After reading the research article Twitter Use and its Effects on Student Perception of Instructor Credibility, I found myself pondering why technology allows us members of society to observe different social practices and expectations depending on the medium of social interaction. It is not the first time I have thought about it either. In fact, the topic comes up quite often with my grade eight students in relation to cyber-bullying, relationships, and overall etiquette. It is interesting to consider how the average account for this from one of my students is simply that one is not as “on-stage” compared to in person interaction, so one can do (or not do) different things.
The article was focused mainly on the social platform Twitter and it’s use by post-secondary instructors. The study researched the perceived credibility of instructors dependent on the professional or social nature of their tweets. Three accounts were made, one entirely professional, one entirely social, and one blended. The results of the study showed the professional tweeting instructor was found to be the most credible by surveyed students. However, the surveyed students also felt that some social disclosure by the instructor humanized the instructor.
Some respondents pointed out that a twitter account for an instructor which was social would be inappropriate. There are many reasons, but some were:
- “The reputation of the professor becomes more like a student instead of a college professor.”
- “We should not know our professor’s life outside the classroom.”
These two, in particular, are silly to me. In front of my grade eights, my reputation, professionalism, personality, and sincerity is on display all the time. Where have I developed all these thing? My life experience. Of course I will reveal things about myself which are not related to the subject matter if it helps me build relationships or credibility with my students. In the classroom, or should I say in person, my genuine self is revealed in front of all. Since the students perceive me as a complete whole in person, they do not categorize what I say as social or professional.
As I wrote earlier, online is where the social dynamic changes. Suddenly, being able to categorize the aspects of a person since they are using a stage with less overall exposure of themselves changes the rules. Now, we can judge someone on only one piece of their whole…and use that to build our overall view of them. Just writing that seems backwards to me. Why do we in the information generation make this jump so readily?
The article concludes with a recommendation that if an instructor wants to use twitter, they should make it an optional tool for their students, and that their online and offline persona should be consistent. I agree with the first point. But I have a problem with the second. The term persona suggest that an instructor is a playing a different part depending on the stage. Personally, my credibility as a teacher is built upon who I am, period. If I’m anytime ‘acting’ in front of my students, It is because I’m feigning anger to teach a social skill after a student has crossed a line.
Perhaps it is different from post secondary instructors. Their employer may require an air of decorum and academic pomp which passively increases their academic reputation as well as the institution. Perhaps they simply believe they must do so without any prompt. Funny though, that the students of these instructors have seemingly bought in to, let alone require this act to take place.
Link to article:
July 7, 2019 at 8:12 pm
I really appreciated Clay’s view on the article. Clay has related the platform of Twitter and how this form of communication plays a role in a middle school classroom. Clay continues to look at how different social tweets of varying levels of professionalism impacts credibility of the instructors. The article primarily focused on a post secondary setting but the beginning of Clay’s blog post raised questions for me about a teacher’s responsibility for teaching our students about responsible use of social media and the real consequences that associated with its misuse. As our students become more and more involved in the regular use of technology in their everyday life, conversations need to be had about how their on-line personas and actions have real consequences. Clay related the article to a middle school setting where he has seen the importance of having conversations with his students about etiquette and responsible use of social media. I have primarily been involved in an elementary setting where the children are just becoming involved with social media. I believe that these conversations are just as important at this younger age and elementary school has to become the initial point where students are educated about proper protocols. It is essential that students understand the impacts of cyber bullying and the possible repercussions of their on-line presence on their relationships with their peers. Online awareness and education for younger students would hopefully lead to a more sustained use of responsible users on social media platforms.
I really enjoyed Clay’s viewpoints and his critiques on this article and it definitely made me question my own practice and the implications that elementary teachers could have on their students as they become more involved in the online world. Great job Clay!