So today's ECMP 355 class was about social networking - particularly, Twitter. I had already done a blog post on Facebook, so here is my say on the ever-popular Twitter...
When I first got Twitter, I went on it for five minutes then stopped for four months. My friend made me create an account but I didn't really see the point of it. Having random people follow me was kind of creepy and I couldn't talk as much as I could on Facebook since there was only a 140 character limit. To me, it was stupid.
I came back to it because my close circle of friends all had accounts. It was more personal; Facebook has a mass population and I have many friends, whereas on Twitter I only had around 12 followers. I can post simple, quick thoughts and read other people's thoughts. Facebook became more like Rantbook, with people's statuses reaching paragraph level.
As more people followed me, I made my account private. Since ballet is one of my main interests, my tweets became more and more geared toward it. To my surprise, I had begun receiving follower requests from big-time companies like the New York City Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, and some dancers from Europe.
Twitter became both my personal insight to my friends' lives that I moved away from to come to University - I still keep in close contact with each of them, thanks to Twitter, and my professional image to the dance world which helps in my education endeavors as a dance major. I can receive the latest news on choreography, dancer's health, receive discounts on clothing and more. I can then pass on this information to my students. Twitter has become a fantastic resource for information and I can monitor who I follow and who follows me.
For teaching purposes, I would most likely create a separate account for my students and colleagues since the account I have now is still personal. I enjoy the simplicity of Twitter and the ability to connect with different people with similar interests. I can use it in more advanced ways than I can with Facebook, which is also great, but doesn't have the same professional quality that Twitter does.
1 comment:
I agree with you. I think Twitter has a lot of potential when incorporating into the classroom setting. I like that its short and sweet, which may engage students to participate. I do also like it from a professional stand point in which i can tweet a question and have instant results from followers. I need to build up my contacts but in time i feel i will have more use for Twitter.
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