Where are my Tweets?

#notallteachers

It’s 2019 and although I do not live in/under a rock, I still have no idea what this means.

Throughout the week, our class has been discussing the use of social media for professional reasons such as: promoting an individual’s digital presence/citizenship, creating a professional (learning) network, or connecting with fellow colleagues/like-minded individuals. We even had a guest lecturer, Alec Couros, come and discuss the use of social media and technology in modernizing the way individuals learn, and provide open access to learning opportunities. Youtube is popular social platform with hundreds of thousands of educational videos specific to academic subjects  or just “simple” life skills; instead of having to attend costly in-person lessons. Sites like Khan Academy, Wolfram Alpha, PhotoMath, or Desmos became known to me through mentions on social media networks, web advertisements, or Professional-Development (Pro-D) workshops. Furthermore, in the article “Twitter Use and its Effects on Student Perception of Instructor Credibility”, the researchers concluded that students preferred instructors having a professional Twitter presence as it helps to support their credibility, appear more caring, and more human-like as opposed to an instrument of knowledge. They also cited cited several other studies which had similar findings: Martin, Mottet, & Chesebro (2009), Brookfield (2006), and McArthur & Bostedo-Condway (2012). As these aspects directly and indirectly improve student engagement / motivation in class, it’s in the best interest of fledgling teachers like myself (who’ve yet to lose faith in students of today) to implement this. While I’m no stranger to exploring new media or technology, when it comes to my own transition from spectator to active participant in the digital world, I have some reservations about doing so.

One of the passages that stood out to me was: “student/teacher relationship should be left inside of school, not social life or social media” (DeGroot et al, 2015). While this is next to impossible to accomplish in our modern society, unless they somehow live completely “off the grid”, aspects of this idea are still ingrained in me. As a teacher, certified by the Ministry of Education of BC, have I not demonstrated my credibility in terms of being a competent teacher? There is also the question of how authentic does a Twitter profile have to be to justify its credibility? Having numerous tweets, followers, or likes is one indicator for breadth of online presence, but is it through shallow, trendy comments tells us nothing about a person (or egg’s) actual credibility. Also, the issue of individuals or companies paying to artificially boost their followings or re-tweets (side blog: Hashtags Are Worthless); not the most healthy of ways to build any relation on. This is not to say teachers’ social media presence can’t ever be trusted (Need help – appropriateness around hyperlink search results on public websites like RateMyProf). I simply believe that teachers should not rush to establish themselves online from research findings support it’s benefits; DeGroot et al. also mentioned how college students’ perspectives on use of social media has likely changed over time as prior research found results contradicting theirs. “If the history of educational technology teaches researchers anything then it is this: what begins as fresh, innovative and edgy quickly evolves to tired, redundant and banal” (Brabazon, 2012). This statement can be seen as a caution against immediate establishment of students motivation by simply creating an authentic social media profile. Students “before” may see instructors with Twitter and Instagram accounts in a positive light, but current trends of Twitter has seen it become a toxic echo chamber or source of misinformation. If we look further, ye olde website have certainly taken on more negative reputations over the years such as Alec described Facebook groups as gathering grounds for middle-aged housewives, or Nexopia being known for child-predators (what happened to LinkedIn?)

Another potential negative consequence of instructors on social media would be how it could become a distraction or a newfound source of stress. In terms of distraction, (ideally) teachers would be less likely to pull out a phone during class to check who followed or liked their tweets; the opposite is more likely for students. So now a teacher wanting to show support or build a positive relation with a student by following or “Like”-ing them would generate a bunch of inferences from students or student groups. There’s also the possibility of additional stress and depression over lack of replies or poor ratios on their social media accounts (Social Media Usage & Well-Being).

And so I believe my resistance to joining the social media trend is at the minimum, not rooted in irrational fear (I just spent over an hour searching for readings). Perhaps I will continue to be the observer to my cohorts’ experiences with it in the meantime. After all, I’m having enough trouble keeping up with course reading to analyze 140 more characters of wisdom.

#aintnobodygottime