While in high school, I encountered a huge challenge studying French, despite my over-zealous craving to acquire a third international language, the mode and manner of which the subject was delivered left very little to be desired. A sudden bombardment of new words and conjugation to be mastered and regurgitated at the end of the term made the process laborious and boring. Eventually I bowed to pressure at my third year and dropped the subject and it all had to do with the method of acquisition. Interaction in the social media surprisingly re-ignited enthusiasm to study French after meeting French-Canadians and French West-Africans online. The important part of studying is interaction, simply acquiring knowledge or a language isn’t enough interacting with it brings out aspects that were concealed before and betters the understanding. No platform offers the best interaction than social media.
One of the key components of our education system that was plucked out of the curriculum is Greek Mythology and Roman History; the two topics form the foundation of all subjects. A recent research indicated that learning Greek and Latin reduces the effort required to understand any subject by 50%. No other place has better depiction of the two areas of concern other than in movies that are discussed on a great deal online. Through these interactions people pick-up meaning of words, origins of words, facts and are able to contextualize scenarios relevant to their studies. Everything is connected (the butterfly effect), the knowledge acquired while interacting others can’t simply be irrelevant, it helps us one way or another in our studies whether we are conscious of it or not.
The latest web technologies such as HTML 5 enable faster and better ways of presenting data. Coupled with the concept of sharing, social media platforms provide new and up-to date information that reached users with minimal or no effort. The more information acquired the better the understanding, and with the technology more intuitive means of obtaining information. I’m quiet sure there is a high correlation rate between academic performance and use of social media platforms such as Twitter.
