[Asis-l] Faculty Focus: Twitter In Higher Education

[gerrymck]

Colleagues/

An Important Survey/Report !

/Gerry

Faculty Focus: Twitter In Higher Education: Usage Habits and Trends of
Today’s College Faculty

Survey reveals how faculty are using Twitter, and why some never Tweet
It happened seemingly overnight, but suddenly the education community
is all a-Twitter. Or is it? That’s what Faculty Focus set out to learn
when it launched in July 2009 a survey on the role of Twitter in
higher education. The survey asked college and university faculty
about their familiarity and use of the micro-blogging service, if any,
as well as whether they expect their Twitter use to increase or
decrease in the future.

In higher education, many of the first adopters were professionals
involved in marketing, admissions and alumni relations. Today a
growing number of professors use Twitter to connect with like-minded
colleagues around the country (or world) as well as in the classroom
to keep students engaged, communicate important deadlines, and
encourage succinct dialogue.

The Faculty Focus survey of nearly 2,000 higher education
professionals found that almost a third (30.7 percent) of the 1,958
respondents who completed the survey are using Twitter in some
capacity. More than half (56.4 percent) say they’ve never used
Twitter. The remaining 12.9 percent of respondents say they tried it,
but no longer use it.

Interestingly, while the majority of faculty do not currently use
Twitter, their reasons are varied. Many questioned its educational
relevance and expressed concerns that it creates poor writing skills.
For others the reasons seemed to boil down to the simple fact that
they either don’t know how to use Twitter, or don’t have time to use
it.

Key findings of Twitter in Higher Education: Usage Habits and Trends
of Today’s College Faculty include:

•21.9 percent of respondents say they are “familiar” or “very
familiar” with Twitter.

•Of those who use Twitter, 21 percent say they “frequently” use it to
collaborate with colleagues; 15.6 percent do so “occasionally.”

•Of those who use Twitter, 7.2 percent are “frequently” using it as a
learning tool in the classroom; 9.4 percent do so “occasionally.”

•71.8 percent of current Twitters expect their usage to increase this
school year.

•20.6 percent of current non-Twitter users say there is a “50/50
chance” they will use Twitter as a learning tool in the classroom in
the next two years.

•12.9 percent of respondents say they tried Twitter, but stopped using
it because it took too much time, they did not find it valuable, or a
combination of reasons.

[snip]

It is clear that those educators who’ve had a good experience with
Twitter are eager to share comments or anecdotes with others, as well
as stretch their imagination to find new applications for using the
tool to engage students inside and outside of the classroom.

Here are just a few comments from faculty on how they use Twitter effectively:

Currently, we have a Russian instructor using it to tweet on every day
activities. His students respond in Russian. It gives him a chance to
correct mistakes and it gives the students daily practice in writing
and understanding the language. Students from other universities have
joined in to make it a very dynamic learning tool.

Turned a traditional assignment into a Twitter assignment. Received
more quality and quantity of student input using Twitter.

I use Twitter to encourage students to participate in class. It can be
a good tool as long as the professor uses some structure in the
discussion - such as posting questions about a reading for the
students to answer.

Of the survey participants who answered the question “What are your
reasons for NOT using Twitter?” more than 161 added comments to
further explain their position. [snip]

[snip]

Full Report (PDF) Available As Free Download After Registration

All Appropriate Available At

[ http://tinyurl.com/yzgl97k  ]

!!! Thanks To /  HollyRae Bemis-Schurtz and Laura Grant / New Mexico
State University / For The HeadsUp !!!

As Previously Requested > I Am Greatly Interested In Any / All Library
; Educational Uses / Applications Of Twitter / Other Microblogging
Technologies || Please Post As A Comment(s) On The Blog Entry ...
Thanks A Million !!!

 Regards,

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu

There Is No Answer, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying

The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed
Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace