Briefly reflect on lessons learnt from this tutorial :

a. How has Twitter (micro-blogging) enhanced your learning of EIR? Compare this with your blogging experience using Blogspot.

Due to Twitter's 140 character limit, one is forced to be concise in explanation and ensure that everything one intends to convey is condensed but still comprehensible. It is a good exercise in brevity, that is sometimes necessary, especially when time is of the essence.

I believe Twitter is a lot easier to use as a communication tool, but obviously cannot succeed as a log for documentation because of its character limit. How it is unique from blogger and other social media can be found in its social communication aspect. It has a lot of emphasis on responding and interacting (hashtagging, Re-Tweeting, etc), that takes place in a hassle-free and fast way.

This is especially so with the use of a program like TweetDeck.

b. How can you use Twitter and Blogspot for research purposes?

Blogs have long been used for research purposes, documenting someone's life work or a specific research project. Tim Davies, an independent researcher on numerous subjects, uses his blog to document and discuss his work.

Twitter can also be used in the same way, but in a more concise and up-to-the-minute manner. For example, when working on social networking sites' effects on youth behaviour, one can document it in the following way:

Tweet 1: Starting research on SNS now. Anyone can contribute?

Tweet 2: Found research conducted in 2005 at the inception of Facebook about its early stages.