The use of social networks (SNs) in our societies has implied the transformation of the traditional communicative referents and impacts how knowledge is created and shared. For the last years -and increasingly after Covid 19 pandemic- there has been a genialized scenario that urges teachers to use social media to showcase their academic work, find new ways of getting in touch with students, or update. However, the motivations and specific uses vary across the educational stages. To understate these differences in compulsory and higher education, we analyzed data from the research project (FCT-20-15761) funded by FECYT (Spain), addressing the attitudes and practices towards the academic use of SNs in Spanish teachers. An online survey gathered data for 937 teachers (533 women, 49% compulsory; Mage= 47.00; SD=9.65). Results showed that 90% of teachers report using SNs for academic purposes in the last six months. The mean frequency of use is four times a week. The main SNs used to learn about scientific advances and developments in their area of expertise was YouTube for compulsory teachers and ResearchGate for university professors. For the compulsory education teacher, the main reason for using SNs is to improve and update how they teach, whereas university professors reported increased professional visibility. Higher education teachers showed a higher level of interest in variables related to the improvement or importance of skills in managing social networks than compulsory teacher ps<.001. Significant differences and similarities are discussed in terms of practical applications. Authors:
Elias Said-Hung, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja, Spain
Catalina Argüello-Gutiérrez, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Spain
Ángela Martín-Gutiérrez, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Spain

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Elias Said-Hung is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at Universidad Internacional de la Rioja in Spain

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