Welcome to the Digital Era
The first Printing press was first form of social media. The invention of the printing press burgeoned the first forms of writings such as books and the earliest form of newspapers. Despite this advancement in technology, social media was limited due to the lack of up to date news. As the social media industry progresses through history accurate information is produced more rapidly. However, the social media industry does not just stop with attaining information and producing it faster for their readers. Eventually the industries began to grow larger. Instead of gathering news on just a state or national scale they began gathering information about current events occurring all over the world. These advancements eventually brought on the formation of popular companies such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today.
In the beginning of the early 20th century the social media industry’s labile characteristics rapidly adapted to the digital world. Now information is updated faster then ever, almost making newspapers obsolete. This advancement not only allowed newspaper companies to put up their own web pages but it also introduced readers to blogging and other social medias. Blogging specifically has become very popular, allowing individuals to write and express their own ideologies on a myriad of topics.
Today blogging, and other forms of social media, are being used in classrooms allowing students to gain experience by learning and writing in the digital environment. Classes offered in the digital writing fields have proven to influence quickness and authoritativeness in students writing allowing them to focus on “the big picture” (Carr 29-32). The ability to focus on key points and be concise is an important aspect of a good writer. Digital writing courses have helped students do just that. This is why teachers, over the past decade, have implemented an active blog as a popular assignment (Yang & Chang 126-135).
The digital environment has also promoted free writing. The advantage of using digital media in classrooms provides students with a lot of flexibility in their written works. This provides students with the pleasure of writing, and at the same time expands their knowledge and skills in writing more efficiently. Juxtaposed to blogging, Twitter has also been implemented in the classroom. Twitter has been around for seven years now and is referred to as a micro blogging site. What makes Twitter so different to blogging is the complex thought process users have to implement in every tweet. The 140-character limit Twitter sets per tweet further encourages student to be concise and to think on their feet. Leigh Write implemented this tactic with her class, she promoted exercises such as live tweeting to help build her students confidence to take notes quickly and accurately (Wright). However, some argue that twitter inhibits the complex thought process as a result of its 140-charcter limit (Ebner, Lienhardt, Rohs, and Meyer 94). Respectfully I would disagree with this claim, the limitation promotes complex thought processes by focusing on saying less and still getting your point across. Being an avid Twitter user, I catch myself on many occasions having to acquit what I want to say using fewer words.
As previously stated, digital writing is about the flexibility of creating a network of texts on the web. This flexibility students are provided allows them to write about topics that interest them, experiment with different tones, writing styles, and portray different voices within their writing. However, when a student is deciding on their motives they have to consider the audience they are writing to. As Fitzpatrick delineated, “through our writing we engage in performance by articulating the role of rhetoric, the position of speaker, and the effect on the audience (Rajchel, Fitzpatrick)”. This might possibly be the hardest concept students could face when it comes to digital writing. However, this can also be the most helpful tool for a student as well.
Whether readers agree or disagree with the blogger’s posts, reader feedback provides the writer with an engagement in discussions. Through discussions students acquire a utile quality to synthesize information, read quickly and deeply, and engage in discussions; qualities that will prove to be useful throughout their lives (Rajchel). The ability to synthesize arguments quickly also encourages the student to be skeptical to influence further discussions. This skill is acquired through multiple experiences and encounters with other individuals. Additionally, over time these experiences allow students to aggregate the ability to think and provide rational responses.
Thus far it has been discussed that digital media in the classroom has proven to be a useful means of education. However, as useful as it can be in the classroom it has also proven to be just as useful in the real world. In the article “Microblogs in Higher Education”, a case study took place were students enrolled in a course to gain practice in using communication, collaboration and documentation during the course (Ebner, Lienhardt, Rohs, and Meyer 93). The course was devised to use the website known as MBlog and Mediawiki for students in grad school working towards success in the real world. Students were required to maintain a proper blog where they would practice communication within their field of interest. Overall results exhibited that the experience students gained from this course helped them in their careers of interest within communication. This demonstrated that microblogs, such as twitter, allow people to explore the world and reach out to their followers sharing their experiences (Ebner, Lienhardt, Rohs, and Meyer 99).
