7 Things I Learned from Teaching with Twitter Platform

INTRODUCTION

Social learning is not relatively a new concept as it dates back many decades ago even before the internet took its rumble. New emerging technologies, uninterrupted flow of information and proliferation of social media has changed the conventional standards of life. When traditional courses are carried out in conjunction with tools like twitter, it brought many opportunities to aspiring people with the thirst of better social learning through the emergence of social media. But teachers along with their students are not left alone in this new journey and they also rely heavily upon the conduct of renewed social media tools. One such is the twitter.

MY STATE-OF-THE ART EXPERIENCE

People use twitter for creating communities and finding new perspectives through these communities. It is a very subjective approach which everyone adopts regarding how one wants to personalize their twitter handle. Those who are associated with the profession of teaching focus on gaining divergent viewpoints regarding teaching and educational policy. My personal state-of-the-art experience brought me closer to many new realities which I want dissertation help online based professionals to mention in their dissertation writings regarding teaching methods as these are worth mentioning. That’s why I considered it appropriate to mention here at least seven things that I learned from teaching with twitter that will surely influence my next phase of twitter related teaching career.

1. DIGITAL LITERACY

My experience of teaching online instilled me with the concept of what is the importance of digital literacy and how it provides students with their voice which is not possible even in face-to-face class interaction. I learned to connect with the students through twitter chats and conversations on #stuvoice and to know and value their individual perspective. This one-on-one interaction was a blessing for me as a teacher. The 140-word limit provided me with the feedbacks from overseas students sitting million miles away from me. There can be numerous possibilities for you to opt for a small-scale interview rather than a large set of data. (masteressaywriters, 2021). This is even helpful for students having technical courses as they mostly feel difficulties in writings and then consult with dissertation data analysis help. So for me twitter taught me about digital learning and teaching, digital citizenship, and freedom of expression.

2. REQUIREMENT OF CONCRETE TASKS

When I discussed with few of my faculty members in my department I came to know the fact that many teachers rely on discussion oriented teaching style while they choose the platform of twitter in their teaching career. They consider twitter as a discussion board to openly reflect upon the point of concern. But my experience was eye opening in the sense when I found out that discussion does not happen abruptly rather it needs to be woven into considerable tasks in such a way that it feels organic.

3. CONSISTENCY IN POSTS AND NOT BOMBARDMENT

I learned how to use various apps to avoid bombarding the students with a heap of posts. I learned about using Buffer or Hootsuite to manage my social profile. It schedules posts at regular intervals. This was actually a time saving app as I was not supposed to get myself glued to twitter all the time.

But if a teacher is not posting at considerable intervals it will result in students losing interest which was reflected in the quality of tweets students were posting. So I learned to give maximum and minimum timescale value to my tweets.

4. QUALITY OF INTERACTION

Participation is not a thing to be confused with actual engagement on part of the students. Participation can be judged by twitter integration but judging the engagement of the students asks for the quality of interaction. Looking at amount of students tweeting regularly does not show quality of integration. I learned to formulate what I want my students to learn from me and then developed a kind of rubric to judge the quality of interaction taking place between me and my students on twitter. Finally, the article assesses whether the hashtag users can be described as a community of practice. (ROSELL-ANGUILAR, 2018)

5. WEB AND SOCIAL-NETWORKING UNFAMILIARITY

Not everyone from among the students who visit institutes are native and accustomed to digital world. I learned to know that only few of them were those who had created an account on twitter and a meagre amount was actually active on their twitter handles. I myself thought previously that it is a place for old people and frustrated political opinion jurists to come and exhaust their frustration like a big think tank. I had to explain them what twitter is offering for them too. So I along with curriculum started inculcating the basics of twitter through proper tutorials combined with issues of privacy and educational benefits.

6. NON GENERIC NATURE

Just like the fact that we all are humans are belonging to the same specie. Yet of the billions of individuals present on this planet everyone has different perspective, outlook towards life and even our appearances. Before starting teaching online through twitter a complete guide comprising twitter integration is a must have. This is so because the needs for each classroom can’t be stuffed into one bucket of generic nature. Unfortunately almost all the sources I consulted, regarding planning the teaching through twitter specific to the class, were not up to the mark and lack expertise.

7. HOW TO INCENTIVIZE STUDENTS

Introducing students to new things are always challenging depending upon their personal likings and the level of comfortability they enjoy with certain things. Same was with introducing students with twitter initially. Some of them, though new, were accustomed to them eventually but couple of them were no willing to adopt this new usage. Then there were those who first tried their best to get used to it as they started tweeting for certain time. I came to learn that using social media platform as a way of educational prospect may be not a cup of tea for all the students.

I tried to incentivize them with the best comments and verbal rewards which worked well no doubt.

CONCLUSION

At the end it is worth mentioning that teaching always offer something to the teacher as well for learning. My experience of teaching through twitter platform brought seven above mentioned ideas to home to me.

References:

• masteressaywriters. (2021, JUNE 12). HOW TO WRITE A DISSERTATION METHODOLOGY. https://masteressaywriters.co.uk/blogs/how-to-write-a-dissertation-methodology.
• ROSELL-ANGUILAR, F. (2018). Twitter: A Professional Development and Community of Practice Tool for Teachers. Journal of Interactive Media in Education.