Social Media: Social Opportunity Spaces for Informal Learning Among Teachers?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Teachers' and Students' Beliefs, Values, and Learning Behaviors

Abstract

Teachers need to increasingly develop and implement new approaches to learning. However, instead of relying on formal roles and institutions, they should rather draw on (informal) learning networks. Social media platforms, such as Twitter, are widely used among teachers to keep up-to-date with the latest news and to share resources. This study departs from social capital theory and employs social network analyses to assess individuals' behavior and contributions on Twitter. The results imply that Twitter constitutes a social opportunity space, wherein teachers accumulate social capital and engage into informal learning processes. These findings contribute to our understanding of how social capital theory can help to assess informal learning among teachers in social media.

Author

• Martin Rehm, University of Duisburg-Essen