Twitter

As you can gather by now, I am not sold on Twitter.  Discussions seem somewhat disconnected and require too much effort to decipher.  Additionally, being that messages are limited to 140 characters makes it challenging to completely communicate what one intends to.  Using hash tags to keep a discussion somewhat easier to track further exacerbates the character limit challenge.  One positive though, is that twitter discussions can be very dynamic and spontaneous.  If being followed on a mobile device, this rapid exchange of 'tweets' can actually feel more like a conversation that is unfolding in real-time.

In contrast, Blackboard discussions are well organized into threads that are relatively simple to navigate.  This allows for a richer and more connected discussion that can referred to later without much confusion.  Being that there is no character limit per post on blackboard, it is easier and more practical for academic application.

Overall, I feel that in-class discussions are the best forum for intellectual exchange.  I guess I'm still somewhat old-school at heart.  There is an intimacy in the face-to-face sharing of thoughts that is lacking on-line.  In some small way, a Twitter discussion may feel like a classroom discussion, but it seems too disconnected in my opinion.