Scholars in An increasingly open and digital world: How do education professors and students use Twitter?

We report how education scholars use Twitter, which hashtags they contribute to, and what factors predict Twitter follower counts. We also examine differences between professors and graduate students. Results (a) reveal significant variation in how education scholars participate on Twitter, (b) question purported egalitarian structures of social media use for scholarship, and (c) suggest that by focusing on the use of social media for scholarship researchers have only examined a narrow sliver of scholars' online activities, possibly ignoring other areas of online presence. Implications of this study lead us to consider (a) the meaningfulness of alternative metrics for determining scholarly impact, (b) the impact that power structures have upon role-based differences in use (e.g. professor vs. student), and (c) the richness of scholarly identity as a construct that extends beyond formal research agendas.
Source: The Internet and Higher Education - Category: Information Technology Source Type: research