ACADEMIC, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL LEARNING IN THE #BAC2018 TWITTER HASHTAG

SPENCER P. GREENHALGH (SPENCER.GREENHALGH@UKY.EDU) UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY CYNTHIA NNAGBORO (CYNTHIA.NNAGBORO@UKY.EDU) UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY RENEE KAUFMANN (RENEE.KAUFMANN@UKY.EDU) UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY SARAH GRETTER (SGRETTER@MSU.EDU) MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

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CONFERENCE HASHTAGS

GREENHOW, LI, & MAI (2019) KIMMONS & VELETSIANOS (2016)

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👩🏫 👨🏫 TEACHER

HASHTAGS

CARPENTER ET AL., 2018 GAO & LI, 2017 GREENHALGH & KOEHLER, 2017 ROSENBERG ET AL., 2016 STAUDT WILLET, 2019 XING & GAO, 2018

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MOOC HASHTAGS

KOUTROPOLOS ET AL. (2014) VELETSIANOS (2017B)

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PROFESSIONAL HASHTAGS

GILBERT (2016) VELETSIANOS (2017A)

👨⚕ 👩💼

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AFFINITY SPACE

CURWOOD (2013) DUNCAN & HAYES (2012) GEE (2005) GEE (2017) JONES, STEPHENS, BRANCH-MUELLER, & DE GROOT (2016) LAMMERS, CURWOOD, & MAGNIFICO (2012)

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“THIS ALLOWS US TO ASK ABOUT WHAT THOUGHTS, VALUES, ACTIONS AND INTERACTIONS GO ON IN THIS SPACE, BY WHOM AND WITH WHOM, WITHOUT ASSUMING ANY ONE GROUP MEMBERSHIP, OR FOR THAT MATTER ANY MEMBERSHIP AT ALL.”

Gee (2005), p. 223

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“THIS ALLOWS US TO ASK ABOUT WHAT THOUGHTS, VALUES, ACTIONS AND INTERACTIONS GO ON IN THIS SPACE, BY WHOM AND WITH WHOM, WITHOUT ASSUMING ANY ONE GROUP MEMBERSHIP, OR FOR THAT MATTER ANY MEMBERSHIP AT ALL.”

Gee (2005), p. 223

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“THIS ALLOWS US TO ASK ABOUT WHAT THOUGHTS, VALUES, ACTIONS AND INTERACTIONS GO ON IN THIS SPACE, BY WHOM AND WITH WHOM, WITHOUT ASSUMING ANY ONE GROUP MEMBERSHIP, OR FOR THAT MATTER ANY MEMBERSHIP AT ALL.”

Gee (2005), p. 223

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#BAC2018

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This photo, by Thomas Bresson, is licensed under CC BY 4.0

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“A DISTINCTIVE PRODUCT OF FRENCH EDUCATION”El Atia (2008), p. 144

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“A SYMBOL TO THE TRANSITION FROM ADOLESCENCE TO ADULTHOOD”

El Atia (2008), p. 144

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« VOUS ALLEZ VOUS EN SOUVENIR TOUTE VOTRE VIE PARCE QUE C’EST IMPORTANT, PARCE QUE C’EST UN RITUEL, MAIS AUSSI PARCE QUE C’EST UN MOMENT DE PASSAGE. »”

Jean-Michel Blanquer, 2018

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#BAC2018

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WHAT ACTIVITIES DID #BAC2018 PARTICIPANTS ENGAGE IN IN THE MONTH LEADING UP TO THE 2018 BACCALAURÉAT ?

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DATA COLLECTION

▸ collected #bac2018 hashtag using a series of Twitter Archiving Google Sheets (Hawksey, 2014)

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DATA COLLECTION

▸ collected #bac2018 hashtag using a series of Twitter Archiving Google Sheets (Hawksey, 2014)

▸ limited focus to between 17 May 2018 and 17 June 2018

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DATA COLLECTION

▸ collected #bac2018 hashtag using a series of Twitter Archiving Google Sheets (Hawksey, 2014)

▸ limited focus to between 17 May 2018 and 17 June 2018

▸ used rtweet R package (Kearney, 2018) to clean data and collect useful metadata

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DATA COLLECTION

▸ collected #bac2018 hashtag using a series of Twitter Archiving Google Sheets (Hawksey, 2014)

▸ limited focus to between 17 May 2018 and 17 June 2018

▸ used rtweet R package (Kearney, 2018) to clean data and collect useful metadata

▸ resulted in 118,038 tweets (including 109,515 retweets)

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DATA COLLECTION

▸ collected #bac2018 hashtag using a series of Twitter Archiving Google Sheets (Hawksey, 2014)

▸ limited focus to between 17 May 2018 and 17 June 2018

▸ used rtweet R package (Kearney, 2018) to clean data and collect useful metadata

▸ resulted in 118,038 tweets (including 109,515 retweets)

▸ selected 85 most-retweeted posts

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DATA ANALYSIS

▸ first author translated from French to English, supervised by the fourth author

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DATA ANALYSIS

▸ first author translated from French to English, supervised by the fourth author

▸ collectively reviewed all 85 tweets

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DATA ANALYSIS

▸ first author translated from French to English, supervised by the fourth author

▸ collectively reviewed all 85 tweets

▸ first two authors developed nine mutually-exclusive codes describing tweet activity

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DATA ANALYSIS

▸ first author translated from French to English, supervised by the fourth author

▸ collectively reviewed all 85 tweets

▸ first two authors developed nine mutually-exclusive codes describing tweet activity

▸ coded all tweets: 75.29% agreement; .72 Cohen’s kappa

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DATA ANALYSIS

▸ first author translated from French to English, supervised by the fourth author

