Benefits of Microblogging Activities
What are the benefits of incorporating microblogging activities in an online course?
It allows the students to not just respond from the heart but also from thought. It allows precise answers due to the short number of characters allowed to tweet and retweet.
It also supports a controlled environment due to the securities that can be set up for the pertinant group.
It is a good way to promote clear and concise communication to discuss or apply the course information. It is an excellent way to have students apply what they have learned. It is a good way for the instructor to judge the level of understanding that students have over the course content.
Doni,
You are right. It does allow depth in the answer. You will have to make sure that it is setup correctly and you have expectations in place.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Miriam,
Great points! I think it could take the place of class discussions in the f2f environment as it promotes student engagement with each other.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Some benefits of incorporating microblogging activities in a course outline can be exchanging brief content about specific or general topics such as gathering a hisotry or quick facts, Communicating with Experts in the field always gives student a new angle on verious subjects or Seeing what others think and compare their thoughts about a topic.
Gwendolyn,
Great post. I agree with you that it gives students an area to articulate their knowledge in an organized fashion.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
From what I have seen Micro blogging was used as a networking service that permits a mobile user and different net connected devices to remain up on activities inside a bunch by receiving frequent revealed updates, generally of a hundred and forty characters or less. Text messages are uploaded to a small blogging service like Twitter, Jaiku etc, and then distributed to cluster members. All parties signed within the targeted cluster are instantly notified of the small journal, enabling teams to stay tabs on one another’s activities in real time. A small journal also can be public, with whimsical subscriber’s connection and dropping micro blogs at can.
I can see incorporating microblogging in an online course. Students can use micro blogging as a welfare work to envision what their friend’s are up to, staybconnected for the fun of it,and participating in daily activities like classwork, and studies.
Course leads may also produce micro blogs for committees to stay up on progress of a project assignment.
Another Micro blogging activity could be in an online discussion. It is one among the newest internet applications and may best looked at if you are using a Twitter application like blogging, then micro blogging permits for private publication and spoken language between writers and readers. One distinctive key feature of micro blogging is that the short-and-sweet constraint it poses—the restricted range of characters per entry.
Participants in micro blogging solely get entangled once they desire it. Additionally, micro blogging applications permit users to simply share resources like hyperlinks to web-based transmission, as well as pictures or videos.
The incorporation of microblogging activities can benefit the online learning environment in several ways. As the instructor, using microblogging could be a useful tool in communicating with the students, presenting details and prompts for assignments as well as posting reminders within a private group. It is a great way to familiarize students with networking techniques and give them a hands on experience by including activities that require them to post their own blogs, interact within a private group of classmates and begin to explore outside networks where they can begin to market themselves in a way that may benefit them in their future ventures.
Darcel,
Wow, what a great post. It is a great way to teach what I call "economic use of words" Can students get a point across succinctly. It is a great exercise. It is also a great way to look at vocabulary.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Christine,
Great points. It is a great way to encourage students to use vocabulary in your field. I have used it in that way.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I have to admit that I am somewhat slow in personally becoming familiar with microblogging, but the benefits of incorporating these types of activities into an online course seem to have many benefits including the quick dissemination of information to students regarding assignments, due dates and the like. I like the idea of being able to provide updates on issues relating to course content. I also feel that an important benefit of the 140 character constraint is the student's developing the ability to communicate effectively in a concise and precise manner - a skill highly regarded in the business community. Personally, I feel that being able to relay the information without the use of texting language is even more valuable so that messages are not misinterpreted.
Gloria,
I agree with you. It is a great way to learn to write concisely and precisely. You can show great examples (both good and bad)of professional work communication.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Microblogging makes it easier on the student to be more involved with the discussion. I like that it pushes students to think more concisely on how to get their message across while maintaining the character limit. In a technological society of fast paced lifestyles, microblogging simply opens another avenue in teaching our students, utilizing time frames that may be more conducive to their schedules.
Microblogging can offer the following benefits:
-use familiar media in a classroom format
-utilize outside sources to aid in learning
-assist with curtly expressing ideas
-create a new space between students, instructors and others where topics can be discussed
It's a great way to connect with other individuals who are leaders of industry and glimpse their day-to-day lives.
Microblogging acts as an online notice board. Post your message and everyone in your group gets it. And you could have several groups, one for each of your classes or subjects. The key is that one single message gets delivered to everyone in the group instantly.
While I can come up with generic reasons when this would be appropriate I struggle to see how I would practically incorporate it into a finance or accounting course. Most of the discussions are based off of valuations which need software to compute. This is not to say that these tools cannot be used infrequently for qualitative discussions but these do not occur with the same level of regularity.
Kelly,
I would say the biggest benefit is being able to participate in a classroom via multiple mobile devices in a concise manner. When students and/or instructors are restricted to 140 characters, they must become more creative, and efficient, in stating and defending their point of view.
- Dr. Eileen Wibbeke
Greg,
Great points. I think the important thing is to provide students with expectations and guidance to improve the quality of the student work. It can work!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Candace ,
Great observation. I use it to help with conciseness of writing. Students seem to think more words means better writing and this is a medium that I can use to help combat that myth.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
