Title: Twitter's capacity to support collaborative learning

Authors: Jeffrey P. Carpenter

Addresses: Elon University, Campus Box 2105, Elon, NC 27244, USA

Abstract: Like other social media, the microblogging service Twitter appears to offer affordances for collaborative learning. This study investigated the required use of Twitter as part of a face-to-face, undergraduate teacher education class. Data included student and instructor Twitter activities, an end-of-semester survey of students' perspectives on their use of Twitter, and a focus group. Participants noted several benefits to Twitter use in the course, including enabling communication and interaction within the class and with the professional education community. Twitter facilitated connectedness and resource sharing that was collaborative in nature, and functioned as one of several tools students utilised for collaboration. Recommendations are given regarding the use of microblogging in education and future research.

Keywords: Twitter; microblogging; collaboration; collaborative learning; social media; social networking; connectedness; teacher education; cooperation; technology affordances; resource sharing; higher education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMILE.2014.063384

International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, 2014 Vol.2 No.2, pp.103 - 118

Received: 01 Aug 2013
Accepted: 19 Aug 2013
Published online: 30 Jul 2014 *

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