The School of Media Studies and Information Technology are honoured and proud to announce that on October 12, Andrea Tavchar successfully completed her PhD defense.

Andrea’s thesis title: “Are there perks to being a Twitter wallflower? Peripheral participants in a Twitter-enabled learning space in public relations and higher education”

Despite the fact that industry expects PR graduates to be knowledgeable in the professional use of Twitter, the majority of PR students are seen to engage only peripherally within the requisite Twitter learning environment. Andrea’s mixed-methods study revealed that peripheral participation warrants understandings and recognition not only as a legitimate but as a complex and rich learning modality. This study offers voice to a misunderstood majority of students who struggle with the transition between personal and professional use of educational and social media networks. The findings highlight the need to develop flexible learning spaces that best prepare young people with the digital literacies required for technologically-mediated communications, particularly in the contexts of professional education.

Andrea’s advisors were: Dr. Megan Boler (Supervisor, Professor, OISE, UToronto), Dr. Clare Brett (Professor, OISE, UToronto) and Dr. Leslie Regan Shade (Professor, Faculty of Information Sciences, UToronto).

Congratulations to Andrea on this milestone accomplishment!