Prior to now, everything stated was a rendition of scholarly articles that support the use of web blogs in an educational setting. Each article also provided case studies where social media had been implemented in a class curriculum of different levels. While all the case studies supported that social media is beneficial to use in the classroom nothing beats personal experience in becoming a good communicator through social use.
Online social media started to become popular in the late 90’s and being a part of that generation I still remember how fast it became popular. To this day I still remember the blogging site “Xanga”. Xanga allowed its users to write about whatever they wanted and was a lot like an online journal entry. Also on the site you had followers and they would read each others posts. Xanga was a popular trend, however, one of many to follow. Shortly after MySpace became popular and everyone had a profile, then came Facebook followed by Twitter. These are just some of the popular examples of social media through its “evolution”.
There is a myriad amount of social media sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. All of these sites had many different attributes that were appealing to so many people. However, despite the differences in characteristics, all of these sites had one thing in common. Each site provided their users with connection to other users. This connection provided users the chance to experiment by taking advantage of all resources these sites offered. MySpace allowed you to change your layout and the music that would play on your page. Facebook allowed you to make albums, statuses, and a layout behind your profile picture. Lastly, Twitter provides users with the ability to favorite or retweet a text that is appealing to share with other followers. All of these resources, along with consistent use, allowed users to experiment with what would draw their follower’s attention. This was the whole point of having any of these sites; this is also the whole point of writing blogs or any other social media.
As I just demonstrated, even outside of the classroom, people still benefited from the use of blogging sites. Like the scholars that wrote the articles presented before, I also find implementing social media in the classroom as a valuable teaching method.
I found the most effective aspect about this teaching method is its application of learning through repetition and interaction. As prosaic of an aspect as it seems, this was the common attribute all of the case studies I presented earlier shared. This is also an attribute that can be used in any situation, not just in school. A pitcher can watch as many YouTube videos on how to throw a curveball, as he would like. However, knowing how to do something and actually doing the action are different things all together. This is why incorporating social media into the classroom proved to be a beneficial learning experience. Like the case studies that implemented active twitter accounts into their teachings, the students enjoyed the course and benefited from it. All the methods included having followers serving as the writer’s positive or negative feedback, this was the student’s source of learning through social interactions. When both of these aspects are amalgamated together its like the students are really teaching themselves. Even if this is the case, all of the articles results showed that the students took away a lot from the courses.
I still stick to my opinion that social media is a valuable asset that should be implemented, or offered as a course. The courses suggested in the articles improved student’s understandings of how to maintain blogs and other social sites. At the same time this teaching methods influenced creativity and considerably improved the writing skills of the students.
Work cited
- Ebner , Martin , Conrad Lienhardt, Matthias Rohs, and Iris Meyer. “Microblogs in Higher Education – A chance to facilitate informal and process-oriented learning?.” Computer & Education . n. page. Print. <http://www.cblt.soton.ac.uk/multimedia/PDFs10/micriblogs in higher education process orientated learning.pdf>.
- Wright, Leigh. “Tweet Me A Story.” Web Writing. Web Writing, 15 Sep 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/engagement/wright-2013/>.
- Rajchel, Jennifer. “Consider the Audience.” Web Writing. Web Writing , 15 Setember 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/engagement/rajchel-2013/>.
- Carr, Nora. “Using Blogs to Humanize Our School Leaders.” Education Digest. 74.4 (2007): 29-32. Print. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?sid=90bb3f63-d869-4f3c-82e8-42d165e72785@sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=16&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU=
- Yang, C., and YS Chang. “Assessing the effects of interactive blogging on student attitudes towards peer interaction, learning motivation, and academic achievements.” WILEY-BLACKWELL . (2012): 126-135. Print. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=2&sid=47e90791-22d2-4308-8b16-e823d3a944ed@sessionmgr113&hid=105&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU=