Twitter is one of the most popular social networks today. It is used by people of all ages and for all kinds of purposes. Someone shares his thoughts, someone publishes the latest news, and someone comes to read funny tweets to improve the mood. But this social network can be used much more widely, for example, even while sitting in the classroom. Social media posts are a great way to combine science and entertainment and Twitter couldn’t leave it out either.
Twitter is another opportunity to create a private account for your class where you can post homework for class, write organizational announcements, collaborate with other students on class projects, and keep in touch with your classmates on whatever topics they want to talk about. In addition, the social network has many useful accounts that will be useful in your studies. Today we’re going to talk about which ones can be helpful in your studies:
@openculture
The California-based publisher is dedicated to systematizing and promoting free educational and cultural content from all over the web. The page features extensive lists of free books, videos, images, and audio recordings related to all branches of the humanities.
The microblog posts don’t have any strict theme, but all the links are selected in a way that makes you want to click immediately: whether it’s a recording of ancient Greek music, the largest collection of American comics published before 1959, the history of electronic and electroacoustic music in 476 tracks, or the notebooks of Paul Klee.
@lingvoelf_de, @lingvoelf_fr
Let’s say you already know English well enough and most blogs about learning it don’t interest you, then it’s time to take up German. Here’s a great Twitter account: idioms, proverbs, verb control, and very simple vocabulary words. There’s one for French, too. It’s a great study aid, and if there are still difficulties, we advise you to use essay assistance so you don’t lose your grades.
@wayback_exe
Every two hours a screenshot of one website from the mid-1990s, rendered in a browser from the same years, is added to the blog. The museum’s robot viewer takes information from the site (this huge project has its microblog, which you also have to subscribe to).
Most of the sites are owned by Western universities and scientists, but sometimes there are personal pages and sites of famous brands. Here, for example, is a promotional site for Apple from 1997 (funny and very unattractive).
@NYTArchives
The largest newspaper in the world has been published for 164 years and archives every issue: in addition to the paper archive, all issues are digitized and posted on a special website. You have to pay for full access, but articles linked from @NYTArchives are available for free for two weeks after publication.
The microblog editor most often connects publications to date – either the birthday of the person being written about or the anniversary of the event the article is about. Among other things, @NYTArchives recently shared a review of Kerouac’s novel On the Road (September 4, 1957), a report that excavations at the Roman Forum disturbed local cats (September 2, 1928), and a tiny note about the wedding of future President Ronald Reagan (March 5, 1952).
Most of the papers are available in their original layout – so, in addition to the historical journalism itself, readers can also find out what ads were in the same issue as the news of the adoption of the U.S. national anthem.
@reclike
And this microblog is specifically about complicated and foreign words. If you wanted to know what cracking (refining oil into gasoline), rigorism (great moral rigor), and indigo (dark blue color) are, you’re here. It is updated rarer than you’d like it to be.
@penguinrandom
Penguin Random House book publisher is one of the largest and most famous in the world. The microblog is primarily aimed at reading enthusiasts: there are links to articles about Shakespearean phrases assimilated into modern English, interviews with literary editors, lists, pictures, and, of course, quotes from books – by the way, Penguin Random has published works by over 70 Nobel laureates in literature.
@pewresearch
The Pew Research Center is an independent nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC. They research public opinion, and demographics and analyze media reports in the United States and around the world.
Facts and figures of research are published in the microblog of the organization. For example, here you can learn that about half of all Christian Americans expect the Second Coming in the next 40 years, and by 2050 the number of Muslims will increase by 73% (the total number of earthlings will increase by 35%).
Much of the data in the microblog is illustrated with beautiful and accurate charts – not all sociologists know how to do that.
@openlibrary
“The Open Library is an offshoot of Archive.org. The site’s mission is to digitize every book ever published. More than two million vintage books are available for free download, and another 250,000 are loaned by libraries for up to two weeks at no charge.
The microblog posts link to books with interesting illustrations, material related in any way to the current date, and reader retweets.
@SciencePorn
As the name implies, this is a microblog about fascinating facts from the world of science. In addition to links to serious material about global warming and the mysteries of evolution, there are beautiful photos of natural phenomena, jokes about how hard it is to get a college degree, clues to optical illusions, and much more. Almost two million subscribers!
@WDLorg
The World Digital Library is a project of the Library of Congress, the largest book depository in the world. WDL’s mission is to provide access to noteworthy printed materials, the earliest of which date back to the 8th millennium B.C.
The microblog publishes links to books, press, photographs, maps, manuscripts, videos, and sound recordings – each signed in its original language. The project is noteworthy if only for its unique collection of documents and photographs – most of them belong to the Library of Congress.
@NASA
The U.S. National Aerospace Administration’s Twitter feed is a great example of what a fascinating science blog should look like. It features satellite imagery, photos from outer space, and fun facts about the Earth and other celestial bodies.
A large part of the tweets is about preparations for a mission to Mars. NASA talks about gravity and the planet’s atmosphere, and reports on tests of equipment that will be used in the interplanetary mission.
And of course, you can always find useful information using hashtags and within student communities, where you can communicate and share the materials you’ve already found. We hope that this information will be helpful to you.