I have to say, I’ve never quite understood Twitter, but I also can’t say that I really do now. Perhaps it’s my never-ending struggle with brevity, perhaps its lack of familiarity with the genre, perhaps it’s because I haven’t see in it used for much I would deem “substantial,” I’m not sure what it is. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I found myself needing to research just to complete the class assignment on Twitter (I was, for example, confounded by the notion of a “hashtag conversation.” I had zero idea what one was and even less of an idea of how to “carry one out.”) and was forced to think of my students on multiple levels.On one level, I came across this quote (as I was researching how to carry out a hashtag conversation) that, “While the new generations send text messages at 60 words per minute, the Baby Boomers text at six words per minute on average” and was struck by how students are probably much more familiar with the genre and I could learn much from them. However, I also realized how critical it is to not assume such knowledge on the part of my students. I must provide scaffolding for those with no prior exposure to any given topic at hand; however, I also don’t want to overly bore those that already do know–perhaps this is extra proof for the wonders of having them conduct such “mini-workshops” themselves. Regardless, I feel grateful for this experience at being completely confounded.
However, I wonder how I would have handled this predicament had I not held previous experience problem solving similar issues. How would a student handle such an issue (not necessarily with Twitter) but with a lack of exposure to a field and lack of “problem solving questions, procedures, and solutions?” We truly must teach strategies in addition to content.
#twitterhandle #neverthoughtinamillionyearsidhaveoneofthese
@RKOLeary