How and Why Educators Use Twitter: A Survey of the Field

Item

Title

How and Why Educators Use Twitter: A Survey of the Field

Abstract/Description

While the microblogging service Twitter is increasingly popular among educators and offers numerous affordances for learning, its relationship with formal education systems remains complicated by generally ambivalent educator attitudes and institutional policies. To better understand the role Twitter plays in education, we conducted a survey of 755 K–16 educators that yielded quantitative and qualitative data concerning how and why the medium is used. Respondents reported intense and multifaceted utilization of the service, with professional development (PD) uses more common than interactions with students or families. Educators valued Twitter's personalized, immediate nature, and the positive and collaborative community it facilitated. Many cited Twitter's role in combating various types of isolation and described it as superior to traditional professional development. We finish by discussing implications for educators, researchers, and educational institutions.

Author/creator

Carpenter, Jeffrey P.

Krutka, Daniel G.

Date

2014

In publication

Journal of Research on Technology in Education

Volume

46

Issue

4

Pages

414-434

Resource type

en Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Empirical

Keywords

education

professional development

social media

Twitter

microblogging

Open access/full-text available

en Yes

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

1539-1523

DOI

10.1080/15391523.2014.925701

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (Taylor & Francis)

Full-text PDF Shared by Author (ResearchGate)

Citation

Carpenter, J. P., & Krutka, D. G. (2014). How and Why Educators Use Twitter: A Survey of the Field. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 46(4), 414–434. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2014.925701

Item sets

Handbook Chapter 19 Citations

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