Creating “Spaces” for Professional Development: Education Organizations’ Use of Facebook

Abstract

The affordances of the Web enable teacher collaboration and growth through learning communities within Web 2.0 environments (Greenhow, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009). Through a qualitative analysis of education organization profiles and postings on Facebook, we examined ways education organizations use social networking sites as a platform to promote trends and issues in education and to promote best practices. Data represents five education organizations and analysis shows the types and frequency of information posted for their followers on Facebook. Social media have the potential to impact professional development in many fields.