Introduction
The university community has different people in its setting. Community here comprises of students, faculty and other staff. In extension, the university also comprises the management boards who are not necessarily fulltime university employees and the students’ parents. All these play an important role in the functioning of the community. The community influences the neighbors and the city at large in terms of business and other areas.
The university is a large community and with today’s technology, the use of social media is highly utilized. Starting with the university as an institution to the individual members within. The institution can use social in commercials and other communication notices. The individuals in this setting too can use social media in varied reasons.
One of the common types of social media networks is twitter. It is considered a bit more professional than Facebook. This is despite the fact that twitter is a social network platform and was not designed for any professional purpose
Twitter as a social media platform uses the web application and enables people to share ideas and information within its network (Lalonde, 2011). The information will include news updates, funny videos, create events, and make announcements and other status updates. Twitter only allows updates up to a maximum of 140 characters. It also allows users to exchange private messages.
Literature Review
According to McNeil (2009) Twitter as a social network allows users to send and receive short messages. The message characters are limited to 140. He further stated that it is part microblogging and part social network. Therefore, in other words, it combines the two and it can be accessed by anybody free of charge. Researchers have been looking into ways in which social networks can be used positively in different areas. Most recently, Costa and Reinhardt examined how twitter can be used in a classroom setting. In their research, they also looked at how twitter could be used in research as a data collection tool. Stieger and Burger (2010) also examined how twitter can be used in a classroom setting to provide a real time sharing of information. This could be done through conferencing and conversations.
Through this conversation by the aforementioned researchers, there is a common understanding that social media can be used to the benefit of the people. This benefit is not only important in a learning environment but also in the whole community at large. In terms of information sharing, Brookfield (1984) in his research reiterated that a majority of adults would prefer using people around them for the source of information. This confirms the narrative that people learn well through the network of people that they create around them. It is clear that twitter will provide such kind of network for people to learn from each other. Brookfield (1984) further described the relationships that one builds around himself as an informal channel of learning.
Methodology
In order to gain insightful knowledge about the benefits of twitter in my community, I interviewed five people within the university. This included three students, one faculty member and one staff member. The purpose of the interview was to have a firsthand information from their experiences using the social network. In addition, the research sought to know how they have directly benefited from it. The interview was semi-structured. In other words, the researcher used both closed and open-ended questions to allow the respondents to explain their experiences in depth. Throughout the interview, the researcher played a neutral part. In no way did the researcher influence the results.
Benefits of twitter in a university setting
The objective of the paper was to explore the benefits of twitter in a university setting. The five interviews that were conducted revealed the following results plotted in figure 1. The results reported are based on some of the questions that were asked during the interview. For the purposes of this paper, the three benefits that ranked highly are discussed.
Figure 1: Bar graph showing the benefits of twitter and the number of respondents
Networking
During the interview, all the five responds reported that networking was an important benefit of using twitter. Twitter updates will make the user to keep in touch with their friends and family. People share their experiences and other major events. Through this, families and friends feel connected and thus always keep in touch.
Groups of people with common interests also keep in touch by using a twitter handle. They can form a platform to discuss important matters affecting their group. This will give a chance to all the group members to contribute to the topic of discussion without necessarily having to meet face-to-face.
Information
All the respondents reported getting information through twitter as one of its benefits. The local and international mainstream media have all joined social media. All news updates are spread through social networks as twitter, Facebook and the rest. Ordinary people and reporters too give updates in the social media. Political updates from politicians, business updates from businesspersons are also shared. Community events, traffic and weather updates too are posted and shared through twitter.
Research
Twitter provides a wide range for anybody who wants to do a research on anything. Be it a scientific research or researching about a place or a commodity. By posting about a product on twitter, you are likely to get many reviews about that product and can easily make an informed decision.
If you thinking of a vacation somewhere, you can post seeking to get reviews about that place. The hotels around, the security and even restaurants. People will post in your forum giving their own experiences about what they know about the place.
In scientific research, it is easy to sample people using twitter. You can easily post and ask to get a target population. Through the target population, one can sample the required number for interview or survey whichever works for their research.
Conclusion
While this paper examined the benefits of twitter to people within a university setting using a small group of people as a sample, the results are a revelation on the magnitude of the impact of twitter in our communities.
The benefits of twitter as a social network are many and powerful and its impact is something that cannot be ignored. The freedom that comes with twitter to easily create a large following will increase its benefit to the people in that community. This is something that people need to take advantage of and apply it. In addition, twitter is open and therefore all the discussions are open to the community and to the public at large. This will encourage people to collaborate and partner to increase opportunities for learning. It will also encourage active participation from members and open discuss within this forum.
References
Brookfield, S. Self-directed adult learning: A critical paradigm. Adult Education Quarterly 35, 2 (1984), 59-71. doi:10.1177/0001848184035002001
Costa, C., Beham, Guetner, Reinhardt, W., and Sillaots, M. Microblogging in technology enhanced learning: A use-case inspection of PPE summer school 2008. Presented at the European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2008. Retrieved from http://knowcenter.tugraz.at/download_extern/papers/2008_ccosta_microblogging.pdf
Lalonde, C. The Twitter experience: The role of Twitter in the formation and maintenance of personal learning networks. Royal Roads University. Master's Thesis, 2011. Retrieved April 16, 2016, from http://dspace.royalroads.ca/docs/handle/10170/451
McNeil, T. Twitter in Higher Education. Scribd. September 21, 2009. Retrieved April 19, 2016, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/20025500/Twitter-in-Higher-Education
Stieger, S., and Burger, C. Let's go formative: Continuous student ratings with Web 2.0 application Twitter. Cyberpsychology & Behavior: The Impact of the Internet, Multimedia and Virtual Reality on Behavior and Society 13, 2 (April 2010).
