ERIC Number: EJ1121497
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2042-7530
EISSN: N/A
For All Intents and Purposes: Twitter as a Foundational Technology for Teachers
Greenhalgh, Spencer P.; Rosenberg, Joshua M.; Wolf, Leigh Graves
E-Learning and Digital Media, v13 n1-2 p81-98 Jan-Mar 2016
Twitter is increasingly accepted as an important educational technology and has been shown to serve a range of purposes. In fact, this variety suggests that Twitter has the potential to serve as a foundational technology: one capable of supporting teachers' learning across multiple formal and informal contexts. To explore this possibility, we examined the purposes that Twitter serves in one educational technology graduate program. We collected over 9000 tweets containing any of 12 program-related hashtags and coded a sample of them to describe the purposes they served. This resulted in six themes: contribute to disciplinary conversation, engage with disciplinary conversation, build community, make connections with other communities, ask for and provide support, and unclear or irrelevant purpose. These themes--and the varied contexts they were associated with--suggest that Twitter serves as a foundational technology in this program and has the potential to do so in other educational communities.
Descriptors: Social Media, Telecommunications, Graduate Students, Content Analysis, Educational Technology, Coding, Technology Uses in Education
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
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: Michigan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A