This random thought came about as we were playing with IFTTT to get our blogs running, I noticed the stream of tweets which merely shared something relating to technology and wondered if we were all falling into a trap of just posting to twitter so that it was shared, but without any real reason or in-depth thought about what we were sharing? This is pertinent to me as I blog and vlog and to me, it’s important to give thought to the content you share, have a purpose that the content aims to achieve rather than just a constant stream of randomness which could be perceived as digital muttering.
@c4miller Also the influence of lifestream. Posting for the sake of posting rather than coz we have something valuable to share. #mscedc
— Eli’s inane rambling (@Eli_App_D) January 13, 2017
Eli, you raise a great point here. I think part of the tension is linked with getting going, both emotionally and technically. For me, the only IFTTT feed I got going and could manipulate at the start was the Twitter feed – thus Twitter became the only entry-flow for the Lifestream I could access. Now, at least, I’ve got one or two more working. I wonder if we’ll see things settling down, Twitter-wise, over coming days. Hard to know; interesting to watch.
Go well! Matthew
I’ve been thinking about this point too, Eli. Perhaps it was just setting up – certainly I know I posted just to check if IFTTT was working as I’d intended it to.. and then again (& again) because I had not gotten IFTTT right. But then..
Q: Do you think that the requirement to post (as part of assessment) & ‘feed’ the lifestream changes the nature of engagement? (i.e. posting for the sake of it?)
Though talking about assessed forum contributions, Ke (2010) suggested that forced participation can lead to superficial, grade-driven interaction. Others (see Gourlay, 2015; McFarlane, 2015) have questioned the validity of focusing on and assessing observable, performative behaviours within social constructivist approaches, since this privileges a particular way of learning/demonstrating learning. It’s an area I spend a lot of time thinking about as a teacher, so interested to know your thoughts.
Hey Renee,
Yup I think that’s correct. I think the requirement of the lifestream blog has the potential to change behaviours and I know I have seen it in myself. I wouldn’t usually post to twitter so much but I’m forcing myself to for the sake of the course. Hopefully, things will calm down as we all get to grips with what’s expected of us.
With assessed participation, yep absolutely, I’m watching colleagues on other courses where participation is part of the mark and they are all grumbling about having to write “something” in the forums even though they have nothing to say.
I understand why we would have marks for participation, but I think by doing that we also force some learners to behave in ways they wouldn’t normally when learning?
I have also been watching the community building for our course and I think that because we don’t have a discussion forum, we were trying to form bonds on twitter with its woeful character count. I guess it will be interesting to watch as things progress and see what happens 🙂