The authors of the study, Twitter Use and its Effects on Student Perception of Instructor Credibility were looking to see if college students’ regard for their instructors would be influenced by an instructors’ social media feeds.  I think it’s interesting that they used manipulated Twitter feeds from an imaginary instructor.  The concept of an instructor you cannot meet either in person or via video, would make me ultra-leary. I don’t know that I would trust any Twitterer that had not been vetted by someone I already knew.  I guess I have these questions to my own kids rattling around in my brain, “Have you met them face-to-face?”  “No, then, which of your face-to face friends has met them?”

That said, I suppose now, with building my PLN, it won’t be possible to form a strong opinion before I click follow.  If I haven’t sought them out because of someone else’s recommendation, then I guess my entire opinion of them will be based on the bit of a bio they put on and then their Twitterfeed.  Do they follow many people?  Whom do they follow?  Do many people follow them?  Who follows them?  I suppose I could try googling their name, if it isn’t a pseudonym.  If I see a lot of tweets or retweets that jive with my own beliefs,  that would make them more credible.  What if they have opposing beliefs?  Just because they have a different viewpoint doesn’t mean they do not possess ethos.

People can demonstrate ethos if their Twitterfeeds favour viewpoints that are also indicative of intelligence, character and goodwill.  This might be easier to do with professional tweets but isn’t impossible with social ones.  I think it would come down to our relationships.  If I know the person face-to-face, I can add my instincts to the analysis, but if I don’t, then I think it would come down to what I believe is appropriate for our relationship.  The threshold for TMI would be much lower in a new relationship.  Now if that person was my instructor, pretending I wouldn’t be spooked by a lack of face-to-face time, I suppose eventually their teaching style would become an indicator of their credibility more so than whatever they tweet.

As a teacher, I think I am wary of putting anything too personal on social media, especially since I live in the same community in which I teach.  Many of the kids know where I live.  I know another teacher in the same area who saw an item on the local moms’ Facebook page evaluating her class.  Yikes!  We teachers are warned about keeping teacher-student relationships as professional as possible in order to protect ourselves.  So maybe we prefer relationships with our instructors to remain that way, at least for a while.