social media in educational practices

Social Media in Education: 13 Ideas for the Classroom

Since gaining widespread popularity in the early 2010s, social media has been a controversial topic when it comes to using it for education. However, many educators are now embracing social media as a teaching tool with a wide array of benefits for learning.

From parent-teacher communications to organizing group projects to developing digital literacy, social media has the potential to enhance the curriculum at any grade level — provided it is used responsibly. Here, we’ll explore eight platforms and five possible uses for social media in the classroom, plus some best practices for keeping it a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone.

How Social Media is Reshaping Education

Pros & cons of social media for students, 8 ways teachers can use social media in the classroom, 5 social media lesson ideas to try, faqs about social media in education.

As around 60% of the world’s population knows, social media can be an effective way to share news, find communities, build social networks and disseminate information instantly to a broad audience. According to Pew Research, 95% of American teens use at least one social media platform — so it makes sense that educators would seek to engage their students using technology they already interact with daily.

Teachers can use social media to organize group projects, communicate with students outside of class, share resources, and much more. Social media also has the potential to connect schools to the wider community for purposes including:

• Sharing school news
• Promoting school events
• Holding virtual town hall meetings
• Advertising fundraising initiatives
• Sending out emergency alerts

Since 90% of U.S. adults are also on social media (and many likely access it on their phones ), it is an incredibly useful medium for sending real-time communications to parents and guardians of school-aged children.

Of course, a tool as powerful as social media requires its users to exercise great responsibility to maintain a respectful, safe online environment. Teachers and students should be clear on both the benefits and risks before using these tools for educational purposes.

Benefits of social media in the classroom:

• Real-time communications can increase student engagement, collaboration, communication and overall participation.
• Many students may find it easier to participate in online discussions than in the classroom.
• Students can easily ask each other or their teacher questions about assignments outside of class.
• Students and teachers can quickly share helpful resources at any time.
• Teachers can easily share announcements with the entire class.
• Social media can provide a contingency plan for last-minute remote learning scenarios .
• Students can organize school events with each other or with the help of a teacher.
• Teachers can augment an online-only class by establishing a social media page or account strictly for building community.
• Students can practice using social platforms responsibly, including maintaining a respectful online discourse.
• Parents can stay informed of school news via a convenient, easily accessible platform.
• Teachers can communicate directly with parents as needed, especially if parents cannot attend an in-person meeting.
• Educators can build and enhance their own tech literacy skills to add to their portfolios.
• Most, if not all, social media platforms are free.

Downsides of using social media in the classroom:

• Social media can be a major distraction in class, especially if students are accessing their personal accounts independently. Private side conversations, off-topic activities and mindless scrolling can all happen when students are granted in-class internet access.
• If students primarily use social platforms to participate in class discussions, they can miss out on practicing face-to-face conversations and respectful in-person discourse.
• Some students may see social media assignments as an opportunity to cyberbully their classmates , so it’s critical that teachers set firm ground rules about responsible social media use.
• There is always a risk of a group member posting inappropriate content or language, since it is difficult to manage how students use social media platforms independently. Teachers must be responsible and attentive administrators to prevent and address inappropriate behavior.

While fewer school-aged young people are using Facebook today (about 32%, Pew finds), it can still be a useful tool for maintaining an online community, posting updates, sharing links and asking questions. Facebook can be used to organize specific projects, communicate with classes, form student clubs, plan events and more. The instant group chat function can facilitate real-time discussions, and Facebook Live enables teachers to lead virtual lessons, stream lectures and hold Q&A sessions. As administrators, teachers can set Facebook groups to private or invite-only to maintain a safe space for students.

Twitter can serve as more of a bite-sized message board where teachers can post short project updates, announcements, links to helpful resources or answer students’ questions. The platform can also serve as the basis for lessons in using concise language , since each post is limited to 280 characters — a valuable skill for both essay writing and future professional communications. Teachers can create dedicated handles or hashtags for each of their classes and invite both students and their guardians to follow along.

Blog posts provide another way for students to practice their essay writing, an increasingly important skill for higher grade levels. Instead of maintaining physical reading journals, students can submit weekly blog posts with their reflections and responses to assigned readings. Teachers can also use blogs to communicate project instructions during remote learning days or vacations and even write up a semester report for parents and guardians to review.

This is an excellent tool for sharing visual resources like infographics, artistic inspiration, tutorials or examples of finished projects. Many teachers use Pinterest to collect and organize their own lesson ideas, so creating a board (or several) where students can pin their own resources encourages collaboration and learning ownership. While students of all ages respond well to visuals, Pinterest may be particularly popular with younger students who are still practicing their reading skills.

Another great visual platform, Instagram can be useful for teachers to share updates, for administrators to post announcements and for students to post project results or follow accounts that are relevant to course content. Teachers can create class-specific accounts where they post assignments, instructions, resources, updates, and more.

This online community provides a space for anyone to unite around any interest imaginable — from fitness to classic film trivia to poetry. Reddit has a bit of an “anything goes” reputation for its lax posting guidelines, but moderators are typically on hand to mitigate any inappropriate or improper use of the platform. There’s a subreddit for every academic subject, so students can peruse threads for project research (while still verifying any information therein) and even post their own questions for the Reddit community to discuss.

