In my course, we’ve been asked to reflect on posts by George Couros and Wes Fryer having to do with the usefulness of Twitter.
I was glad to read these, because both of them address concerns I have had myself about using Twitter and other social media platforms. But both authors make the point that that power and the possibilities for good far outweigh those concerns.
I myself cannot say that I am at the point where I have made close friends out of strangers on Twitter , but I feel acquainted with so many educators whom am I never met or only see infrequently. And the wealth of ideas and resources I’ve gained through Twitter are invaluable.
As Couros points out, there is no shortage of self-promotion on Twitter, but I find it fairly easy to cull through tweets to find the quality posts. It’s also interesting that he mentions his earlier dislike of Twitter chats. I have never loved reading the tweet that begin with “A4”. I guess it’s partly feeling that I’m eavesdropping on a conversation that I’m not part of. But I also think it’s hard to engage in real time via writing. That may just be me being old, but I find it stressful to try to keep up. It’s a good thing that my class is involved in a Twitter chat as I write, since it’s giving me a chance to re-evaluate that.
Fryer makes the case that with such important problems to solve, we cannot give up on the very tools that give individuals the power to collaborate and effect change. It is hard not to feel disheartened with all the news about how social media platforms are abused and manipulated, but — with the right level of awareness and caution — it is hard to argue that we should give up on such effective trolls.
One of my classmates has made the point that our students do not all have the skills they need to navigate online discussions. We need to be serious about our duty as educators to help them with this. And the more we use the tools ourselves, the better equipped we are to do so.
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