Max Kaczynski, now a junior in the Knight School of Communication wrote this article for the school’s website

By: Max Kaczynski

I began using Xanga in the 7^th grade, eventually switching over to Myspace in 8^th grade.  I loved how I could share videos, pictures, relationship statuses and comments from just one page.  Unlike my friends, I was so excited when I heard about Twitter.  I joined right away, but ended up not using it.  I thought Twitter was pointless and somewhat complicated.  Now, I use it everyday, every hour.  To me, it is a resourceful way to voice my opinion and read and share the latest news.  I am a part of the digital revolution.  In a way, myself and other students at The Knight School of Communication are making history.

At the Knight School of Communication, many professors use Twitter to connect with their classes.  My freshman year, my first interaction with social media in the classroom came from Dr. Pupchek‘s Intro to Communication class when she suggested that we attend a seminar on Twitter.  I mainly learned what the symbols (#, @) meant and clever ways to fit comments within 140 characters.  From that point on, I became more aware of other professors at Queens on Twitter and saw how they liked using social media for class.

In my Integrated Strategic Communication Class, Dr. McArthur promotes using social media everyday.  He is teaching us the correct way to use and maintain our sites.  Dr. McArthur taught us how to get our tweets viewed and to always include a link or some form of media.  Some days, he projects Twitterfall on our screen and allows us to tweet questions or any cool information that we learned, like our consumer relations information.  By tweeting, I have connected with other students, professors and always communicate with the university’s Twitter feed.

I find myself outside of class following other professors and tweeting them something that relates to our class. Dr. Pillar and I tweet about earthquakes and potential threats that relate to our Geology class.  He believes, “there is significant value to using Twitter outside of class for the reasons you mentioned [which were posting discussions, quick communication and the ability to share news/media]…”  I think it is so cool to have such a close relationship with our professors and feel interested with class information when we’re on a break or even after the semester is over. The involvement of Twitter in our classes creates a fun way to learn!

I hope that one day, our Core classes use Twitter to open up discussion outside of class in a fun, exciting way.  Imagine professors tweeting a question and having the students debate and tweet their personal opinion.  Core class would keep students focused and on topic.  Twitter is not like Facebook; No status update tweets.  I am thrilled to be a part of the Knight School of Communication and take the huge digital step forward in class.

The author of the article, Max Kaczynski, is a sophomore at Queens University of Charlotte double majoring in business and communication, concentrating in general business and organizational communication.