College students actively use social media embracing some of the top sites out there including Digg, Reddit, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. But, social media usage varies beyond the over-30 set with many professionals preferring to use LinkedIn while search engine professionals tend to favor StumbleUpon and Sphinn.
Twitter has been getting a lot of press this year thanks to several celebrity sign ups, including Oprah Winfrey, who managed to garner a million or more followers in a matter of days. But what about college professors? Are they sending tweets? The answer to those questions may surprise you, something that has been outlined in a report, “Twitter in Higher Education: Usage Habits and Trends of Today’s College Faculty.”
Higher Education professionals have their favorites when it comes to websites and social media with Faculty Focus being one of the busiest sites catering to college professors and faculty. Faculty Focus recently conducted a survey of nearly than two thousand college professionals in order to gauge their Twitter usage, finding just under one-third of the 1958 respondents use Twitter while 56% claimed to have never used the micro-blogging site.
Key findings of Twitter in Higher Education: Usage Habits and Trends of Today’s College Faculty include:
- 21.9 percent of respondents say they are “familiar” or “very familiar” with Twitter.
- Of those who use Twitter, 21 percent say they “frequently” use it to collaborate with colleagues; 15.6 percent do so “occasionally.”
- Of those who use Twitter, 7.2 percent “frequently” use it as a learning tool in the classroom; 9.4 percent do so “occasionally.”
- 71.8 percent of current Twitterers expect their usage to increase this school year.
- 20.6 percent of current non-Twitter users say there is a “50/50 chance” they will use Twitter as a learning tool in the classroom in the next two years.
- 12.9 percent of respondents say they tried Twitter, but stopped using it because it took too much time, they did not find it valuable, or a combination of reasons.
Are you surprised by the results of the survey? I can’t say that I am. However, given Twitter’s popularity and the likelihood that other micro-blogging ideas will soon emerge, chances are you’ll run across your professors in cyberspace more often than not. Visit http://www.facultyfocus.com/ for more details regarding this survey.
Source: Faculty Focus
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
end of post idea
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
view home improvement ideas at our Photo Remodeling center
Helpful article? Leave us a quick comment below.
And please share this article within your social networks.