Twitter Reflection

     When I first learned that we would need to create and actively use a Twitter account for this class, I was not entirely thrilled. While I used to participate more actively on Twitter in high school, I have since become much less involved in social media. The thought of having to force myself to be active on this social media platform once again was unsettling. However, the use of this digital writing environment throughout the semester was able to supplement our experience in the class. Using our course hashtag #ENC4416, we were able to share information with one another relevant to the topics covered in class. As we completed class readings, Twitter allowed us to share resources with one another to help us better grasp the concepts that we were learning. Twitter also allowed us to directly reach out to the authors of these books and ask them questions. Before this medium existed, many of these people would have seemed to be unreachable. With Twitter, speaking with these people is as simple as drafting a text message. One purpose for which we used Twitter in the class was to share articles and stories which were mentioned during discussions. Often times when a classmate would reference something they had seen online during one of our class discussions, myself or another classmate would find what was being referenced and make it available to the rest of the class using our hashtag. This allowed us all to become more involved even after the class discussion had ended. Rather than just hear what a classmate had to say about the article, we could view and experience it for ourselves firsthand. Overall, I would say that the use of Twitter was a beneficial component of the course that supplemented the learning of key concepts and catalyzed class discussions.