I believe that it is actually very healthy and productive for academics to use social media and to avoid focusing on one thing for an extended time (“Do we have to tweet?”, Opinion, 17 August). The break and the look outwards provide stimulation and possibly insight. The fact that talented researchers have to use social media to be “found” seems more like a failing in that higher education is not effectively aggregating research and researchers. This gap can be bridged only by higher education, and it currently means that students miss opportunities, good research talent is not aligned with cutting-edge work, and industry fails to find research with the potential to be commercialised.
Aggregation is marketing, but if there are not more central catalogues to help with this, it comes down to individual competition, with aggregation happening through social media and search engines.
jsaley
Via timeshighereducation.com
Send to
Letters should be sent to: THE.Letters@tesglobal.com
Letters for publication in Times Higher Education should arrive by 9am Monday.
View terms and conditions.