ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed many educators into “panic mode” as they were forced to make a rapid transition to remote learning and quickly adopt digital technologies. Because not everyone feels they are digitally literate to teach online, it led to an alternative collaboration on social media, especially among educators in the U.S. to exchange resources. Out of many platforms, Facebook emerged as a critical platform for educators to create this pandemic community. Thus, this study aimed to understand how and why educators have utilized this space by observing one private Facebook group for educators with over 30,000 members. Applying uses and gratifications theory to a thematic analysis, this study identified educators’ professional and personal needs that defined their digital resources and emotional fulfillments. Examining this Facebook group during the pandemic will help to understand its central usage and different interactions that have transformed panic into informal social collaborations.
