Cultivating Twitter

In a recent article ("Finding a Place for Twitter in Higher Education," May 20, 2010, eLearnMag.org), Hend Suliman Al-Khalifa reported some of the findings in a Faculty Focus 2009 survey, "Twitter in Higher Education: Usage Habits and Trends of Today's College Faculty." In the article, Al-Khalifa summarizes the findings of the more than 2,000 respondents, writing that according to the survey, the majority of higher education thinks Twitter is a gigantic time suck with little to no educational value. While she accurately reported the findings, she missed reporting the bigger picture, namely, that while approximately 30 percent of the surveyed higher education professionals tweet, currently only 10 percent of the general Internet-using public makes regular use of Twitter. The college ranks are outpacing the public in adoption nearly 3 to 1.