2.1 Students’ use of Twitter

At the time of writing (2023) there has been considerable debate about the use of Twitter. Opinions about its use are divided; particularly since it was taken over by Elon Musk. Many people have now left the platform over concerns ab which trolls and negative content are handled. Some of them have moved onto other networking platforms such as Mastodon, Threads and Discord.

You will all have different goals for your studies. This means you will potentially be looking for different things from your social media use. Despite the controversy, there are some things that Twitter is really good at. Many practitioners and academics continue to use Twitter and find it to be a valuable tool for promoting their ideas and connecting with people about specific topics. Here Mel Green talks about the value of Twitter in her own education and teaching practice.

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Transcript: Video 8 The value of Twitter

Mel Green

My name’s Mel Green and I am academic at the Open University, but I’m also a doctoral researcher, so a student myself, also at the Open University. And I’ve used Twitter as a form of social media since 2012. And my experience, although... Twitter couldn’t be a place where lots of toxic behaviours are associated with it.

I found it to be a place where I’ve built a network of like-minded academics who share resources, who share teaching materials, opinions, journal articles. And for me, it’s been just invaluable. I can’t think of how I would have managed my first couple of years as a doctoral researcher without it.

I’ve also made a lot of academic friends, some who I’ve met face to face and some who I haven’t. But we’ve collaborated. Collaborated in some way. And I find it to, I’ve only seen the positives of it. Nothing, I haven’t had any sort of real negative experiences that I think people absent-mindedly associate with Twitter.

End transcript: Video 8 The value of Twitter

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Video 8 The value of Twitter

Here, you will therefore focus on the use of Twitter for HE. But you are encouraged to make your individual decisions. Listen first to Olivia Kelly describe what her students get out of their Twitter use.

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Transcript: Video 9 Motivation of Twitter

Olivia Kelly

So the students that I’ve interviewed and some of the things that they have highlighted that they are getting specifically out of Twitter is very much that community, a feeling of being part of something bigger. And particularly now for students that don’t maybe meet up as regularly as they used to.

Twitter provides that sense of a community. They’re able to reach out to each other. connect, ask questions, get, you know, have more regular communication with each other. And so that was one of the things that students mentioned. They also mentioned that kind of idea of like motivation, just it helped them to stay motivated because they were getting that regular contact.

Even if it is just reading your timeline and just seeing other people post things about, oh, so happy with my result or you know, those little things that just keep, again, make you feel like something, you know, part of a community, but motivating you to keep going. And, I mean, there is a lot of research out there that Twitter can help with motivation and that students feel, you know, they’re enjoying their studies more.

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Video 9 Motivation of Twitter

Now complete the activity below to help you assess your own potential needs from Twitter.