Abstract

This chapter examines the effectiveness of social media (Twitter) as a meaningful platform to build a community of support for students. The chapter takes inspiration from the ALT Early Career Symposium, 2019, which brought together a group of academics with varying degrees of teaching and research experience from across the United Kingdom. Reflecting on the use of social media as a teaching tool, this chapter asks whether this has an impact on more traditional face-to face networking? Further, the chapter also examines the use of Twitter in supporting students during a course and in sustaining that support to ensure a long-term and tangible network. Within the chapter the author evaluates how Twitter assists in creating an academic ‘community’ in a world where communication is increasingly electronic, and where law schools are evolving to more distance learning models. The chapter considers how this impacts and ‘de-humanises’ the student experience: is it supplementary, or a new normal? In a culture of diverse methods of study, and varying barriers to learning, is social media is of value in this context?