The idea of the integration of a social medial tool, such as Twitter into the learning environment is quite far from most academic norms. Twitter is typically used to express opinion-based idea - we have seen that concept almost literally as day to day American politics has succumbed to profuse, over-zealous, and over-reaching daily Tweets by the current American President. However, that does not mean that the 140, soon to possibly 280 character limit that uniquely defines the twitter experience, cannot be repurposed to evidence based, academic approved content. Another advantage is the instant availability that Twitter allows for, when viewing its content.
Blackboard for academic use is a great tool but perhaps its usefulness and favorable opinion is only because it is widely used by many academic institutions. When posting blackboard content, it is ready available much like Twitter but the login process and then navigation of the site to get to the discussion board can be quite cumbersome. To that end, Twitter does have a bit of an upper hand.
An in class discussion is always ideal but the direction that society is moving towards, calls for more of a virtual educational experience. With the advancement and usability of technology and increasing life demands on time economy, it seems that on-line learning is becoming the new normal. In class lectures and discussions also allows for in person - realtime dialogue, which is essential to assure that context does not get lost in translation.
Blackboard for academic use is a great tool but perhaps its usefulness and favorable opinion is only because it is widely used by many academic institutions. When posting blackboard content, it is ready available much like Twitter but the login process and then navigation of the site to get to the discussion board can be quite cumbersome. To that end, Twitter does have a bit of an upper hand.
An in class discussion is always ideal but the direction that society is moving towards, calls for more of a virtual educational experience. With the advancement and usability of technology and increasing life demands on time economy, it seems that on-line learning is becoming the new normal. In class lectures and discussions also allows for in person - realtime dialogue, which is essential to assure that context does not get lost in translation.
Twitter has always been somewhat of an anomaly to me; i feel like it has so much power but it also does very little? the people who generate conversations on them usually have some sort of influence, whereas in blackboard you can artificially create responses to each other because it's just expected with the posts.
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