Faculty on Twitter
I chose to try to investigate university faculty engagement on twitter. I had trouble embedding the figure but the link is below. In my field in the classroom, I have never been asked to keep a blog or really interact with faculty online aside from canvas discussions. The survey conducted by Pearson in 2013 found that 55% of faculty felt that engaging students online through interactive technologies created a better learning environment. I believe this but also think we need to do more to incorporate STEM fields in this online environment. I feel that my engineering education has been primarily stuck in an 1800s rut of straight lecture and exam with occasional homework. I haven’t heard of very good websites that help students solve complicated problems together but in my experience, working together is where you learn, but I realize that isn’t true for everyone.
My experience in grad school is almost a complete 180 from my undergrad. I think this is due to the nature of grad school and the involvement of faculty in student’s life. I have been thoroughly impressed with how faculty engage with students on twitter at conferences and I think this is a really impactful way to continue conversations about research after the presentation is over. It also allows a level of camaraderie with an international field of experts. Often now I find out about publications on twitter as well as conference submission deadlines. I have also found that I need 2 twitters. I have a public as well as a private to try to separate my conference interactions and professional relationships from my musings that just don’t need to be on my PI’s newsfeed. I think that social media has the potential to connect faculty and students easily once they leave the classroom and tools like LinkedIn have allowed me to stay in touch with faculty in undergrad. I haven’t seen as much involvement in the classroom itself but I am sure that will change as I feel its relatively inevitable.