Weekly Reflection and Report #5

Hello fellow bloggers/ readers!

Google Images. (CC). 2016

This week we are taking a closer look at the very popular social networking site, Twitter. I have been using Twitter for several years now and I use it daily in order to communicate with my friends and stay up to date with the current news. 

The “Trending Topics” and tailored hashtags make searching for specific news much simpler, faster, and efficient. Additionally, I commonly read through other people’s tweets from around the world to see what their thoughts are on important “Trending Topics” or even topics that are for fun. Another great aspect of Twitter is that people often “live tweet,” which is when individuals tweet their opinion/reaction while watching TV, listening to new music, or anything they are currently experiencing. In the past, I have used Twitter for work in order to advocate to youth the dangers about smoking, we did this through something called a Twitter bomb where everyone uses the same hashtag for several days in order to make it trend. I think that Twitter is a great outlet to reach out to a large population in the most concise way possible.

Recently, on my educational Twitter account I have been using the hashtag #ADED1P32, therefore when I search this hashtag it lists everyone that is discussing this topic and course in a feed. This has made it much easier to locate my fellow classmates Twitter's as well as read what they are finding interesting. In my opinion, the main disadvantage of Twitter is the character limit because users are not able to tweet their full thoughts on a situation because they have to cut so many words to fit a mere 140 characters. However, this can also work as an advantage in educational contexts because it teaches you how to be concise with the statement that is being shared. Therefore, when you read through your Twitter updates you can quickly get a grasp on what people are trying to communicate without a lot of filler information. In addition, a website called Twitlonger allows you to expand on your tweets by linking your full statement in a current tweet, this allows you to bypass the 140 character limit.

The main thing that I have noticed throughout my years of using Twitter is how easy it is to obtain information and how fast new information is posted to Twitter. There are millions of tweets being posted per second and people from all over the world are forming connections through 140 character statements. The hashtags enable people to find others with  common interests and thoughts, or they may find that other individuals have completely different views on a certain topic. This demonstrates the uniqueness of Twitter and this sets it apart from any other social networking site. The Twitter Handbook for Teacher's breaks down Twitter step by step for new users that want to use it in an academic context. The handbook is quite helpful because it demonstrates how to implement Twitter into the classroom and how to show students that it can not only be fun but it can be used in an educational sense. Furthermore, I have already placed Twitter in my PLE under "Collaboration," however if I created a "Social" branch in the diagram I would place it under this category as well. Moreover, Twitter can also fit under the the "Educational" category as I am currently using it academically for this class. This demonstrates the fluidity and links between PLE categories that Twitter supports.

I’ve also continued to keep up with my Feedly account and this week I recommend you check out this interesting link on 10 Simple Hacks to Land Better Grades Possible in College. This is a really interesting article that breaks down some tips for excelling in school. I found this article helpful because recently I have been working through a ton of assignments and sometimes lack of sleep and an overload of coffee is not the best option! I’m intrigued to read everyone else’s thoughts on Twitter and until then…

Happy tweeting and be sure to follow me on Twitter for future updates!