Comments on: Twitter vs. Facebook http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/2009/08/twitter-vs-facebook/ education + technology = connection Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:19:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Virtually Scholastic http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/2009/08/twitter-vs-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-5472 Virtually Scholastic Wed, 19 May 2010 21:27:11 +0000 http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/?p=885#comment-5472 Thanks so much for your comment Bruce. The first thing that strikes me about what you wrote is that you 'love Facebook'. Lately I've been wondering how I feel about Facebook - I'm experiencing a notable shift in the way I perceive my Facebook experience but I'm not really sure what the change in my preferences means yet. There was definitely a time when I liked using the site a lot, but for some reason, it just doesn't 'do it' for me anymore. Yes, I still like keeping in touch with friends, but since there is increasing concern about the privacy policies imposed on the site's users (like the new "Instant Personalization" privacy setting), not many people are posting photos anymore, and that was my favorite part of the social networking site. I'm not sure which way I'm leaning on the topic of Facebook yet, but I'm definitely still not sold on Twitter (for my personal use). The way that you integrated the use of Twitter in your statistics class is quite interesting though. It highlights a potential benefit of Twitter for EXISTING groups. I can see how it can provide the platform to quickly and easily exchange or aggregate information. However, as you explain from your own experiences, Twitter doesn't do a great job of building communities, perhaps because of the very fact that it is so dispersed and is able to instantly reach such vast audiences. The way that you were able to use Twitter to communicate with your students outside of class also begs the question of whether it's an effective platform for mobile learning/communication (the limitations on the amount of text included in a single Tweet certainly compliment the nature of other forms of mobile communication like text messaging). Great to hear you were able to make a technology work for you :) Thanks again for your message! Thanks so much for your comment Bruce. The first thing that strikes me about what you wrote is that you ‘love Facebook’. Lately I’ve been wondering how I feel about Facebook – I’m experiencing a notable shift in the way I perceive my Facebook experience but I’m not really sure what the change in my preferences means yet. There was definitely a time when I liked using the site a lot, but for some reason, it just doesn’t ‘do it’ for me anymore. Yes, I still like keeping in touch with friends, but since there is increasing concern about the privacy policies imposed on the site’s users (like the new “Instant Personalization” privacy setting), not many people are posting photos anymore, and that was my favorite part of the social networking site. I’m not sure which way I’m leaning on the topic of Facebook yet, but I’m definitely still not sold on Twitter (for my personal use).

The way that you integrated the use of Twitter in your statistics class is quite interesting though. It highlights a potential benefit of Twitter for EXISTING groups. I can see how it can provide the platform to quickly and easily exchange or aggregate information. However, as you explain from your own experiences, Twitter doesn’t do a great job of building communities, perhaps because of the very fact that it is so dispersed and is able to instantly reach such vast audiences. The way that you were able to use Twitter to communicate with your students outside of class also begs the question of whether it’s an effective platform for mobile learning/communication (the limitations on the amount of text included in a single Tweet certainly compliment the nature of other forms of mobile communication like text messaging). Great to hear you were able to make a technology work for you :)

Thanks again for your message!

