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In TechTrends

Twitter and other social media have assumed important places in many educators’ professional lives by hosting spaces where new kinds of collegial interactions can occur. However, such spaces can also attract unwelcome Twitter traffic that complicates researchers’ attempts to explore and understand educators’ professional social media experiences. In this article, we define various kinds of spam that we have identified in our research on educators’ uses of Twitter. After providing an overview of the concept of spam, we evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to addressing the presence of spam in educator-focused Twitter spaces. Then we suggest practical, holistic metrics that can be employed to help identify spam. Through secondary analyses of our past research, we describe the use of such metrics to identify and deal with spam in three specific cases. Finally, we discuss implications of spam and these suggested methods for teacher educators, instructional designers and educational technology researchers.
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In Journal of Media and Religion

In this paper, we document different expressions of Mormon identity and different approaches to Mormon practice within the #ldsconf Twitter hashtag. In particular, we examine #ldsconf during two important events in the recent history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: the presidential transition from Thomas Monson to Russell Nelson in January 2018, and the Church’s formal acceptance of Nelson as Church president in April 2018. Our findings suggest that the #ldsconf hashtag allows for more expression of identity than formal Latter-day Saint contexts and that Twitter hashtags afford a ready audience for religious discussion in which no bounds are set on appropriate identity or practice.
In Journal of Technology and Teacher Education

The recently released Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs) were created to help all teacher educators support teacher candidates as they prepare to become technology-using teachers. The TETCs largely focus on teaching with technology. However, one of the 12 competencies, TETC #9, offers an opportunity to focus on teaching about technology which might allow for the foregrounding technoethical issues in everyday classroom uses of technologies. In an effort to ensure the field avoids past failures of hope, hype, and disappointment, we offer theoretical critique of epistemological, ontological, and historical commitments that are implicitly or explicitly communicated in TETC #9, but also more broadly in the field, profession, and society. Specifically, we draw attention to commitments to behaviorist learning theories, accountability reform measures, thin visions of democracy, and absence to racial diversity or equity in methods and findings. We conclude by offering suggestions for how teacher educators might inquire into technoethical conundrums through ethical, democratic, legal, economic, technological, and pedagogical explorations of technologies.
In Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Social media provide new opportunities for when, how, where, and with whom people learn—venue unimaginable 15 years ago. Today’s students and educators have adopted social media for various purposes both within education and outside of it. This review of the published research on social media in education focuses on the affordances for student learning, teacher professional development, educational research practices, and communication of scholarship. The article concludes with implications for education policy.
DOI
In Journal of Research on Technology in Education

This study revisits Carpenter and Krutka’s (2014) survey of how and why educators use Twitter, through exploring one of Twitter’s oldest education hashtags: #Edchat. From October 1, 2017 to June 5, 2018, more than 1.2 million unique #Edchat tweets were collected from approximately 200,000 different tweeters. Machine coding was used to answer, “What types of tweets did users contribute to #Edchat?,” and human coding to answer, “What purposes are observable in these tweets?” The results showed that #Edchat has been used effectively for exploring ideas but under-utilized for sharing emotions—with mixed results for capitalizing on the advantages of Twitter’s online environment. Further research is required to explore combating teacher isolation and experiencing a sense of camaraderie. Taking into account these results, practitioners should be clear regarding their goals for Twitter education hashtag use when considering #Edchat, and researchers studying different education hashtags should keep in mind various tweet types, modes, and purposes.
DOI
In British Journal of Educational Technology

This conceptual exploration revisits a key question from earlier work (Greenhow & Gleason, 2014): What is scholarship reconsidered in the age of social media? Social scholarship is a framework that expanded Boyer’s (1990) conceptualization of scholarship to consider how social media affect discovery and research, teaching and learning, integration, and application. This paper critically reflects on how social scholarship continues to evolve in light of changing understandings in the field of educational technology and the role social media play in the academy. We provide recent examples of social scholarship such as altmetrics, interdisciplinary projects, crowdsourced educational technology syllabi and reconsideration of the needs of research participants. Moreover, we share concrete examples of how scholars might enact social scholarship, with what benefits and challenges, and surface new concerns regarding openness, equity, access, literacy, privacy and ethical considerations. Our paper concludes with recommendations for preparing scholars to enact social scholarship while mitigating the challenges it poses.
Source Document DOI
In TechTrends

