Preservice Teachers' Perspectives on Educational Uses of Twitter: A Comparative Study

• In Event: The Role of Social Media and Technology in Education

Abstract

The purpose of this comparative study was to explore pre-service teacher (PST) perspectives on the social media platform Twitter. Participants (N=153) were students from two universities in Spain and the United States who used Twitter for a class assignment. The PSTs completed a survey regarding their perceptions of Twitter’s educational usefulness. A number of significant differences between Spanish and U.S. PSTs’ perspectives existed. Spanish PSTs were comparatively less enthusiastic about Twitter, and conceived of it primarily as a tool for information sharing and acquiring. U.S. PSTs saw Twitter as a more multi-faceted tool that could support discussion, collaboration, and community, and were more likely to anticipate a variety of different future professional uses of Twitter in their future teaching careers.

Authors

• Jeffrey Paul Carpenter, Elon University

• Victoria I Marin, University of the Balearic Islands

• Gemma Tur, University of the Balearic Islands