New media is definitely visible in the classroom nowadays. Instead of textbooks, people now use e-readers such as Nooks and Kindles. Classroom discussion has also changed now as students use Twitter and college community sites like Blackboard. Twitter can be considered a lot more convenient than a Blackboard discussion. Students are able to just log into their Twitter account and "retweet" about people's discussion with a simple "@" symbol. With Blackboard on the other hand, the student would have to log into the CUNY website, go into the Blackboard portal, search for your class section, go to the discussion page and then respond to a classmate's discussion.
However, Twitter limits the amount of information you are able to talk about. Tweets are limited to a certain amount of characters, whereas Blackboard discussions allow a person to fully express their ideas and opinions. Also, With Blackboard discussions, we are able to see who the poster is instead of an alias. Therefore, there are pros and cons with using Twitter as opposed to Blackboard for discussions.
Twitter, as opposed to in class discussions, lack spontaneity. With in class discussions, the students are unaware of the topic of discussion before hand and must think about it on the spot. With Twitter, students are able to research the topic and organize their thoughts before they post. This does not prepare the student for the real world as many things in life are spontaneous and requires people to quickly think on the spot. However, Twitter does help people who are shy and not outspoken as they are able to contribute to these class discussion with some sort of anonymity.
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