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New literacies=new readers

I’ve written about ways to embed Twitter into Service studies, Psychology, Personal and Social Education, how to host Twitter chats, and a general post on Twitter for the IBDP student.

Why can’t I stop blogging about Twitter in 2016?

In September last year Twitter published a post which looked at how the US geological survey was using tweet data to track earthquakes. Using a surprisingly uncomplicated process, the USGS had found that by tracking mentions of the term ‘earthquake’, within specific parameters which they’d defined, they could better track seismic activity across the globe than they’d been able to via their previous measurement systems…….Twitter data is being used to track and respond to flood damage in Jakarta, to monitor civil unrest in Egypt, to predict crime in the US. These use cases highlight the societal benefits of Twitter data, beyond just keeping up with cultural trends. Rather than seeing it as a short-form message service mainly populated by Millennials, Twitter is a powerful data engine with wide-reaching benefits.   (full text here)

AND…

Political campaigns worldwide now use bots, software developed to automatically do tasks online, as a means for gaming online polls and artificially inflating social-media traffic. Recent analysis by our research team at Oxford University reveals that more than a third of pro-Trump tweets and nearly a fifth of pro-Clinton tweets between the first and second debates came from automated accounts, which produced more than 1 million tweets in total. This data corroborates recent reports suggesting that both candidates’ social media followings are highly automated. (Full text here)

As a former IBDP Language and Literature teacher, a core component of the course asks us to Examine different forms of communication within the media.  In 2016 it is impossible to leave Twitter outside of that conversation.

So, where are great resources to help us foster twitter literacy in an Ibdp Lang/Lit course?

1. “Make America Tweet Again”

Computer scientists from the University of Utah’s College of Engineering have developed what they call “sentiment analysis” software that can automatically determine how someone feels based on what they write or say. To test out the accuracy of this software’s machine-learning model, the team used it to analyze the individual sentiments of more than 1.6 million (and counting) geo-tagged tweets about the U.S. presidential election over the last five months. A database of these tweets is then examined to determine whether states and their counties are leaning toward the Republicans or Democrats.

2. THIS LIST OF NY TIMES JOURNALIST ON TWITTER

3. “WAR GOES VIRAL”

Social media has empowered isis recruiting, helping the group draw at least 30,000 foreign fighters, from some 100 countries, to the battlefields of Syria and Iraq. It has aided the seeding of new franchises in places ranging from Libya and Afghanistan to Nigeria and Bangladesh. It was the vehicle isis used to declare war on the United States: The execution of the American journalist James Foley was deliberately choreographed for viral distribution. And it is how the group has inspired acts of terror on five continents.

4. Twelve ways twitter has changed our lives

Ten years ago, if someone told you people would be writing articles about hundreds and thousands of people watching a livestream of a puddle, you’d probably think they were making it up. Despite constant calls of “that’s not news”, viral moments have become just that. From #thedress to #thestory, Twitter amplifies these trends to the point they end up in newspapers.

5. #langNlit

The hashtag curates resources on the daily.

@Pontifex is helping me create course content for #LangNLit #Part1 #LanguageandGender @FriedEnglish101 @GMA_IBDP https://t.co/x6dbcopOL8

— Sydney Atkins (@sydneydxb) November 2, 2016

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#LangNLit#language#culture 3 ways to speak English https://t.co/Us1epuSRos via @TEDTalks

— Jane Barrowcliff (@BarrowcliffJane) October 30, 2016

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Yes, and…WHERE ARE GREAT RESOURCES for the ibdp literature teacher?

1. TWITTER FICTION: 21 AUTHORS TRY THEIR HAND AT 140-CHARACTER NOVELS

2. 10 AUTHORS WHO ARE BRILLIANT AT TWITTER

3. THE 31 MOST POPULAR HASHTAGS FOR BOOK LOVERS

Anders Adermark
Connected

Twitter is home to some of my favorite ‘colleagues.’ These are just a sampling of the Lang/Lit teachers I’m proud to follow:

Michelle Lampinen

@MichLampinen

Madeleine Cox

@MadeleineCox1

Sydney Atkins

@sydneydxb

Lindsay Lyon

@Teacherllyon

Aynsley o’carroll

@AynsleyOCarroll

Neshali Weera

@WNeshali

Uzay Ashton

@UzayAshton

Wonder if twitteracy is a thing? unsure as to whether or not twitter will provoke more reading and writing? 

Start here…and consider contacting that amazing list of teachers on Twitter above for a ‘slow chat’ debate.  Maybe we could even host it with students?

Chris
Horizon

All Images Under a CC licence