information ecology final mnls pdf

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The Contemporary Approach to Information Ecology

Stephanie Coller, Michelle brown, Nachole Carlson, Liz Baroni

Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Rd

New Jersey, United [email protected]

ABSTRACT Microblogging such as the social networking website Twitter is a new recent technology that

affects the way people write and think. In this white paper, we will take a close look at Twitter toelaborate and explain the use of collaboration and writing within microblogging, which aims to

help in the creation of knowledge. For this project, we aim to better understand and update theconstruction of information ecologies. Our findings suggest that Twitter accomplishes the task of

modernizing this eleven year old theory. We yearn to stress how Twitter uses collaborationwithin a network, how it promotes, and how it allows communication as a tool, as well as how it

is changing the definition of writing.

Keywords Microblog : Technology : Information : Ecology : Literacy : Twitter

Introduction Twitter is a social networking site that uses the tool of microblogging because it allows only 140

characters in each post, making a limit on what is typed. These mini blogs on Twitter are called

as tweets. Due to this limit, meaning is essential when creating a desired message. Users can

repost the tweet or reply to them, and anything can be blogged about from new ideas to simple

everyday life occurrences. Twitter now makes it easier to “open up channels for collaboration

and communication between researchers in divergent areas” by the networking system it

contains, therefore making Twitter a large digital ecology [6]. Users depend on Twitter to

microblog, and microblogging depends on its users to work, creating coordination between

unknown minds to another. The use of writing has expanded since the ecology of Twitter has

existed, changing the old ways that people communicate with words because of its character

limit and use of collaboration.



Networking with Collaboration In order to obtain new information by microblogging, the system of networking must collidewith collaboration. Twitter allows the exchanging of ideas to be instant. The information given

through constant tweets is then used to fulfill a purpose. Twitter is like a “virtual water cooler”[7]. It pours out massive information from a large gallon of swimming ecologies full of thriving

Twitter

Microblogging

Personal

Phatic/thin tweets

Do not containuseful information

Social, notexpecting reply,not informative

Professional

Thick tweets

Contain usefulinformation

Promotecollaboration and

ellicitresponses/sharing



networking systems of collaboration. As part of ecology, microblogging depends on its users tofunction which changes writing by causing diversity and evolution of ideas and information. This

in turn, effects how its users think. “Information ecology begins with our own efforts toinfluence the shape and direction of the technologies we use and the settings in which we use

them” [6].

Understanding the Tools of Microblogging Using microblogging on twitter to collaborate allows people to constantly converse in an easy

manner. This becomes especially useful when it comes to gaining or learning importantinformation. This affects how we write by applying the addition of the learned information or

idea in any case of writing. But first, the users of twitter must know how the technology of thewebsite works in order to utilize it to their own extent.

Once a person is knowledgeable in knowing the tools of twitter, they can create meaningthrough their words in which they post or in other words, through interaction. “Technology

literacy is recognition that the tools we find and create in our environment are extensions of ourselves” [8]. In order to complete an objective, it is important to be technologically literate and

to understand a tool beyond its surface. Microblogging is all in one a promotional tool, a learningtool, a socializing tool, etc.

An Education through Microblogging People become more and more educated as they freely gain and give away data even if the goal

is to simply communicate. “The microblogging tool of Twitter was used in an English course for

native speakers of Chinese” [1]. In the class, the students had to tweet each other and other usersto practice and to learn better the English language, making Twitter useful in an academic way.

Because the Chinese students were taught how to use the technology of twitter and make use of its microblogging tool, they gained an education out of it. This exemplifies Enos and Laur’s

assertions according to how the heuristics in the rhetoric of microblogging creates an epistemic process. “The social coherence and social interaction provided in online learning communities

enable the exchange of information, and they further provide part of the motivation for the

learners”[4].

Promoting Information Twitter is a networking website that can be mainly used to promote useful information that

allows others to be attracted in order to succeed in collaborating with fresh ideas. Users such as

bloggers and business companies find microblogging as a good means for promoting and for

communication. One great example is Barack Obama, who used Twitter to promote his

campaign before he became president, and was followed by more than 100,000 people [3].

Microblogging has “become important elements of enterprise collaboration platforms, expanding

the options that employees have for communication and cooperating beyond the traditional tools

like e-mail, shared files and instant messaging”[2]. The importance of the fact that people can

now promote their writing through a microblog is extremely huge because it leads to new

discoveries of writing, language and ideas. The network of Twitter's ecology gives new writing

the option to be read around all over the internet world which can create an impact.



