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

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• Twitter
• microblogging
• education
• social media
• professional development

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Raymond Flores of Texas Tech University and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeffrey P. Carpenter

Jeffrey P. Carpenter is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at Elon University. His research interests include collaborative learning, social media, and 21st-century teaching and learning. He can be found on Twitter, @doccarpenter. Please address correspondence regarding this article to Jeffrey P. Carpenter, Elon University, Campus Box 2105, Elon, NC 27244, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Daniel G. Krutka

Daniel G. Krutka is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas Woman's University. His research interests concern citizenship education and the role participatory media might play in cultivating more democratic educational experiences. He can be found on Twitter, @dankrutka.