In today’s digital era, our online interactions leave a significant trace known as "digital footprints." This study explores how these footprints, particularly in the form of tweets, can offer valuable insights into the processes of learning and concept representation.
The research, titled "Representation and Learning of Concepts on Twitter: An Analysis of Tweets as Digital Footprints", examines the production of tweets by university students to understand how concepts are formed and expressed in the digital environment of social media.
The researchers take an innovative approach by considering tweets not just as simple messages, but as complex indicators of cognitive and emotional processes.
The study focuses on three key aspects: content (the concepts themselves), container (the Twitter platform), and context (including emotional factors).
The findings reveal interesting patterns in how students use Twitter for conceptual learning, such as the tendency to produce tweets with positive sentiments, high textual objectivity, and significant use of specific intellectual operations like iso-ordination.
This research sheds light on learning processes in the digital age and suggests new possibilities for using digital footprints as educational tools. By exploring the intersection of technology, cognition, and emotion, the study opens promising avenues for understanding and enhancing educational processes in the context of social media.
The findings on students’ Twitter usage patterns and the characteristics of their conceptual tweets provide valuable information for educators and researchers interested in leveraging social media for learning.
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How to cite: Buitrago-Ropero, M. E., & Chiappe Laverde, A. (2023). Representation and Learning of Concepts on Twitter: An Analysis of Tweets as Digital Footprints. RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 26(2), 45–67. https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.26.2.36244
