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OLT 301

OTL 301-1 social/educational networks in 120 characters or less.

When thinking of recent effective teaching practice, I thought about how my mind has changed with social media format of twitter as a teaching tool. I had been resistant to seeing social media as an educational tool since I have a background in old school media and broadcasting where all content is produced and refined before it hits the literal air waves. Twitter, for me, has become a main go-to source of current happenings like headlines in a newspaper used to be. It was rather revolutionary for me to then shift my thinking when I experienced twitter as an academic platform. Twitter conferences and twitter feeds of historians or other scholars I follow has radically altered my perception and criteria of effective teaching tools.

I have come to realise that limits to text and the inclusion of a single graphic can be a powerful tool as it directs the information in a very focused way. Of course it can be dangerous undertaking too, with the openness of the platform I have found that generally the ideas (from those who post replies) can be a very positive and add to new knowledge and the continue the conversation in all sorts of ways.
In addition, the openness of questioning or help in finding teaching or resources has help build a social/teaching community that we all desparately need during periods of pandemic isolation.

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