Using Twitter
After our first class, you should have signed up for a Twitter account and integrated it into our Slack, so that we will be able to find one another easily. When you tweet about the class, you should use a #hashtag (that we decide on together to represent the class) to ensure we're in dialogue with one another.
You might be asking why we're using Twitter. Our goal in using Twitter is, in part, to get you used to communicating as an academic outside the classroom/ outside the university. Also, Twitter allows us to offer evidence of the hard work you're doing in the classroom (and doesn't everyone want to see more pictures of medieval manuscripts?). Thirdly, Twitter allows you to join a larger community of scholars and interested laypeople (as well as potential critics). Twitter thus has the potential to be productive and informative (learning about new people, ideas and resources), interactive (talking with other experts in the field) and fun (doesn't everyone want to create new memes about medieval manuscripts?).
Expectations:
everyone set up a Twitter account and adds all class members to their circle, as well as a few more professionals in manuscripts studies/ DH. These latter follows can be drawn from my existing twitter list.
at minimum students will tweet 2-3 times in weeks 2 and 3 of the course, and then more occasionally thereafter.
students should remember that Twitter is a public forum and thus should show suitably professional decorum
in your work, Twitter might be a key part of your research process. By using Zotero (which the professor can see) or Twitter bookmarks (which the professor cannot), keep track of posts that you find intriguing, thought-provoking or simply amusing. You might want to cite some tweets in your bibliographies, blog posts or in class discussions.
Bring up Tweets in class. If Twitter has given you some information or highlighted some new resource, let other people know in person and post links on Twitter/ Slack.
These guidelines are developed from suggestions made in Joanna Dunlap and Patrick Lowenthal, "Tweeting the night away: Using Twitter to enhance social presence." Journal of Information Systems Education, 20.2 (2009). http://www.patricklowenthal.com/publications/Using_Twitter_to_Enhance_Social_Presence.pdf
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