]]> By: Bruce http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/2009/08/twitter-vs-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-5469 Bruce Wed, 19 May 2010 14:32:32 +0000 http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/?p=885#comment-5469 I felt I had to reply to this because not too long ago, I found myself asking the same questions! I love Facebook and use it all the time, and my husband, who is a big Twitter fan, thought I might enjoy Twitter as well so he signed me up for an account. At first, I didn't see what all the hype was about. On Facebook, I would post things and get responses, but on Twitter, I rarely ever got responses for things I would post, and I hated that. I wanted to be able to engage in conversations with others on topics that I "tweeted" about, and I couldn't figure out why, if my tweets were going out to the whole Twitter universe, nobody was bothering to respond. So, I abandoned Twitter for awhile and just stuck with Facebook. However, I soon began to wonder if there was another way I might be able to use Twitter, and I decided to try an experiment in a class I was teaching this past summer. I teach statistics, and I asked my students to sign up for Twitter accounts and to tweet about things they were finding in the news related to statistics. My students really got into this, and I found this to be a great way for ME to communicate with my students outside of class about neat things I too was finding in the news (things I might not have the time to discuss in class). I'm going to continue doing this, and I hope this will become a regular part of future classes I teach. The moral of my story is that I had to change my expectations about Twitter. I went into it thinking it was going to be just like Facebook, but it's clearly not, and I now realize that is okay. I felt I had to reply to this because not too long ago, I found myself asking the same questions! I love Facebook and use it all the time, and my husband, who is a big Twitter fan, thought I might enjoy Twitter as well so he signed me up for an account. At first, I didn’t see what all the hype was about. On Facebook, I would post things and get responses, but on Twitter, I rarely ever got responses for things I would post, and I hated that. I wanted to be able to engage in conversations with others on topics that I “tweeted” about, and I couldn’t figure out why, if my tweets were going out to the whole Twitter universe, nobody was bothering to respond. So, I abandoned Twitter for awhile and just stuck with Facebook. However, I soon began to wonder if there was another way I might be able to use Twitter, and I decided to try an experiment in a class I was teaching this past summer. I teach statistics, and I asked my students to sign up for Twitter accounts and to tweet about things they were finding in the news related to statistics. My students really got into this, and I found this to be a great way for ME to communicate with my students outside of class about neat things I too was finding in the news (things I might not have the time to discuss in class). I’m going to continue doing this, and I hope this will become a regular part of future classes I teach. The moral of my story is that I had to change my expectations about Twitter. I went into it thinking it was going to be just like Facebook, but it’s clearly not, and I now realize that is okay.

]]> By: Virtually Scholastic http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/2009/08/twitter-vs-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-3177 Virtually Scholastic Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:02:33 +0000 http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/?p=885#comment-3177 Breaking news! Facebook @mentions - status tagging: http://mashable.com/2009/09/14/facebook-status-tagging-live/ Breaking news! Facebook @mentions – status tagging: http://mashable.com/2009/09/14/facebook-status-tagging-live/

]]> By: Les http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/2009/08/twitter-vs-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-2978 Les Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:10:39 +0000 http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/?p=885#comment-2978 Well I am sorry that I did not reply to your post on FC. This is an interesting point and a question I find personally relevant. I Tweet more than use Facebook but my Tweets do get relayed onto Facebook. My preference for Tweets is really that I have tweetdeck and so it is on as I sit and try to get enthusiastic about writing my ECA. I enjoy hearing the snippets about peoples lives without all the games and invitations to send Karma etc that I encounter on FB. You might argue that this is not relevant but it interferes with the stream on consciosnesses that I enjoy on Twitter. Thanks for this interesting discussion, I nearly chose Twitter and Facebook as my two technologies however have elected to do Twitter and Forums. On e of the main strands for this will be a contrast of the potential development of online personality and I think that Twitter and FB both allow this. Well I am sorry that I did not reply to your post on FC. This is an interesting point and a question I find personally relevant. I Tweet more than use Facebook but my Tweets do get relayed onto Facebook. My preference for Tweets is really that I have tweetdeck and so it is on as I sit and try to get enthusiastic about writing my ECA. I enjoy hearing the snippets about peoples lives without all the games and invitations to send Karma etc that I encounter on FB. You might argue that this is not relevant but it interferes with the stream on consciosnesses that I enjoy on Twitter. Thanks for this interesting discussion, I nearly chose Twitter and Facebook as my two technologies however have elected to do Twitter and Forums. On e of the main strands for this will be a contrast of the potential development of online personality and I think that Twitter and FB both allow this.

