Affordances of Twitter as a pedagogical tool in education: critical analysis of doctoral research studies

Abstract

Twitter as a microblogging platform often used to communicate each other in real time is a dominant practice of digital generation. Since its inception 10 years ago, the use of Twitter in educational settings has been growing considerably. Studies have been conducted to find out the affordances of Twitter and reported the advantages and drawbacks of the tool to use for teaching and learning in educational contexts. This study analyses research on Twitter as part of the doctoral dissertations in the universities in the USA. It identifies major categories and topics, describes the findings and discusses gaps in the research area from the educational technology perspective. The study selects 17 doctoral dissertations and examines the research aims, methodologies and results. The study proposes five overlapping categories. The analysis reveals that Twitter research in educational technology is still fragmented using diverse theories, and methodical advances are necessary for future research.