They interviewed people who were teaching for 3-5 years instead of “more than 10 years.” Paul McCloskey of Campus Technology writes about a recent Forrester Research survey of 677 faculty and the title of his article “Survey: Professors Tepid on Social Media Tools” isn’t accurate because it gives the impression that professors in general are tepid. The survey didn’t quite show that – in fact, more of the professors surveyed have blogs (10%) than Americans (8%), 35% of those surveyed feel podcasting is a valuable tool for reaching students, and close to 50% said they felt that social networking tools have an impact on how students learn.

A look at those teaching for a shorter period of time would likely show a dramatic rise in the number using blogs, or the number who think social media has a direct impact on learning. Even considering the time and effort dedicated to tenure, I think those teaching for a shorter period of time would place higher value on social media because it has likely been a more central part of their lives, and something they’d likely be working into their teaching and research because they see it as vital.