By Audrey Steen, Dual Degree English/Sec. Education, McAnulty Academic Internship
Now being acquainted with Facebook in more detail as a Marketing and Communications intern, I am learning more and more about the available resources and tools provided by social media sites. I was not aware of scheduling, event posting, and the importance of formatting and visuals when trying to run a successful social media page. I am no expert on Facebook now, but I have become more literate in social media platforms when trying to find new ways of improving engagement in creative, innovative ways.
One thing I have noticed, differing from a lot of the writing we do as English majors, is the disciplinary language we utilize is not always the most appropriate for the public eye. Social Media communication needs to be engaging in all aspects, both visually and verbally, rather than focusing on the complexity and evidence of the topic. Not to say the integrity is not as important, but being fluent in multiple dialects of English allows us as writers to communicate effectively with a wide range of individuals and experiences. Understanding and writing for the audience rather than explaining our ideas is a shift I have learned how to do surprisingly quickly.
Learning multiple ways of communicating with different demographics, on platforms will allow me to be more successful in my future teaching practice. One of my main goals as a future educator is to have a culturally responsible and responsive pedagogy for all my students to feel heard and understood. Teaching is a way of reiterating information in language that is comprehendible to those not familiar with a specific knowledge basis. Me learning another way to communicate prepares me to be a more effective teacher in the classroom and better peer with other teachers by having tools that extend my language vocabulary and skills.
Building Bridges 