Our Tweets of Research

Our research consisted of our own use of Twitter, and our observations from microblogging andother replying feedback from others within our network. Within our findings, we found that

Twitter remains a great source for collaboration, sharing of ideas, promotion of blogs andinformation. It works as a giant web of network systems that continue to stretch outward, as well

as create and impact writing of all genres. We as a group have used microblogging to collaboratewith each other on this very white paper, and have found successful results.



Our beginning tweets were rather thin. Their messages were to the point anduninteresting. This does not always catch the interest of viewers. The aim is to get them to click

and read our information, then provide feedback and communicate their views. In order to catchthe interest a follower, one must use a combination of phatic and professional

microbloggs/tweets. However, as our knowledge of Twitter increased, our tweets became

stronger. We started to use intriguing quotes to capture the audience our blogs were directed to.We figured out how to hash tag our tweets (categorize them into groups) so those who areinterested in the same areas can maneuver through them easily. This caused us to be successful

in using the social networking device to communicate and collaborate on our projects as well asshare information. We let others know what we’re doing, why we are doing it and accepted

feedback. We put our information out into the technological world like so many have been doingsince Twitter existed. Our research represents development in the users who were once

uneducated in Twitter’s tools. Meanwhile, other knowledgeable Twitter users continue toparticipate in the information ecology microblogging presents and allows.

Christa Teston’s Tweets

Here we propose one other example of a microblogger that uses Twitter to advantage. Professor

Christa Teston, an Intro to Writing Arts professor at Rowan University, has exemplified apartnership developed via twitter. She has collaborated with another professor from a completely

different area to collaborate on a paper. Christa Teston has retweeted information from hercollaborator to communicate and share that information with others that would not have noticed

it before. She uses a good combination of personal and professional tweets which allows her toremain interesting, continue to be followed, and therefore, communicate what she wants

everyone who is following her to see. In this way both professors share their information back and forth, communicate quickly with one another, and record their research and findings into the

information technology via Twitter.



Twitter is an Ecology of Change in WritingWhile the ecology of twitter is relevant, more networks within it are currently being created. It is

an ongoing web circle that is at this very moment, taking off like a rocket. Our research tests,which included our own use of twitter by tweeting with one another to write this white paper,

proved that microblogging is a great source for collaboration and also a source for meeting new

people which coincides with the sharing and exchanging of new ideas and messages. The tool of microblogging encourages that technology in itself is not neutral, but can be either magnificentor faulty depending on those who use it, and choose to function it. Microblogging has indeed

affected the way people write all over the world in a positive outcome, and in a variety of ways.We would recommend an interface such as twitter for business, college, entertainment,

collaboration, and composing of new information. Twitter’s social media tools of microblogging

truly impacts the way modern day writer’s work and think . What is tweeted can travel far and

wide, and last a lifetime.

References

[1] Borau, K., Ullrich, C., Feng, J., & Shen, R. (n.d.). Microblogging for Language Learning:Using Twitter to Train Communicative and Cultural Competence. Retrieved from

http://www.carstenullrich.net/pubs/Borau09Microblogging.pdf

[2] Carlos, J. P. (n.d.). Socialtext Collaboration Platform Gains Microblogging. Retrieved March

1, 2010, from PC World:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/160565/socialtext_collaboration_platform_gains

_microblogging.html

[3] Galagan, P. (2009). Twitter As a Learning Tool. Really. Retrieved March 1, 2010, from

www.astd.org: http://www.astd.org/LC/2009/0409_galagan.htm

[4] Enos, R. and Lauer, J. (1992). The meaning of heuristic in Aristotle’s Rhetoric and itsimplications for contemporary rhetorical theory. In S. Witte, N. Nakadate, R. Cherry (Eds.), A

rhetoric of doing (pp. 79-87). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

[5] Haas, C. (1996). Writing technology. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

[6] Nardi, B. and O’Day, V. (1999). Information ecologies. Cambridge: MIT Press.

[7] Nancy. (2010). OnlineFacilitation.wikispaces.com. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from Full

Circle Associates: http://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/twitter+collaboration+stories

[8] Moore, D. (2010). Technology Literacy: the extension of cognition. Athens, Ohio: Springer

Science+Business Media B.V.

information ecology final mnls pdf

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