I admit it: I'm a data junkie. It seems a new report on who-uses-what comes out every few months. Because you have to be careful who you believe, I always look for the original source of the survey or poll. In this case, it's the Pew  Research Center's Internet and American Life Project 2012, which I consider a reliable source.

As educators, we can use the data from the Pew report to inform our teaching strategies the same ways businesses use it for marketing.  According to the data, we can use for example, Facebook, to market a product or create a learning community for 18-29 year old Hispanic urban women with some college who earn more than $30,000 year.

By knowing our learners we can better craft learning experiences that incorporate social media. To this end, we can poll our students at the start of each semester to learn their attitudes and preferences for social media. Just as we match the media with the message when we design online learning, we can match the social media with the learner.









Image source and link to article:
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram-Social Media User Demographics 2013
http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-user-demographics_b39963

I've just read a brief article in Edudemic summarizing the results of the annual Pearson Social Media Use by Higher Education Faculty Survey .  I was surprised to learn that just 55% of those surveyed reported using social media professionally, although this indicated an increase over the previous year. Faculty use of social media in teaching increased from 34% in 2012 to 41% in 2013. Blogs and wikis comprised a single category and were the heavy favorite for assignments in which students created or commented on content, followed by podcasts. Blogs and wikis and podcasts were equally used for read/watch/listen assignments. Twitter and Linked In were seldom used, and Facebook only marginally. The survey also reports on faculty attitudes about technology and communication as well as concerns about using social media in teaching. 

After reading the article I noted the numbers in the "share" categories: 1,012 Tweets, 611 Facebook Likes, 351 Pins, and 175 Linked In shares. These numbers make me wonder: if I infer that faculty are tweeting the article, how can we encourage them to expand their use of Twitter in the classroom? 
 
Read the article here: 
How Social Media is Being Used In Education 
http://www.edudemic.com/social-media-in-education/