How does a Twitter discussion compare to a BlackBoard Discussion? To an in-class discussion?
A Twitter discussion has its positives and negatives when compared to a BlackBoard discussion. Since Blackboard is essentially an online forum, it is very easy to separate and group each topic and read each reply. Using Twitter the only way to do this is to separate by hashtags, and then scroll through a list of tweets and replies that you may not know what they pertain to. In this case Blackboard is more effective. Also the fact that Twitter limits you to 140 characters could be a positive or negative. For one it could help users get there point across in a more concise way but most times it forces tweets to be shortened and less detailed. Twitter however is a better way of communicating with people, since you can directly message and tweet at each person.
Twitter compared to an in class discussion is a completely different experience. In an in-class discussion, you can engage with other classmates and the teacher, and be able to get your point across in a better fashion. Using 140 characters is sometimes hard to tell people how you really feel on a certain subject. Also, an in-class discussion is more personal and you can get a sense of how people think and feel on the subject matter. The only upside of using Twitter is that everything is stored online, if you would like to go back and review what others have said.
Overall while Twitter is very effective in communicating it does not compare to a real in class discussion, and may be slightly less organized than using a regular forum page /email like Blackboard.
Yeah I agree that Twitter has its drawbacks when compared to blackboard and in-class discussion. The real problem is organization, because ultimately though you are limited to 140 characters you can just tediously create more tweets. The organization of blackboard (that of a forum) definitely does help effectively separate and group different topics. As for in-class discussions, I agree that being able to convey your thoughts personally is more effective and makes for a more proactive and engagement discussion.
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