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Educators must consider how today's technology-mediated environments expand our conceptualization of learning contexts and the continuities and tensions between learning and participation in various settings. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted educational systems worldwide, necessitating emergency remote teaching and coinciding with increased social media use. Such shifts require reconceptualization of learning boundaries in a digital age. This article explores British and American teachers' professional learning spanning social media, place and time. We collected #UKEdchat tweets and #Edchat tweets over 28 months, 1 January 2019-30 April 2021, and identified tweeters who were middle or secondary school teachers in the U.K. and U.S. to interview. From analysis of these data, we report on the tensions, synergies and experiences of boundary-crossing teachers with implications for research and practice.

Emerging practices of social media for professional purposes in higher education merit further attention. Reddit, a social media platform, is under-studied despite its significant presence. This study explores participation patterns on Reddit for two summer periods during 2019-2020, before and during COVID-19. We collected a total of 82,494 contributions from two subreddits, r/highereducation and r/Professors. Results show changes in contributions and interactions, with more consistent growth in r/Professors. Major topics discussed in both subreddits during summer 2020 had shifted from 2019, largely related to COVID-19. Findings are discussed with a community of practice lens, noting changes in participation and adjustment to the crisis. Additionally, we present implications for supporting and sustaining higher education professionals through Reddit during and after massive disruptions like those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite social media's ubiquity in modern life, research on some topics related to educators' use of social media for professional purposes remains underdeveloped, such as how use may change over time. This study explores educators' self-directed learning through social media by comparing change and continuity in how users contribute, interact and converse in two teaching-related subreddits, r/Teachers and r/education. More than a million Reddit contributions spanning three-and-a-half years comprise the dataset: 696 660 contributions to r/Teachers from 55 148 users and 339 618 contributions to r/education from 43 711 users. Learning ecology and affinity space concepts frame multiple methods of analysis, including quantitative measures of individual contributions, content interactions and social interactions, as well as qualitative content analysis of top posts and responses. Findings are discussed in light of the literature as change and continuity in Redditors' participation patterns in the two subreddits suggest distinct spaces for distinct purposes. This study offers a starting point for further work to understand the opportunities and challenges of self-directed learning in open and complex social media spaces.

In spring 2020, K-12 schools adopted remote learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Using activity theory, the authors examine the educational response to this global health crisis in the United States and the United Kingdom. Data are drawn from key news media publications in each country between 1 February and 31 May 2020. The authors critically examine the tensions and contradictions within and between interrelated systems (schooling, educational policy, home learning). They consider how remote digital pedagogy was perceived and enacted by different stakeholders: teachers, parents, policymakers. Tensions arose between digital pedagogy, system rules and teachers' digital skills, leading to different experiences for students. The division of labour shifted; parental responsibility for managing children's learning increased. Digital equity issues prevailed in both countries (technology access, social support), disadvantaging students from low-income families. National educational policy system responses were more coordinated in the UK than in the US.

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.

The website Reddit has received scant attention from educational researchers despite the presence of numerous teaching-related subreddits that host thousands of threaded conversations. The purpose of this study was to provide an initial comparison of discussions occurring in several different affinity spaces on Reddit. Because of the lack of relevant prior research, there was no baseline for what to expect in Reddit discussions, so all posts and responses in four different teaching-related subreddits over the course of a full year were analyzed to answer three research questions: How much did individuals contribute to different subreddits? What content interactions occurred in different subreddits? What social interactions occurred in different subreddits? Comparative quantitative analysis revealed substantial differences among the subreddits in terms of levels of voting and network characteristics. Results suggest that Reddit hosts diverse spaces that could present benefits and challenges for educators. These findings are addressed in relation to the extant literature and implications for educational practice and future research.

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 Boyers' (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.

This study revisits the Carpenter and Krutka 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 underutilized 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.

AbstractGenerative AI tools, like ChatGPT, have ignited global discussions and debates about potential educational impacts. By examining initial reactions to ChatGPT shared in online spaces, this study aims to deepen understanding of opportunities and concerns related to integrating such tools into education. With the keyword “chatgpt,” we searched 25 education-related subreddits on Reddit and conducted a content analysis of 7,009 posts and comments, identifying 4,397 containing reactions to the tool. Findings showed that initial ChatGPT discussions predominantly focused on perceived threats and educational applications, much less on strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities—although the discussions were multifaceted, nuanced, and contextualized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early career teachers (ECTs) face numerous challenges during their transition from preparation programmes into professional employment contexts. Social media platforms have created many new opportunities for teachers' ongoing professional learning by putting them in contact with other teachers from anywhere in the world. However, being connected to more people also means that ECTs must navigate an increased number of potentially conflicting messages about what and how to teach. Thus, entering the profession presents ECTs external conflicts as they adjust to new colleagues and internal conflicts as they encounter cognitive dissonance between old and new ideas. This study explores how and why ECTs expand professional learning networks (PLNs) – that is, the supports, people and spaces useful for improving teaching and learning – with social media in response to early career challenges. Interviews with nine ECTs demonstrate that they expand PLNs to navigate change, scarcity of resources and conflicting teaching beliefs. Interviewees use social media to look for supports for instructional practise and for connecting socially, but they also described how they maintain boundaries around their social media use. Implications are discussed for ECTs, administrators and education leaders – especially regarding how stakeholders can help alleviate early career pressures on ECTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Despite social media's ubiquity in modern life, research on some topics related to educators' use of social media for professional purposes remains underdeveloped, such as how use may change over time. This study explores educators' self‐directed learning through social media by comparing change and continuity in how users contribute, interact and converse in two teaching‐related subreddits, r/Teachers and r/education. More than a million Reddit contributions spanning three‐and‐a‐half years comprise the dataset: 696 660 contributions to r/Teachers from 55 148 users and 339 618 contributions to r/education from 43 711 users. Learning ecology and affinity space concepts frame multiple methods of analysis, including quantitative measures of individual contributions, content interactions and social interactions, as well as qualitative content analysis of top posts and responses. Findings are discussed in light of the literature as change and continuity in Redditors' participation patterns in the two subreddits suggest distinct spaces for distinct purposes. This study offers a starting point for further work to understand the opportunities and challenges of self‐directed learning in open and complex social media spaces. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic Educators use social media to reach outside their local contexts for self‐directed learning.Teaching‐related subreddits vary in how users contribute and interact.What this paper adds Different online spaces host distinct kinds of discussion.Educators' participation in online spaces is not static.Social media research methods should account for the possibilities of change and continuity in contributions, interactions and conversations.Implications for practice and/or policy Teaching‐related subreddits continue to grow and may offer helpful content and interactions to users; however, self‐directed learning through social media also necessitates increased digital literacy.r/Teachers appeared to be a conversational space primarily for teachers.r/education seemed to be a bulletin board space for posting about broader educational topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spring 2020, K–12 schools adopted remote learning amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Using activity theory, the authors examine the educational response to this global health crisis in the United States and the United Kingdom. Data are drawn from key news media publications in each country between 1 February and 31 May 2020. The authors critically examine the tensions and contradictions within and between interrelated systems (schooling, educational policy, home learning). They consider how remote digital pedagogy was perceived and enacted by different stakeholders: teachers, parents, policymakers. Tensions arose between digital pedagogy, system rules and teachers' digital skills, leading to different experiences for students. The division of labour shifted; parental responsibility for managing children's learning increased. Digital equity issues prevailed in both countries (technology access, social support), disadvantaging students from low-income families. National educational policy system responses were more coordinated in the UK than in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]