Revisiting How and Why Educators Use Twitter: Tweet Types and Purposes in #Edchat

Abstract

This study revisits the Carpenter and Krutka survey of how and why educators use Twitter, through exploring one of Twitter’s oldest education hashtags: #Edchat. From October 1, 2017, to June 5, 2018, more than 1.2 million unique #Edchat tweets were collected from approximately 200,000 different tweeters. Machine coding was used to answer “What types of tweets did users contribute to #Edchat?” and human coding to answer “What purposes are observable in these tweets?” The results showed that #Edchat has been used effectively for exploring ideas but underutilized for sharing emotions—with mixed results for capitalizing on the advantages of Twitter’s online environment. Further research is required to explore combating teacher isolation and experiencing a sense of camaraderie. Taking into account these results, practitioners should be clear regarding their goals for Twitter education hashtag use when considering #Edchat, and researchers studying different education hashtags should keep in mind various tweet types, modes, and purposes. (Keywords: Twitter, hashtag, affinity space, social media, teacher)

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Matthew Koehler, Christine Greenhow, and Spencer Greenhalgh of Michigan State University, as well as the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author thanks the College of Education at Michigan State University for providing funding for the latter stages of this work through a Summer Renewable Research Fellowship.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

K. Bret Staudt Willet

K. Bret Staudt Willet is a PhD candidate in Educational Psychology & Educational Technology at Michigan State University. His research focuses on networked learning—specifically, how social media platforms can support induction and ongoing professional learning for K–20 educators. Read more on his website: http://bretsw.com