Purpose: This study aims to examine the role of key network actors in relation to the discourse structure of a microblogging hashtag stream within a global agricultural educators' conference over two years. Prior work in online networks suggests that participation is dominated by highly active members, and in this study, the authors focus on…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore beginning teachers' diverse challenges and how these are related to self-directed professional learning through social media. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a content analysis of 2,445 "New Teacher" tagged posts shared in the r/Teachers subreddit. With 1,246 posts…

Purpose: Mentoring supports children, adolescents and young adults on their career paths and presents an important extracurricular educational format. The COVID-19 pandemic created a strong impetus for the deployment of virtual mentoring programs (VMPs), in which mentors and mentees communicate completely or predominantly through information and…

Purpose: The purpose of this conceptual paper is to describe how the affinity space concept has been used to frame learning via social media, and call for and discuss a refresh of the affinity space concept to accommodate changes in social media platforms and algorithms. Design/methodology/approach: Guided by a sociocultural perspective, this…

Purpose: Student in-class participation is a crucial aspect in the learning process, including in synchronous learning process. Several variables may hinder students from actively participating in synchronous learning including communication anxiety. As behavior, student in-class participation can be modeled using theory of planned behavior (TPB)…

Purpose: Social networks (SNs) play a significant role as environments supporting teacher professional development. The purpose of this to analyze the motivation and participation roles that Spanish teachers have when participating in SNs for their professional development in three professional stages: preservice teachers, beginning teachers and…

Purpose: The rapid emergency remote teaching has moved informal learning programs online including makerspaces, which has created an opportunity for harnessing the benefits of virtual makerspaces. This study reports on findings from three club designers and facilitators' reflections on a fully virtual maker club offered in the summer of 2023. This…