Most Professors Use Social Media – Sort of

Dwayne Harapnuik —  May 5, 2010 — Leave a comment

Marc Parry of the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a Pearson national survey on social media use in Higher Ed reveals:

More than four out of every five professors use social media. And more than half of professors use tools like video, blogs, podcasts, and wikis in their classes.

Parry also reveals that only about 10 percent or 12 percent of survey responses represent “active” uses of social-media tools which means despite using these tool most faculty are only using these tools to passively convey information.

It is wonderful that faculty are at least using social media tools but very disappointing that they are only using them for passive means. Perhaps once they are comfortable with the tools the active uses may increase–time will tell.

One of the most interesting findings is that:

Professors with more than 20 years of teaching experience use social media only slightly less than do their younger peers.

This finding reconfirms additional research that shows there is very little age discrepancy in the adoption of online or technology based learning so we can’t use the “age” excuse any longer.

Read the full article…
Read the Pearson Social Media in Higher Education Survey press release…

Dwayne Harapnuik

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