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Predicting educators’ use of Twitter for professional learning and development

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Abstract

This paper proposes and tests a conceptual model of educators’ Twitter adoption for professional learning and development based on technology adoption model and related literature. To understand the factors that may affect educators’ adoption of Twitter for professional learning and development, a questionnaire was designed and administered to 305 participants with the majority (88.5%) being 31 or older, and a structural equation model was constructed to examine the relationships among the factors that affect this adoption process. The results suggest that the research framework integrating multiple perspectives provides a comprehensive understanding of educators’ intention and actual use of Twitter for professional learning and development. Specifically, educators’ attitude of adoption and the purpose of Twitter usage had a significant direct effect on educators’ intention and actual use of Twitter for professional learning and development. The study suggests, to encourage educators to adopt Twitter for professional learning and development, we need to help them understand the usefulness of Twitter, whether its usage fits with their learning tasks, as well as for what purposes they are going to use it.

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Correspondence to Fei Gao.

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Informed consent was obtained from all who participated in the study. A consent form was signed electronically by the subjects before the data was collected to make the subjects eligible for participation. The data collected are kept confidential. The data do not identify the subjects from which it was collected, other than to the two investigators. Electronic data are stored in password protected files on a secure computer accessible only by the investigators.

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Table 5 Measurements

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Gao, F., Li, L. Predicting educators’ use of Twitter for professional learning and development. Educ Inf Technol 24, 2311–2327 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09872-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09872-9

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