April 20, 2020
Porath article examines how educators leverage Twitter chats to support professional learning and development
Suzanne Porath, College of Education assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, published an article in a recent edition of Current Issues in Emerging eLearning concerning the use of social media platforms and how they support professional dialogue.
"Educator Professional Conversations via Twitter Chat: Speech Acts and Intentions in #PDBookClub" explored participants' discussions using computer-mediated discourse analysis and speech act theory.
"As we've seen with the recent stay safer at home orders, being connected while physically distant is important," Porath said. "For educators, Twitter is a place for sharing resources, gathering ideas, finding support, and networking with other educators. Educators on Twitter build professional learning networks that stretch far beyond their own school district; often across the world. Some people think of Twitter as being a medium of limited use due to the often-asynchronous usage and limited character allowance, but this study showed the rich complexity of interactions that can take place."