How do you achieve discussions on an online course setting? There are many ways and many web services available to establish this type of online interaction. There are two types of telecommunications technology specifically design for online conversations, blogs and wikis.
A blog is a kind of website where you can write about something and post it on the web for others to see. Readers can then leave a comment or opinions on your written topic. Twitter is a type of a mini blog because it limits the user to a 140 character post. Twitter will permit
you to receive messages via computer (when you are logged on to your Twitter account) or your cell phone (when you set your Twitter account to send you alerts through your SMS).
Twitters can be set to private so only those you authorize can have access. If your cell phone is set-up to receive alerts, you do not have to be logged on to your Twitter account to check your messages. Twitter would be useful if you have quick questions because of its character limitations. Because many of those who take online classes sometimes do not have time for lengthy discussions, Twitter is ideal because it forces you to have short and straight to the point conversations.
The immediacy of feedback makes Twitter rich in media and social presence (Dennis & Kinney, 1998). It can be both asynchronous and synchronous. Twitter can be asynchronous because the author and the reader do not have be interacting simultaneously. Twitter can be synchronous when both are logged in, similar to instant messaging.
Wiki is a derived from an Hawaiian term wiki wiki is translated as “to hurry”. Similar to a blog, wiki is a type of a web site. Wikis also have the functionality of it being set to private so only certain users have access. Wikis are more open and flexible because characters can be more than 140 and contents / posts are editable for anyone who has access; however, it does not have the capability of the messages being sent via cell phone.
Wikis would be useful when you want others to review your paper or other documents. The good thing about wikis is it keeps track of the updates and allows you to go back to the previous version. Wiki pages can include texts, images and links which increases richness of the media. Social presence is also increased because of the amount of interaction between the users.
After comparing these two very different technologies (Twitter and wiki) to use as a means for online discussions in education, I found that they can be both very useful in different ways. Twitter can be used for a quick question and answer tool. While on the other hand, wikis are more suitable for longer and complicated discussions. All and all both technologies can accomplish the task of having discussions online.
References
Dennis, A. R., & Kinney, S. T. (1998). Testing media richness theory in the new media: The effects of cues, feedback, and task equivocality. Information Systems Research, 9(3).
Grace I have been a Twitter user for about a year now and have only really gotten into it in the past three months or so. I love the immediacy of twitter and the social presence which it establishes. I learned of the WAMU bank failure on Twitter and kept those who follow me abreast of the LA earthquake that we had via Twitter. Follow me on Twitter as xxldaddyo
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