I’ve been curious about trends among educational technology posts to Google+, so I decided to do a little analysis just for fun. I went to two popular educational technology communities, and looked at and categorized the most recent 50 posts from each, for a total of 100 educational technology posts.
Keep in mind that I am not pretending that this is a completely valid analysis. My categorizations were probably biased even though I tried hard to keep them as unbiased as possible. There are also a few other obvious flaws with this methodology, but, like I said, I did this only for fun and interest’s sake. The other thing I’d like to mention is that I am not passing judgement on posts for falling into one category rather than another. I’m far from a prolific or high quality Google+ user myself.
I did make note of the topic of each post because that was useful for some of my analysis. However because I don’t want people to feel judged, since that’s not my intention, I won’t mention any of the titles or specific topics. I also didn’t make note any of the names of the posters.
The Three Categories
1. Did the post contain original material, was it a repost or a link to someone else’s material, was it a mix of both (such as a review of content in a link)?
I counted questions and requests for feedback as original material. I did not look at comments because it would have taken a lot longer for me to do so, and it would have made the results more difficult to sort through. However, it is doable, so I may add this if I were to do this again. I imagine that the number of original material would increase substantially if I had considered comments in my analysis.
2. Did the post promote student-centred teaching and learning, teacher-centred teaching and learning, or either one/unclear? I also added a “Not Applicable” option for posts that weren’t directly about teaching and learning.
3. Did the post promote a product or service that the poster or his/her company was selling? This one was a bit tricky to figure out and to categorize at times.
Future Additions
As I was collecting the information, I also thought of three other categories that I could add if I were to do this again. I didn’t feel like going back and adding those categories this time, though.
1. I was thinking of the SAMR model and thought it would be interesting to see how many posts promoted S and A use of technology, and how many of the posts promoted M and R use of technology.
2. I would like to see how many posts are directed towards elementary school teachers, senior school teachers, university teachers, or a mix of those.
3. I would like to see how many posters are posting on behalf of a company.
I may do something similar with Twitter, but the comparison would be more difficult since a lot of Tweets are replies, and I didn’t include comments in this analysis. It can be done, though.
The Results
Original Content or Link/Repost to Other Content?
Posting or Linking to Lists
How many posts are lists? (e.g. 5 things you didn’t know about Google Drive)
Content of the Original Posts
Promotion of Product from Original Posts
How many original content posts came from people who are directly or indirectly promoting a product or service they or their company sells? For this one, I removed the posts that were photo albums, one-liner inspirational quotes, gibberish, and questions or requests for feedback.
Overall Promotion of Product
How many posts came from people who are directly or indirectly promoting a product or service they or their company sells?
I didn’t get the data, but I realized that many of the original content posts that didn’t promote someone’s own or their company’s product were written by a very small number of people, perhaps two or three.
Student-Centred Learning, Teacher-Centred Learning, or Not Directly about Teaching?
Doors Marked Pull 