Are there perks to being a Twitter wallflower? Peripheral participants in a Twitter-enabled learning space in public relations and higher education

Despite widespread perceptions of the “digital native” generation, the majority of college- and university-age young people,18-plus, do not engage Twitter as a “learning technology”. Students’ reluctance to use Twitter within educational and professional contexts catalyzed this mixed-methods investigation of students’ engagement with #Humberpr, the online community of practice for public relations (PR) students at Humber College, a Canadian post-secondary institution. Despite the fact that industry expects PR graduates to be knowledgeable in the professional use of Twitter, during my seven years teaching undergraduate and post-graduate social media courses at Humber College, the majority of PR students were observed to engage only peripherally within the requisite Twitter learning environment. There is scant research on the peripheral participant in social media networks, and even less on student-practitioner interactions. To explore these understudied areas, my three research foci were: students’ perceptions of Twitter use; experiences using Twitter in education; and Twitter’s influence on the learning experience of peripherally-participating students. Building on situated learning theory (Lave Wenger, 1991), students’ differential engagement within #Humberpr was investigated using mixed-methods (survey, focus groups, and interviews). Tracking #Humberpr use over four months, students were categorized as peripheral or active users. My research findings reveal that peripheral participation (traditionally identified as “lurking”) warrants understandings and recognition not only as a legitimate but as a complex and rich learning modality. To recognize the “Twitter wallflower” as a peripheral participant and not merely a “lurking,” silent, and disengaged non-participant, allows for nuanced understandings of technology-enhanced learning not adequately captured by most relevant contemporary scholarship. This study offers voice to a misunderstood majority of students who struggle with the transition between personal and professional use of educational and social media networks. Many described their choice to remain on the “periphery,” as resulting from feeling they have “nothing to say”. Contributing to educational and situated learning theories, and to online learning and digital media studies, my quantitative and qualitative findings demonstrate the critical importance of expanding conceptions and analyses of learning communities and technology-enhanced education. This study highlights the need to develop flexible learning spaces that best prepare young people with the digital literacies required for technologically-mediated communications, particularly in contexts of professional education.Ph.D.2018-05-07 00:00:0