With a Little Help from My Friends: Motivations and Patterns in Social Media Use and Their Influence on Perceptions of Teaching Possibilities

Abstract

This study explores what journalism and mass communication educators believe to be appropriate uses of social media as teaching and communication tools with students and alumni, including the motivations that drive these beliefs and the decisions that follow them. There was a negative relationship between age and gratifications from using Twitter and Facebook, and a positive relationship between educators’ use of these tools in the classroom and their perceptions of usefulness. The hypothesis that use of social media would lead to higher teaching evaluation scores was not supported. A qualitative analysis of answers to open-ended questions identified five themes: (1) recognition of the importance of Twitter and Facebook to the study of mass communication; (2) ethical concerns about boundaries; (3) perceived negative judgment or praise from administrators or students for using social media; (4) digital divide concerns; (5) perceived disutility of Twitter and Facebook in comparison to platforms such as Blackboard as well as blogs and wikis. The results are discussed in the context of their theoretical implications for the Media Choice Model (Thorson and Duffy, 2006) as well as practical implications for educators considering ways to implement social networking in their teaching.

Keywords: Social Media, Pedagogy, Teaching, Teaching Evaluations, Student-Centered Learning