Next week, a new semester begins and with it a new class I’m going to teach called Social Media Technology. I’m looking forward to this class because it is a topic I have been closely following for several years now.
Because social media technologies are so embedded in our digital lives now, there is a constant stream of relevant topics for discussion available. For example, this morning I saw this post by physics professor Dr. Chad Davies about his new podcast The Scientific Odyssey.
Post by Chad Davies.
One of the many benefits of “putting yourself out there” is having the opportunity to interact with people you respect and admire. It takes guts, but it is so worth doing.
How have you been surprised by your participation online? Have you ever had one of these unexpected encounters because of your online activities? Have you interacted with celebrities, scientists, rock-stars, or other noteworthy individuals in ways impossible before the invention of social media? Please tell me about it in the comments.
I’ve had Alton Brown, Martha Quinn and Felicia Day interact with me on twitter. Seems every politician I follow and try to interact with just uses social media for press releases and NOT interaction.
This really did just happen…
I saw your tweet with this post and came over to read it. Sure there are a couple things that popped into my mind but I decided to skip writing to get to some school work. When I flipped back to close hootsuite there was a tweet from Dexter Britain http://dexterbritain.co.uk/ I did not even remember putting him on one of my lists and I can’t ever recall seeing a tweet from him in my timeline before.
Why is Dexter Britain important?
Last week I was given the responsibility of making a video to introduce the school system’s budget before the town council. I knew about it two weeks in advance but was only going to get the footage to edit two days before it was due. I decided to focus on the music before getting the footage. I listened to hours and hours of songs–I already came up with what the video was going to be about and its format so I knew the vibe I was looking for. I finally settled on three possible songs, two from the same artist–Dexter Britain. I must have listened to them a hundred times to really listen deep and make sure which was the right song–I felt like I knew Dexter and I could picture him working in his studio.
So I tweeted him a link to the video and a big thanks 🙂 He wrote back “Lovely Video.”
http://goo.gl/Wuywwu
So there you go, my example of connecting with my own personal “rock star” in a way that would not have been possible before twitter. Not to mention that fact that I found his creative commons music online.
Great examples! I agree Hugh, many people, especially the powerful, have a “broadcast” rather than a “conversation” approach to social media. They are missing the true power of the medium.
Paul, that’s a cool story. Makes one wonder about life’s synchronicities.
Social Media Technology sounds like such a fun class to take! I never really use Twitter enough to completely understand how it works, but I have friends who do. So, since I don’t use Twitter, I’ve never spoken with someone famous. A good friend of mine received a reply from a famous singer a few years ago and I thought that was really cool. Hopefully I’ll eventually get to talk to someone famous in the future!
Hey Bill, I bet teaching social media will be a very interesting class to teach. I’m sure having any young students in your class will Ace the course since we are surrounded and use social media on a daily basis. Social Media would be one class I wouldn’t mind to teach at all!
Hi Chalandra,
If only it were that simple. The class is a senior level course, and is one of the most demanding I’ve ever taught. We are bringing in guest speakers, writing reflective blogs, and doing original research to be published in an eBook format at the end of the semester. Do you believe young people are experts in technology because they have grown up with using it? The old Digital Natives / Digital Immigrants debate? Some of the most innovative technology users I’ve encountered are over the age of 30. I’m not picking on young people, but I don’t give them a pass because they are young either. What do you think?