]]> By: Michelle Everson http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/2009/08/twitter-vs-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-2767 Michelle Everson Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:22:56 +0000 http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/?p=885#comment-2767 I think when I do this again in the fall, I will try to gather more information from my students about what they liked (or didn't like) about this Twitter "experiment." In the summer, I didn't do that, but I got the sense that several of the students who participated enjoyed it. I was teaching in the classroom this summer, in a computer lab, and sometimes I would arrive early to class or stay late and I would hear students talking about Twitter or I would observe them trying to find things to "tweet" about. I loved that! One student told me that this exercise made him a lot more aware of what he was seeing and hearing in the news, and he said he would like to try something like this in a class he would be teaching in the fall. I'm sure some students did perceive this as just one more thing I wanted them to do, and because I didn't want to force anyone to sign up for Twitter who was not comfortable, I did not force this onto my students. Instead, it was an extra credit opportunity, and I gave students one point for each of their "tweets" (provided they included a link to the source they were tweeting about and a short description or critique of this source). Students could earn up to five extra points for tweeting five different things. I did try to encourage the students to read what others were posting, but I did not give credit for that, and I think only a handful of students may have done this (given that only a few students took the time to reply to anything tweeted by me or a classmate). If you are interested in seeing what we did and you are on Twitter, just type #epsy5261 in as a search term to get everything related to my "experiment." I do have to admit that I did this in a graduate-level course, and I'm not quite sure if it would work the same way with undergrads. I would hope that maybe MORE of the undergrads would familiar with social networking and would be intrigued by something like this, but I've heard that not as many "younger people" are Twittering (http://mashable.com/2009/08/05/teens-dont-tweet/), so maybe it would be more challenging to get the undergrads on board with something like this. Plus, I really think if you are going to use something like Twitter, you need to "sell" your students on what the benefits might be for them to use it. I tried to tie it to one of the learning goals of the class--to help students become more statistically literate and to be more critical consumers of statistics in the news and media--and I feel this also meshed well with one goal of Twitter--to get information out to the masses. If I were merely asking my students to "tweet" and tell me what they were doing to prepare for class, or what they thought about the class, I don't know that it would have been perceived as anything more than busy work. I think when I do this again in the fall, I will try to gather more information from my students about what they liked (or didn’t like) about this Twitter “experiment.” In the summer, I didn’t do that, but I got the sense that several of the students who participated enjoyed it. I was teaching in the classroom this summer, in a computer lab, and sometimes I would arrive early to class or stay late and I would hear students talking about Twitter or I would observe them trying to find things to “tweet” about. I loved that! One student told me that this exercise made him a lot more aware of what he was seeing and hearing in the news, and he said he would like to try something like this in a class he would be teaching in the fall. I’m sure some students did perceive this as just one more thing I wanted them to do, and because I didn’t want to force anyone to sign up for Twitter who was not comfortable, I did not force this onto my students. Instead, it was an extra credit opportunity, and I gave students one point for each of their “tweets” (provided they included a link to the source they were tweeting about and a short description or critique of this source). Students could earn up to five extra points for tweeting five different things. I did try to encourage the students to read what others were posting, but I did not give credit for that, and I think only a handful of students may have done this (given that only a few students took the time to reply to anything tweeted by me or a classmate). If you are interested in seeing what we did and you are on Twitter, just type #epsy5261 in as a search term to get everything related to my “experiment.” I do have to admit that I did this in a graduate-level course, and I’m not quite sure if it would work the same way with undergrads. I would hope that maybe MORE of the undergrads would familiar with social networking and would be intrigued by something like this, but I’ve heard that not as many “younger people” are Twittering (http://mashable.com/2009/08/05/teens-dont-tweet/), so maybe it would be more challenging to get the undergrads on board with something like this. Plus, I really think if you are going to use something like Twitter, you need to “sell” your students on what the benefits might be for them to use it. I tried to tie it to one of the learning goals of the class–to help students become more statistically literate and to be more critical consumers of statistics in the news and media–and I feel this also meshed well with one goal of Twitter–to get information out to the masses. If I were merely asking my students to “tweet” and tell me what they were doing to prepare for class, or what they thought about the class, I don’t know that it would have been perceived as anything more than busy work.

