I wanted to share my interactions with classmates on where I was least succesful to most succesful to end on a high note. To begin with Discord, then Twitter, then my blog.
Discord
I am very new to all the platforms we used this term so I didn’t feel confident in answering many questions. I found most questions everyone else was asking I was wondering as well.
I was able to help my partner out for the cybersleuthing project and explain the assignment a little.
I asked a fair share of questions this term since I am not tech savy and everyone was very very helpful. My classmates made it a very safe space with zero judgement for the questions I was asking. I always ensured I acknowledged the help they offered.
I did struggle with a tech aspect of discord that challenged me a little. I try to disconnect from my laptop as much as possible on weekends to have a good school balance. The problem is I could not get Discord on my phone due to tech issues. Then when I would log on to discord on Monday many questions were always answered already.
My Favourite Tweets
I created my Twitter account in September for this year. I have never used Twitter before so this was very new. At first I was lost about what to tweet about but slowly through seeing my classmates tweets and talking with some I found what to look for. I am a math major and could talk about math all day so evidently most of my tweets were about math techniques, activities, and statements.
I really enjoyed focusing on math tweets because It was relevant to me. As well, often math is a very disliked subject by most students because it can be very challenging. I found many tweets that focused on positive words that were encouraging.
In the photo to the left it shows a high school class learning the unit circle outside. I really liked this because I want to teach high school calculus one day. When I was in calculus in high school every day was sitting in a desk for an hour taking notes the whole time. High school students are often forgotten about when it comes to fun ways to learn.
Following Classmates Journey
The main focus of the posts I was searching for was math posts. But, I also used my Twitter to follow along with classmates in their learning project and those who are teachers already in there classroom.
I really enjoyed replying to my classmates who are teachers already about there tweets that include what they did in the classroom. It was cool to see what they were doing and look forward to what I will hopefully get to do in the future.
Many of us in the class this term used our Twitter accounts to promote our blogs. I took this as an opportunity to 1. Do this myself and 2. Interact with my classmates about their projects.
I liked to comment on my classmates comments about there learning project on Twitter as well on there blog posts itself because on Twitter it felt more like a conversation than an assigned blog post.
I used my Twitter account to promote my blog posts because I was hoping to reach people that are not in the class. I would give a little snippet of the blog post and link it in the Tweet. I don’t think I ever did reach other people but I still think it was good to do this. I enjoyed when other people promoted their blogs because if I was scrolling on my Twitter I would come across it and could read their posts all the time rather then when I sat down to intentionally read some blogs and make comments.
Twitter Chats
I planned to participate in the #SaskEdChat from week one but I had a small thing in the way. The #SaskEdChat takes place every Thursday at 8 pm and unfortunately I work every Thursday evening. In week one I had tweeted that I was going to participate hoping I would get off work early enough. I didn’t get off and missed the whole thing. Someone tweeted to me to “speak up and don’t be shy.” This terrified me!
My plan was to attend and watch but I learned that wasn’t much of an option. I got very scared from this! Since I could not attend the chat live I would read the questions and replies every week. However, I got very discouraged week one to tweet because it was clear people read these chats and paid close attention to what is being tweeted in the chat. It was not until late in the term that I got the courage to answer some questions after the #SaskEdChat had already happened.
Interactive Tweets
I tried to post tweets that gave my classmates a chance to interact with. I posed questions or statements that may generate a discussion. Some of them definitely did!
When I did get responses to my posts like these I tried to respond as a thank you to those who commented in the first place.
These are all the ways I tried to make the most out of my Twitter account this term.
Blog Posts
I think I did a really good job this term when it came to interacting with classmates on our blogs. I made sure to comment every week on multiple blogs. At the beginning of the term I would schedule time to do this as I do with all my homework but as the term went on I found myself reading blogs while I was waiting for my classes to begin because I enjoyed it. I found that in peoples blog posts there was so much content that there were perfect opportunities to ask questions or asking questions.
During the week of coding I was able to offer some advice/ answer a question a classmate was asking in there post.
These are some of the comments and interactions I had over the blog platform this term! I commented on multiple blogs every week. I probably made around 50 comments on blogs since September!