I set up my first Twitter account in January 2012 at Cannexus, an annual national career counselling conference.Why?
I wondered what value Twitter could be in assisting career planners and job seekers. I was also curious about what all the fuss was about regarding Twitter. Why would anyone want to Tweet 140 characters? Why would anyone want to pay attention? How could this tool be useful. How was it being used?
My first look revealed that some people were Tweeting about "nothingness" that seemed totally irrelevant, at least to me One person would say, "I am in the airport right now on my way to the conference". Two hours later, they would say, "I have arrived at the conference" Three hours later, they would say, "I am here now." Did I really need to hear a hour by hour breakdown of the lives of people I didn't even know. Others seemed to be using Twitter just to promote themselves or their businesses. I have enough exposure to advertisements every day. I certainly didn't need more unwanted ads.
I soon discovered, however, that there were some useful benefits. "What?" you might ask. Well, the live feed of Twitter Tweets that scrolled across conference projectors (or on my phone) was interesting. It provided a snapshot about what my fellow conference participants were thinking about during workshops other than the ones I was attending. It was also interesting to see what others were finding relevant at the sessions I was attending. Importantly, my own Tweets served as a useful record for me to keep track of several short key highlights that I wished to reflect upon and follow up on. Can't a paper notebook do that? Of course, but I don't take my notebook everywhere with me. I do take my smartphone. This means I have access to my Tweets wherever I am. I was surprised to learn that I actually ended up referring back to my Tweets when talking to others several months after the conference, as my Tweets contained conference details I couldn't pass along without this mnemonic.
During the conference, I also learned about the use of hashtags "#" and how Twitter users could search for topics of interest such as new job postings and job forums. I discovered how job seekers and career planners could use Twitter to keep on top of current trends and connect with people who shared similar interests in their career field. Twitter was even being used by organizations as a way to evaluate potential job candidates. One executive director said, if job candidates had decided to follow him on Twitter before their job interview, he was more inclined to favour these candidates; this Executive Director felt that such job applicants were being more proactive and took a more active interest in the news of his organization. He also inspected their Tweets to get an pre-interview impression of the job applicants. Interesting! It seems that more employers are using Twitter to post jobs as well as to evaluate job candidates.
After the conference, my account lay dormant...until now.
In the first class of EDUC 5860, a York University course about digital issues in higher education, we were asked to start using Twitter. My first reaction was, "What the Tweet!" What use could Twitter possibly be in a graduate education class? My second reaction was, "Oh no, what is my Twitter account name and where did I put the password?" One thing I hate about digital technology is the number of login names and passwords we have to remember. Of course, I wouldn't have taken this course if I didn't want to know more about how to use social media and other technological tools for teaching and learning, so I was excited to find out more about how Twitter might be put to good use. I soon learned there were many potential valuable uses.
First, it was helpful to learn about the most recent research being discussed at the 2012 American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference being held in British Columbia. Since our professor, Ron Owston, was going to be at the AERA conference, and therefore couldn't be in class, we were asked to search for #AERA, to find out more about what the conference participants were Tweeting about. Through the Twitter feed, I was able to learn not just about how people were reacting to the conference sessions, but also about new interesting website links that led to further up-to-date news and relevant information. Some of the people Tweeting also had interesting past Tweets I could explore. Some of these Tweeters shared research interests similar to mine and thus were potential useful contacts for future projects. I discovered many people who shared similar passions to mine, people I might not have had such easy access to if it hadn't have been for Twitter.
We were also instructed to post questions on Twitter to certain forums such as #edchat and #elearning to see if anyone would respond. Although I did not get a response to my questions from those in these forums, I did get a response from a classmate on Twitter. Thank you Michael! I also got to learn more about the personality and interests of my peers through their Tweets. Twitter created a different forum to interact with classmates.
Yes, perhaps online Tweeting is not the same as face-to-face connection. Nevertheless, it does offer another vehicle to connect with people on a different level. Different is not necessarily bad. Moreover, I can see how online interactions have potential to lead to richer face-to-face connections, should one desire to further the interactions in-person.
Ron also taught us how to use https://bitly.com/ in conjunction with Twitter. Thanks Ron! When you only have 140 characters, you don't want to waste this limited space with a long website address. Bitly takes long web addresses and shortens them so you have more space within your Tweet to say something meaningful.
I am also finding Twitter a useful vehicle to learn about what others in the class are doing and thinking and how they are reacting to topics and posts. Yes, there are many other ways to facilitate classroom interaction, but somehow 140 characters forces people to be concise (unlike this blog). I have been amazed just how much valuable information can be gleaned from 140 characters.
In conclusion, I am only beginning to learn how Twitter can be useful in education, career planning, and job search, but I am now much more optimistic than before that there actually is value in Tweeting.
What do you think? Can Tweeting actually be useful and educational? Please use the comment section to tell us more about what you have learned from using Twitter.
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