Background Study: Previous systematic reviews concluded that online professional-learning communities (OPLCs) have positive effects on teachers' development, but explored neither the technological affordances that make this possible nor the potential negative impacts of technology use in OPLCs. Objectives: The aim of this study is to…

With the precipitous changes of the platform formerly known as Twitter, brought on by the change of ownership in late 2022, many networked educators sought, and continue to seek, new digital spaces to continue fostering and developing their digital practice. The authors of this article had all been actively networked on Twitter, and wanted to…

This study explores the interplay between educational technology adoption, online community participation, self-paced learning, and graduate students' health promotion skills in physical education programs. It investigates how these factors facilitate or hinder skill development by examining teaching techniques and interventions in graduate…

Purpose: To explore secondary school physical educators' use of Twitter (now X) for professional development, examining engagement patterns and evolution over time through the lens of sense of community theory. Method: Sixty-one secondary school physical educators completed a questionnaire shared on Twitter (now X). Ten teachers also completed…

This descriptive phenomenological study sought to achieve two goals: to deeply understand early career teachers' (ECTs) past and present experiences and how these might impact ECTs' intentions and purposes for participation in an online community, as well as to inform the development of a new online community for ECTs. Five early career elementary…

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…

Social media platforms play important roles in many educators' lives. In particular, teacher professional activities on Twitter have received attention from scholars. However, research has not typically explored Twitter use with attention to the diverse national contexts in which teachers work. To address this literature gap, the present…

The development of communication technologies, resulting in the arrival of the Internet and the World-Wide-Web has been rapid, influencing almost all aspects of modern society including education. Concepts of epistemology, how we know what we know, have been forced to rapidly adjust to these new and emerging technologies. Online communities of…

Members in online communities of practice (CoPs) take advantage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to exchange practical or work-related knowledge in asynchronous online environments. Practical knowledge represents individuals' mental models allowing them to interact with the environment and perform tasks. With ICTs, practical…

Emerging practices of social media for professional purposes in higher education merit further attention. Reddit, a social media platform, is under-studied despite its significant presence. This study explores participation patterns on Reddit for two summer periods during 2019-2020, before and during COVID-19. We collected a total of 82,494…

Despite social media's ubiquity in modern life, research on some topics related to educators' use of social media for professional purposes remains underdeveloped, such as how use may change over time. This study explores educators' self-directed learning through social media by comparing change and continuity in how users contribute, interact and…

This research brief comprises three articles published in the three-article dissertation at the University of Missouri (MU) in February 2023. The three-article dissertation, "An Exploration of Online Information Spaces That Support Instructional Design and Teacher Professional Development," examined three online communities of practice…

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, chemical engineering departments from around the world shifted their course offerings from in-person to online almost instantaneously. The AIChE Education Division immediately responded to this educational shift by developing five Virtual Communities of Practice (VCPs) that allowed faculty to share experiences…

In response to the new policy of English department, the internship program has been shifted to virtual programmes. As part of this initiative, the university has collaborated with other educational sectors to offer a virtual English as a Foreign Language (EFL) internship programme aimed at training individuals as EFL teachers. The aim of the…

Purpose: Despite the positive impact of professional learning communities (PLCs) in improving teaching practices, many teachers still struggle to effectively integrate information and communication technologies (ICTs) into their teaching and learning. Drawing from human capital theory and spillover effects, this paper examines how teachers PLCs…