Twitter: A Professional Learning Network

Twitter is a news and social networking application, used by people to communicate to their followers through the medium of images, videos, links, or short messages called Tweets.

Anyone aged 13+ can use Twitter to socialise, to follow people or topics of interest, to market a product, or to promote an event. Politicians use Twitter to promote their campaign. Musicians may use it to publicise a tour. Many people use Twitter to increase their knowledge in a particular area or, as an instructional designer I interviewed recently said, as “a professional learning network”.

Twitter allows users to send out short messages called Tweets. Tweets can contain up to 280 characters, which encourages the user to be succinct in their writing. Users can share videos, articles, up to four photos, and even other people’s Tweets (a retweet). Users can follow other people on Twitter and they are able to like or comment on other people’s tweets. Hashtags are often added to Tweets to connect the tweet with a particular topic. It is possible to message people privately on Twitter also. These message are called direct messages or DMs.

Prior to studying my Masters in Technical Communication and E-Learning, I used Twitter infrequently. In terms of personal use, I would search Twitter for things that were trending or to see live news updates, about an election for example. I am also in charge of a Twitter handle for a local theatre company. I use this profile to advertise upcoming productions and share any important theatre-related news.

I now have a third Twitter handle, which I am using as an educational tool. I find it invaluable in helping to keep up to date with trends and practices in the field of instructional design and technical writing. It has enabled me to tap into the experiences of expert instructional designers and to connect with others working in the field, both nationally and internationally. Twitter has encouraged me to seek out informative articles and to find blogs that are beneficial to my assignments.

Potential Benefits of Twitter

• The information on Twitter is ‘hot off the press’, so to speak. You can see live updates and opinions from instructional designers and technical writers.
• Hashtags allow you to search for topics of interest. For example, if you are looking for advice or inspiration on how best to present your e-portfolio, you can search #eportfolio, and the results will show advice, articles, and samples of e-portfolios.
• It enables the user to promote their own work and opinions, and to influence their followers. Users can do this by sharing a blog or article they have written.
• The 280 character limit is one of Twitter’s strong points. It encourages users to get their point across without any waffle. There is a skill to writing a clear, concise, engaging tweet.
• Users can connect with others working in their field and engage in conversation about topics of interest.

Potential Challenges of Twitter

• Although it is easy to search for topics on Twitter, it is not so easy to filter out the noise. Twitter can get overloaded with information and it can be difficult to sieve through it to find relevant material. For example, when searching for #eportfolios, you will get helpful results but they will be mixed in with a lot of tweets that are not relevant to your particular needs.
• Although I favour the character restriction, it can, on occasion, make it very difficult to present your message completely. Users overcome this issue by commenting underneath their original tweet with the rest of their message, but this is not ideal either. Users may not see the follow-up messages and misinterpret the original tweet.

This blog, from edublogger, teaches Twitter novices everything they need to know about Twitter. https://www.theedublogger.com/twitter/

PowerPoint: An Underrated Tool

When I started my Masters in Technical Communication and E-Learning, I expected to learn a lot about various software and digital tools, and I anticipated that my basic skills in Microsoft Office would be irrelevant. I was right about the first but, fortunately, wrong about the second.

This blog post will explore Microsoft PowerPoint, its features, my personal experience with the software and its potential benefits and challenges.

PowerPoint is a presentation software programme that can be used in business or education. It can present information through text, graphics, images, videos, and animations.

PowerPoint enables the user to create slideshows of information. It has many of the same features as Microsoft word. However, PowerPoint sets up your presentation in slides instead of pages.

The user can select a blank slide or use one of PowerPoint’s designs or templates.

Choice of designs from PowerPoint.

Templates to organise text and images.

It is easy to add, delete, copy, or move slides. Just like in Word, the user can add text, upload images, create graphics using the shapes tool, and present data in the form of flow charts or graphs. It is also possible to add videos from your own files or from the internet.

Animations and transitions are features that Word does not have and, if used properly, can add greatly to a presentation.

Animations and effects

I used PowerPoint a lot in my teaching. It is an invaluable resource for teaching vocabulary or new poems in Irish. Teachers are expected to teach Irish without using any English. I endeavoured to abide by this rule as I could see the value in immersing the children in the language. In order to minimise my use of English, I would make the lesson as visual as possible using PowerPoint. I would have images representing the new vocabulary on a number of slides and I would create games in the presentation to help the children to remember the new words.

PowerPoint enhanced the way I taught songs and poetry. I would find images to represent each line in a poem, and present them in the correct order on a PowerPoint presentation with the text underneath the image. I would read the poem to the children and for the most part the visuals would help them to understand the meaning. As the presentation progressed the children would be reading the poem. Further along in the presentation, I would delete words here and there and the children would be able to fill in the blanks as they read the poem. Eventually the text would no longer appear and the children would be able to recite a full poem just by looking at the pictures. PowerPoint would make this achievable in one lesson. See the example below.

I am still using PowerPoint in my MA for storyboarding. As part of a module, we must design a digital resource. I am in the planning phase of this assignment and PowerPoint is allowing me to create a clear overview of my digital resource. I find that I can easily create the same look and feel in all my slides.

In my opinion, the benefits of PowerPoint are the ability to move around slides and to copy and reuse slides. In addition, if the user does not want to move through their presentation in a linear way, they can create hyperlinks from one slide to another one. For example, if there is something mentioned on slide 2 that is further explained on slide 6, a hyperlink can be set up on slide 2 that will send the user to slide 6. Another hyperlink can be added to slide 6 that brings the user back to slide 2. This allows for the design of a more complex presentation.

People often misuse PowerPoint. Instead of using it to present visuals and sum up the main points to support their narrative, users often overload slides with all of the information they are presenting.

I think PowerPoint is an underrated resource and that its full potential is not exploited enough by users.