is tonyvincent.bsky.social. Almost all usernames end with .bsky.social, but users can link a different domain to their accounts.
Bluesky operates on a decentralized model. Bluesky's decentralized nature means it's not controlled by a single entity, reducing the risk of an individual or company having absolute power. Users can move their data and communities to other servers if needed.
Bluesky posts are public. You cannot set your account to private. However, you can control who interacts with a post by adjusting its settings. For example, you can disable quotes, limit replies to specific groups (like people you follow, accounts you mention, or a custom list), or block replies entirely. Additionally, you can block accounts. Blocked accounts cannot like, reply, mention, or follow you, and their posts, replies, and profile will be hidden from your search results. Note that blocks are public.
Like, reply, repost, or quote. Interact with posts the same way you’re used to doing already.
Posts have a 300-character limit. If you want to share a longer message, you can click the + button at the bottom of the post creation box to create a series of connected posts.
Posts can include URLs, emojis, images, animated GIFs, and videos. You’re limited to 4 images or 1 video per post.
Alt text is highly recommended. Alt text is a brief description of an image that makes it accessible to people using screen readers. There is a setting you can turn on to help you remember to include alt text when posting an image. Go to Settings → Accessibility and checkmark “Require alt text before posting.”
Hashtags help you discover people and content. A variety of education-related hashtags are brimming with resources and engaging conversations. The main education hashtag is #EduSky. Additional hashtags include #EduSkyAI, #iTeachMath, #EduCoach, #TLSky, #EdTech, #AIinEducation, and #UDL.
Hashtags cannot include spaces. To make them more readable and accessible for screen readers, use CamelCase by capitalizing the first letter of each word in the hashtag.
Feeds are customizable and shareable. You can create feeds based on criteria using the SkyFeed website. I made this EdTech Hashtags feed, which combines original posts and presents the newest posts first. Then there’s this Tip Tuesday feed, which is a collection of my weekly teaching and tech tips.
Chats are back! Real-time chats, reminiscent of those that once dominated Twitter, are back in full swing. Here’s a concise list of some Bluesky education chats, and here’s a comprehensive spreadsheet.
Bluesky doesn’t have a bookmarking feature. If you want to save a post for later, you can use an external bookmarking service. I use the Diigo extension on the web and the Diigo app on mobile to easily bookmark Bluesky posts and links.
Bluesky doesn’t have a scheduling feature. If you want to schedule posts, you’ll need to use a third-party tool like Buffer.
Bluesky doesn’t have advertisements. It also doesn’t have any paid features. The company says it will not sell user data and will not use user data to train AI systems (but since Bluesky is so open, it’s possible for others to use your data). Bluesky is currently funded by investors. The company intends to avoid relying on advertising, and it will likely introduce paid features in the future.
To help you get going, Bluesky has Starter Packs. Users can create a list of other users and share them. It’s easy to follow an entire Starter Pack or browse and choose which accounts to follow. To get going, check out Paul Dietrich’s Education Power Pack and Amie Reed’s K-12 Instructional Coaches. You can search for Starter Packs at BlueskyStarterPack.com.
Find your people from X on Bluesky. The Sky Follower Bridge browser extension tries to find accounts with the same usernames or usernames in their profiles and then presents a list of accounts from X for you to follow on Bluesky. I’ve managed to follow a few hundred accounts this way.
Short posts can lead to big things. You never know how a simple message, a thoughtful reply, or a helpful resource shared on Bluesky might ripple through the educator community. One post could spark a new idea, build a meaningful connection, or inspire a collaborative project. Just like the butterfly effect, small actions on Bluesky have the potential to create a far-reaching impact. Beginning in 2007, short 140-character tweets certainly shaped my education journey in unexpected ways. I can’t wait to see what unfolds on Bluesky.
When you’re on Bluesky, enter @tonyvincent.bsky.social to tag me and say hello!
Bonus
If you used TweetDeck, you should check out Deck.Blue. After connecting your Bluesky account, you can view Bluesky posts in a column-based format. You can add columns for your main feed, notifications, hashtags, lists, and custom feeds. I like that I can clear columns after I’ve read them.