]]> By: Virtually Scholastic http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/2009/08/twitter-vs-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-2764 Virtually Scholastic Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:03:03 +0000 http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/?p=885#comment-2764 Hi Michelle, Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I wonder if you could ellaborate (or ask your students to contribute to this discussion) on what benefits the group derived from sharing resources on Twitter. The reason I ask is because (as I mention above), this year we've been encouraged to engage in Twitter as a class, and I chose not to sign up for an account. I'm normally one of the first to try out a new technology, but in this context, I wondered whether more information would add any significant value to my learning experience. I already see that, due to time restrictions and course work requirements, I partially embark on so many research tangents that are of interest to me only to have to abandon them mid-stream. The prospect of getting fed with even more links and stories and interesting ideas just felt a bit much. Do you think the use of Twitter in a learning context would be more or less beneficial for undergraduates vs. masters and PhD students? Hi Michelle,

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I wonder if you could ellaborate (or ask your students to contribute to this discussion) on what benefits the group derived from sharing resources on Twitter. The reason I ask is because (as I mention above), this year we’ve been encouraged to engage in Twitter as a class, and I chose not to sign up for an account. I’m normally one of the first to try out a new technology, but in this context, I wondered whether more information would add any significant value to my learning experience. I already see that, due to time restrictions and course work requirements, I partially embark on so many research tangents that are of interest to me only to have to abandon them mid-stream. The prospect of getting fed with even more links and stories and interesting ideas just felt a bit much. Do you think the use of Twitter in a learning context would be more or less beneficial for undergraduates vs. masters and PhD students?

]]> By: Michelle Everson http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/2009/08/twitter-vs-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-2762 Michelle Everson Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:28:03 +0000 http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com/?p=885#comment-2762 I felt I had to reply to this because not too long ago, I found myself asking the same questions! I love Facebook and use it all the time, and my husband, who is a big Twitter fan, thought I might enjoy Twitter as well so he signed me up for an account. At first, I didn't see what all the hype was about. On Facebook, I would post things and get responses, but on Twitter, I rarely ever got responses for things I would post, and I hated that. I wanted to be able to engage in conversations with others on topics that I "tweeted" about, and I couldn't figure out why, if my tweets were going out to the whole Twitter universe, nobody was bothering to respond. So, I abandoned Twitter for awhile and just stuck with Facebook. However, I soon began to wonder if there was another way I might be able to use Twitter, and I decided to try an experiment in a class I was teaching this past summer. I teach statistics, and I asked my students to sign up for Twitter accounts and to tweet about things they were finding in the news related to statistics. My students really got into this, and I found this to be a great way for ME to communicate with my students outside of class about neat things I too was finding in the news (things I might not have the time to discuss in class). I'm going to continue doing this, and I hope this will become a regular part of future classes I teach. The moral of my story is that I had to change my expectations about Twitter. I went into it thinking it was going to be just like Facebook, but it's clearly not, and I now realize that is okay. I felt I had to reply to this because not too long ago, I found myself asking the same questions! I love Facebook and use it all the time, and my husband, who is a big Twitter fan, thought I might enjoy Twitter as well so he signed me up for an account. At first, I didn’t see what all the hype was about. On Facebook, I would post things and get responses, but on Twitter, I rarely ever got responses for things I would post, and I hated that. I wanted to be able to engage in conversations with others on topics that I “tweeted” about, and I couldn’t figure out why, if my tweets were going out to the whole Twitter universe, nobody was bothering to respond. So, I abandoned Twitter for awhile and just stuck with Facebook. However, I soon began to wonder if there was another way I might be able to use Twitter, and I decided to try an experiment in a class I was teaching this past summer. I teach statistics, and I asked my students to sign up for Twitter accounts and to tweet about things they were finding in the news related to statistics. My students really got into this, and I found this to be a great way for ME to communicate with my students outside of class about neat things I too was finding in the news (things I might not have the time to discuss in class). I’m going to continue doing this, and I hope this will become a regular part of future classes I teach. The moral of my story is that I had to change my expectations about Twitter. I went into it thinking it was going to be just like Facebook, but it’s clearly not, and I now realize that is okay.

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