Twitter Research: Post 1 of ?

As an early adopter of Twitter, I was also early to depart … as least as a frequent user. While I check in a few times a week to lurk within my “hidden network” (more on that in future posts), I now only make the occasional tweet … usually when I am out and about at some event of interest (to me). However, I have always had the itch to look into Twitter, specifically the nature of the communication within a sub-network, such as the loosely joined cluster of folks interested in edtech matters. I now have the opportunity this semester in a Qualitative Research course to do just that. Therefore, I will be dusting off my trusty blog to post my reflections on the process here … largely due to a journaling requirement in the course, but also to openly (not a requirement) share the research processes I will be undertaking.

To kick off the course, we received a great refresher from our ODU librarian, Nancy Schafer, during class last night. How cool is that that she has a meebo chat embedded on her personal page? Even though I am very familiar with the wonderful online library features at ODU, I did learn a couple of tricks. Of particular interest was Nancy’s use of Google Scholar. It may have been there for some time, but I now see that Google Scholar is featured on our library home page. While I regularly incorporate a Google Scholar search in my personal bag-o-tricks, I had always considered Google Scholar to be more underground than academically mainstream. However, with the ability to download to citation software and to link directly to holdings in a chosen library within Google Scholar preferences, I wonder if the competition to licensed databases will result in pushback from same. As we see all the time (for example, Zotero encroaching on Thomson Reuter’s Endnote turf), the established guys rarely leave the new guys to run wild in their established (and lucrative) higher education territories.