▸ collectively reviewed all 85 tweets

▸ first two authors developed nine mutually-exclusive codes describing tweet activity

▸ coded all tweets: 75.29% agreement; .72 Cohen’s kappa

▸ resolved all disagreements, combined two codes

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EIGHT THEMES DESCRIBING #BAC2018 ACTIVITY

SHARING NOTES

TWEETS MEANT TO HELP OTHERS BY GIVING ADVICE, SHARING INFORMATION, OR LINKING TO NOTES. - 18 ORIG (21.18%) - 38,602 RT (24.14%)

SLACKING, DOUBTING, AND FEARING

TWEETS, EITHER HUMOROUS OR SERIOUS, THAT EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT PERFORMANCE ON THE BAC OR THAT CALL ATTENTION TO HOW LITTLE WORK A STUDENT HAS DONE OR IS DOING TO PREPARE. - 13 ORIG (14.29%) - 11,283 RT (7.06%)

REQUESTING RETWEETS

TWEETS THAT INVITE OTHER PARTICIPANTS TO RETWEET THE ORIGINAL POST, TYING THE ACT OF RETWEETING TO SUCCESS OR FAILURE ON THE EXAM. - 11 ORIG (12.94%) - 47,629 RT (29.78%)

PREFERRING PROMPTS

TWEETS THAT IDENTIFY PROMPTS THAT STUDENTS WOULD PREFER TO HAVE OR NOT TO HAVE ON THEIR TEST. - 10 ORIG (11.76%) - 11,793 RT (7.37%)

COMPLAINING

TWEETS THAT EXPRESS FRUSTRATION WITH THE BAC OR WITH OTHER STUDENTS. - 10 ORIG (11.76%) - 8,235 RT (5.15%)

CONNECTING WITH BAC HERITAGE OR EXPERIENCE

TWEETS THAT ACKNOWLEDGE THE BAC’S ROLE IN FRENCH SOCIETY AND HISTORY OR COMMENT ON BAC NORMS AND PRACTICES. - 9 ORIG (10.59%) - 8,235 RT (5.15%)

JOKING

TWEETS THAT ARE STRICTLY AMUSING AND DID NOT FALL INTO OTHER CATEGORIES. - 8 ORIG (9.41%) - 26,708 RT (16.70%)

SHOWING AWARENESS OF TIME

TWEETS THAT COMMENT ON HOW CLOSE THE BAC IS, USUALLY OUT OF EXCITEMENT OR DREAD. - 6 ORIG (7.06%) - 3,761 RT (2.35%)

WHAT DOES THIS TEACH US?

“LEARNING IS NOT GENERAL, BUT SPECIFIC”

Gee (2003), p. 7

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ACADEMIC LEARNING

“SOCIAL MEDIA AS A SPACE FOR LEARNING WITH VARYING ATTRIBUTES OF FORMALITY AND INFORMALITY “

Greenhow & Lewin (2016), p. 14

SHARING NOTES

SOCIAL LEARNING

“FACEBOOK CAN ACT AS AN IMPORTANT SITE FOR THE INFORMAL, CULTURAL LEARNING OF BEING A STUDENT, WITH ONLINE INTERACTIONS ALLOWING ROLES TO BE LEARNT, VALUES UNDERSTOOD AND IDENTITIES SHAPED“

Selwyn (2007), p. 4

SLACKING, DOUBTING, AND FEARING

PREFERRING PROMPTS

COMPLAINING

CULTURAL LEARNING

“THE BACCALAURÉAT IS AN ARTIFACT OF FRANCE, ALIGNING PERFECTLY WITH THE ROLE THAT SHOHAMY (2001) ATTRIBUTED TO TESTS: ‘AN EXCELLENT MIRROR, TESTS COULD BE FOR STUDYING THE REAL PRIORITIES OF THOSE IN POWER AND AUTHORITY, AS THESE ARE EMBED- DED IN POLITICAL, SOCIAL, EDUCATIONAL AND ECONOMIC CONTEXTS’ (P. 13).”

El Atia (2008), p. 144

CONNECTING WITH BAC HERITAGE OR EXPERIENCE

SHOWING AWARENESS OF TIME

“RITUALIZED BEHAVIOR, INTUITIVELY RECOGNIZABLE BY ITS STEREOTYPY, RIGIDITY, REPETITION, AND APPARENT LACK OF RATIONAL MOTIVATION IS FOUND IN A VARIETY OF LIFE CONDITIONS, CUSTOMS, AND EVERYDAY PRACTICES”

Boyer & Liénard (2006), p. 1

“A GROUP OF DIGITAL CONTENT UNITS SHARING COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTENT, FORM, AND/OR STANCE”

Shifman (2014), p. 176

REQUESTING RETWEETS

“THIS… AFFINITY SPACE WAS MADE UP OF SMALLER SPACES AND ROUTES AMONG THEM… FOR ANY ONE PERSON THE BIG SPACE COULD GAIN OR LOSE SMALLER SUB-SPACES ACROSS TIME… THE MAP WOULD HAVE BEEN A BIT DIFFERENT FOR EACH PERSON, AND SPACES, AND ROUTES COULD CHANGE ACROSS TIME”

Gee (2017), pp. 27-28

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THANK YOU! QUESTIONS?

SPENCER P. GREENHALGH (SPENCER.GREENHALGH@UKY.EDU) UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY CYNTHIA NNAGBORO (CYNTHIA.NNAGBORO@UKY.EDU) UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY RENEE KAUFMANN (RENEE.KAUFMANN@UKY.EDU) UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY SARAH GRETTER (SGRETTER@MSU.EDU) MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

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