Although researchers have discovered a great deal about who uses Twitter for educational purposes, what they post about, when they post and why they participate, there has so far been little work to explore where participants in educational Twitter contexts are located. In this paper, we establish a methodological foundation that can support the exploration of geographical issues in educational Twitter research. We surveyed 46 participants in one educational Twitter hashtag, #michED, to determine where they lived; we then compared these responses to results from three digital methods for geolocating Twitter users (human coding, machine coding and GPS coding) to explore these methods’ affordances and constraints. Human coding of Twitter profiles allowed us to analyze more participants with higher levels of accuracy but also has disadvantages compared to other digital—and traditional—methods. We discuss the additional insights obtained through geolocating #michED participants as well as considerations for using geolocation and other digital methods in educational research.
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In Qwerty

Recent articles in the educational research field have called for a stronger research focus on students’ learning with everyday technologies in-and-out-of classrooms and on the changing nature of scholars’ practices in light of tech- nological advancements. We present findings from a mixed methods study of whether and how novice researchers understand and practice social scholar- ship – a concept currently being debated in various disciplines – which seeks to leverage social media affordances to create expanded sites for research collaboration, peer review, dissemination, and evaluation of research im- pact. We found that novice researchers focused almost exclusively on social scholarship of discovery and much less on interdisciplinary, teaching, or ap- plied scholarship. Insights from this study will appeal to those interested in examining the theory and design of graduate student learning and faculty development.
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Recent Publications

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Twitter and other social media have assumed important places in many educators’ professional lives by hosting spaces where new kinds of …
Source Document DOI

In this paper, we document different expressions of Mormon identity and different approaches to Mormon practice within the #ldsconf …

The recently released Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs) were created to help all teacher educators support teacher …

Social media provide new opportunities for when, how, where, and with whom people learn—venue unimaginable 15 years ago. Today’s …
DOI

This study revisits Carpenter and Krutka’s (2014) survey of how and why educators use Twitter, through exploring one of Twitter’s …
DOI
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Teaching

 
 
 
 
 

Instructor, Electronic Assessment for Teaching and Learning

Michigan State University

Sep 2018 – Present Online

CEP 813 (Master’s course)

Foundational theories of assessment. Critical examination of methods (e.g., portfolios, rubrics, surveys, tests, self-evaluations), and digital tools that allow educators to gather information, analyze it, and make informed pedagogical choices. Design of assessments for learning, as learning and of learning, especially in digital contexts.

 
 
 
 
 

Instructor, Learning Technology through Design

Michigan State University

Jan 2018 – Present Online

CEP 817 (Master’s course)

Design of educational curricula, tools, and software. Designing for learners. Human computer interaction. Art and aesthetics of design. Iterative design. Collaboration in design.

 
 
 
 
 

Instructor, Teaching and Learning with Technology

Michigan State University

Sep 2017 – Present Online

CEP 416 (Undergraduate course)

Uses of multimedia technology and social media in teaching and learning. Developing plans for integrating technology in classroom. Designing digital online portfolio as tool for professional development. Teaching school subject matter with technology.

 
 
 
 
 

Instructor, Teaching Students Online

Michigan State University

Sep 2017 – Dec 2017 Online

CEP 820 (Master’s course)

Strategies for constructing and implementing online curricula aimed at students across the lifespan.

Posts

Into the Edu-verse: Early-Career Educators Seeking Induction Support on Social Media On November 26, 2019, I successfully defended my …
2 min read

Talk for EPET PhD Brownbag series at Michigan State University on November 11, 2019.
1 min read

A webinar series I facilitated for AECT’s Graduate Student Assembly in 2019.
Last updated on 1 min read

I have completed the coursework for my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology through Michigan State …
Last updated on 4 min read

Remembering my grandfathers and reflecting on their lives.
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