Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin

Thursday, November 22, 2012

How Twitter will revolutionise academic research and teaching

Social media is becoming increasingly important in teaching and research work but tutors must remember, it's a conversation not a lecture, says Ernesto Priego           

Ernesto Priego     
   
Guardian Professional
Monday 12 September 2011

n chapter two of Christian Vandendorpe's From Papyrus to Hypertext titled: In the beginning was the ear, Vandendorpe says it took millenia "for literature to free itself from primary orality, albeit not completely". In the beginning all reading was done out loud, and it was not until the 12th century that books were created for silent reading. Orthographic signs and the separation between words had appeared around the 7th century, but did not become common until the 9th century amongst the learned communities of monks. Walter J Ong, in his classic study of writing and orality, Orality and Literacy defines as the "technologizing of the word" the process of developing a new relationship between language and thought.

Something similar is happening today in academia. Just like Augustine marveled, in the year 400, at the sight of Ambrose reading in silence, many members of academia marvel (or react with rejection) at the rapid changes in the production and dissemination of scholarly work and interaction between academics and those "outside" academic institutions. Thousands of scholars and higher education institutions are participating in social media (such as Twitter), as an important aspect of their research and teaching work.

There is still considerable resistance to embracing social media tools for educational purposes, but if you are reading this article you are probably willing to consider their positive effects. New technologies have slow adoption cycles, and often the learning curve is steep. Those already using these tools within academic contexts should not be considered a priori as "the converted"; perception and usage of social media varies wildly, and due to the inherently fluid and malleable nature of the platforms themselves we are still in the process of assessing all their possibilities.

Mobile phones and tablets enable the user in producing content, and to publish and disseminate it online. The microblogging platform Twitter is purposefully designed to exchange information and to facilitate reciprocal communication and attribution, therefore enabling the creation of communities of individuals interested in common topics. But the easy part of tweeting is publishing content; the difficult side is actually committing to active public engagement.

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