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Professors May Gain Some Props for Tweeting

by Abby Seiff on March 28, 2011 at 04:00 PM

man with computerLOL captain! My captain! A sociable and "human" Twitter account may be a fast way to inculcate young minds, according to a new study in Learning, Media, and Technology. Hoping to give some advice to the many befuddled professors attempting to craft public social media personae, the study set out to test what impact different types of tweets had on a professor's perceived credibility. Students typically ranked an imaginary maestro with a "sociable" Twitter stream higher than one with a strictly business-style account.

But what does this actually say about what type of Twitter user a teacher (or any professional, for that matter) should be? Not much. For one, the perceived credibility of a person with whom you have no interaction seems to have very little bearing on real life. If the prof is a somber, quiet fellow in class and a bad-mouthing Fantasy Football dude on Twitter, that would negatively affect his credibility.

Meanwhile, the study itself found that not all students were created equal in their regard for socially tweeting professors. Older students were more likely to overturn the ranking system -- even pointing out that there was perhaps something untoward about a professor engaging in Twitter. Still, if you want the younguns to think you're just the coolest teacher ever, tweet on.

Tags: college, education, LearningMediaAndTechnology, study, top, twitter, web

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