ERIC Number: EJ1059891
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1360-144X
EISSN: N/A
New Practices in Doing Academic Development: Twitter as an Informal Learning Space
McPherson, Megan; Budge, Kylie; Lemon, Narelle
International Journal for Academic Development, v20 n2 p126-136 2015
Using social media platforms to build informal learning processes and social networks is significant in academic development practices within higher education. We present three vignettes illustrating academic practices occurring on Twitter to show that using social media is beneficial for building networks of academics, locally and globally, enhancing information flows, inspiring thinking, and motivating academic practice. Using a reflective and diffractive methodology, we illuminate how different flows of forces and relations are enacted. We argue it is in this fluidity of informal learning that perspectives are contested and shaped, and that academic developers can benefit by encompassing such practices.
Descriptors: Informal Education, Social Networks, Learning Processes, Higher Education, Vignettes, Educational Practices, Educational Development, Reflection, Teacher Collaboration, Communities of Practice, Computer Mediated Communication, Electronic Mail, Technology Uses in Education, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A