Assignment Overview and Specifics
Blogging is when people publish their ideas for a (mostly) unknown audience in posts of any length. Micro-blogging is when people publish their ideas in a much shorter format. The Twitter tweet (the name of each post) is 140 characters long. Just as with blogging, one cannot fully grasp the medium without engaging with it. So, we are going to engage it over the course of this module and 1 week into the next. Each student will:
- create a Twitter account that is not anonymous (just as with Facebook, Twitter values authenticity; you will not gain followers and people will not let you follow them without authenticity)
- create a professional bio (be sure to create your Bio *before* you start following people)
- Make sure your account is public; making it private will result in significantly fewer followers
- add a link to your web site or to the class Tumblr blog
- add a photo of yourself or something that you feel represents you in some way; the photos/images can be fun
- follow everyone in the class, @billwolff, @rowanuniversity, and former Writing Arts professor @christateston:
- @darantonelli, @christenjanine, @dmriker, @eyuengel, @__tigers, @TamikkaMalloy, @tomwinkelspecht, @KristinTangel; @kelpeterson; @meggmccourt; @kathydoc1121; @mn787, @parise_laura, @robbjo09
- begin following former and current Rowan students outside of class, such as: @allieharch, @ivkowalenko, @lichborne, @KtFitz, @sam_or_i, @minustheLIONS, @jesslandolfi, @witchslinger, @nahid71, @jlopez889
- begin following people in your professional field and who share personal interests; Twitter, as you will see, allows for and encourages both. To help fine people, use: Twitter Search, Listorious, Google, and by seeing who people follow. You can also check out these two posts: Top 100 Edu Tweeters and 100 Professors You Should Follow and Learn from on Twitter. There is no required number of people to follow, but if you are using Twitter effectively, by the end of the module I suspect you will be following upwards of 75 people (or a 75 more than you currently follow).
- post at least 3 times per day until the end of the semester—all posts even somewhat relating to class should include the #wecf11 hashtag
- tweet an announcement of each of your Tumblr blog posts including the link to it and #tfwf11 hashtag; when tweeting be sure to use a URL shortener, such as http://j.mp. I suggest the following accepted format: New blog post: “add post title” include URL to the post #tfwf11 Comments welcome!
- I encourage you to experiment with one of the many Twitter desktop and mobile apps, which are overwhelmingly useful for organizing and posting Tweets. Plus, Twitter was designed with mobility in mind. If you’re not tweeting from your phone, you’re missing quite a bit of what Twitter is all about.