In the news EDEY

Abstract

Using twitter for professional and academic purposes can encourage students and tutors to become ‘connected educators’ (Catapano 2017) and extend expert networks, increase social capital (Rehm et al 2015), whilst improving digital literacy necessary for the sector (Brodie 2011). With this in mind the #InTheNewsEDEY was introduced on twitter for students studying on all undergraduate Education and Early Childhood Studies (ECS) awards. This research will reflect on the impact of the hashtag for students studying the ECS part-time top-up between 6th February and 27th March. Kuh (2009) believes student engagement is the time and effort students invest in educational activities explicitly linked to their desired outcomes, thus this cohort have been chosen in particular as during this time frame, they were engaging in face to face debates related to #InTheNewsEDEY topics and signposts in preparation for an assessed debate.