Information Overload!!!!!!!

This week, my Organizational Communication class took place on Twitter. At first, I thought this was a very cool idea, still think it is actually, but it didn't go how I imagined it.


We were suppose to log on at 11 am, class time and participate in a discussion using the hashtag #orgcomm.
So a class of students ALL AT ONCE, began posting their views on whatever topic we were discussing.


Now, remember the old school "chat room" ?? Picture that on steroids! CHAOS!


Because Twitter is pretty much happening in real time, as someone thought of something, they tweeted it, and of course it got confusing, because at one point I didn't know what we were discussing :S


Yes! the aim of the class, was to use a contemporary method of communication to post thoughts in a discussion, so we could see how quickly information travels, as well as see how many people it reaches.


Very innovative idea, but the downfall of this Twitter experience I believe, was a sense of order. Everyone tweeted like 5 things within the space of 2 seconds; many people in the class weren't on the same page. Trying to follow everyone's tweets, reply to them, and at the same time dig through the masses of your classmates' tweets to make sure you catch what your lecturer was tweeting, was a very tedious task, I prefer sitting in a lecture room to be honest, at least there is some form of order, keyword SOME lol.


Also, what I took from the experience was that, fast paced technology such as Twitter, leaves little room for correction. Meaning, you can get so caught up in the discussion, and tweet things totally unrelated, and WHOOPS! too late! once you post that tweet, you can't take it back. 
It doesn't really give you a chance to think through your thoughts properly to produce a well formulated answer, like for example, in a forum. You are trying to keep up with the discussion, because you don't want to get left behind. It was pretty hard to handle.


I think probably one or two of my classmates probably got fed up and stopped tweeting, because they thought "whats the point?" But maybe that was part of the lesson, maybe not all situations are fit for all the new technology media, like Twitter.


I mean, if you want to have a conversation with one or two people, or just post your thoughts as they come, just for the sake of it, then yeah Twitter is amazing!


However, as far as conducting a class on Twitter? I think that's a no no! 


Personally I think a forum would be more effective.