Similar to Reddit, YouTube hosts video resources on any topic under the sun. Teachers can easily share educational videos, tutorials and any other type of video content. YouTube is also a great hosting platform for video projects, where students can upload finished videos for their teachers, classmates and guardians to watch on a private class channel.

This professional networking platform is mostly used by people in the post-school workforce, so high school students may not even be aware of it yet. However, whether they decide to attend college or not, learning how to market their skills and build a professional network can help students navigate the job market after graduation. LinkedIn is also a great place to find articles and other resources to help young professionals build their industry knowledge and skills.

The ideas in this section are merely suggestions for unique ways to use social media in the classroom — but the internet is your and your students’ playground! Use these ideas as jumping-off points for your own social media-based lessons.

• Use blogs to chart learning progress. Blogs can be useful tools for language learning, whether that’s practicing how to craft a five-paragraph essay or improving one’s French writing skills. But this long-form writing platform can also be used to track students’ progress in any subject. For example, have chemistry students write biweekly posts summarizing everything they’ve learned in class, and ask them to revisit and write about certain topics once a semester to practice knowledge retrieval. These posts can also serve as test prep and reminders of any concepts students may need to review.
• Use Instagram or TikTok for visual responses. Most social media platforms popular with young people are visual-based, meaning they rely on images and videos to convey information. Writing skills are essential for school, but sometimes it’s easier (and more fun) for students to engage with their learning using formats they’re more comfortable with. Instead of a written response to a textbook chapter, have students react using an appropriate TikTok trend. If students are required to show their work, ask them to create an Instagram carousel or Reel of their process and post it to a class-specific account.
• Use Twitter to illustrate the dangers of misinformation. Learning to find and cite accurate sources is a key skill for students, especially at higher grade levels. Unfortunately, misinformation is easy to encounter on social media, where anyone can make a claim or spread false information without providing a source. Show students an inaccurate tweet or other social post and ask them to verify or debunk its claims. Have them document their research process and cite the sources they used to fact-check the post.
• Use LinkedIn to help older students craft their resumes. Marketing themselves in a professional sense isn’t always a skill young people learn in school, but it’s a skill that proves useful for nearly every adult. Have students use LinkedIn to craft a professional objective, organize and explain their work and educational experiences, ask for recommendations and start making connections with potential mentors and employers.

Best Practices for Social Media in Education

For many young people, social media is a part of their (and their parents’) everyday lives. Chances are, if a teacher chooses to incorporate social media into a lesson, many students will already be familiar with the platform and how to use it. Since students may be accustomed to using social media outside of an educational context, it’s crucial that teachers set ground rules and expectations for the appropriate use of these tools.

The following are some best practices that will keep social media a safe and productive place for students and their teachers:

Set professional boundaries: Many teachers also likely have personal social media accounts, so when using these platforms for lessons, it’s best to create an entirely new account dedicated solely to academics. Keep accounts private and invitation-only so that no one besides students and their parents can access the content. No one, teachers included, should be posting anything about their personal lives or content that is unrelated to the course. Invite students to create new user accounts as well to avoid mixing their personal and academic business.

Prioritize increasing digital literacy: Generations of digital natives (including today’s school-aged children and many of their parents) have likely already been practicing online etiquette, but it never hurts to review both practical and appropriate ways to use social media. Remind students that anything they post online has the potential to exist forever, which becomes especially important as they begin to apply to colleges and search for jobs. Students should conduct themselves online just as they are expected to in school.

Promote student achievements: You and your students put in a lot of work during the school year — share your accomplishments with the community! If your school has a public social media account, provide the account manager with information about your class’s latest project or an upcoming showcase so members of the community can see what students have been up to. Not only does this give students an opportunity to show off their work, but it also serves as promotional information for anyone considering enrolling their own children in the school.

Manage multiple accounts from the same place: If you manage multiple accounts for one or more classes, use a tool like Hootsuite or Facebook Publishing (which integrates Facebook and Instagram) to draft and schedule posts for multiple platforms at once. This is especially helpful when students and parents need the same information, but each group predominantly uses a different platform.

Part of a teacher’s job is to never stop learning, whether it’s about the subject matter they teach, new educational tools or innovative ways to engage students. The University of San Diego offers multiple courses for educators in the Professional and Continuing Education program, including classes covering educational technology , digital literacy , equity in the classroom and more. USD also offers certificate programs that focus on specific aspects of education, so that teachers can build a suite of skills in areas like STEAM education or supporting English language learners .

For a full range of USD courses available through the PCE program, explore all course offerings here .

How can I ensure students’ safety on social media?

To protect students’ privacy, keep all class-related social media accounts private or invitation-only and encourage them to set their own accounts to private or create new class-specific profiles. Review proper online etiquette and behavior with students and establish firm consequences for cyberbullying. As a teacher, it’s critical to maintain professional boundaries online, so avoid discussing or posting anything personal on school social media accounts. You may even want to grant access to students’ parents so they can monitor how their children are using these spaces.

How can I use TikTok in my lessons?

According to Pew Research, 67% of U.S. teens use TikTok , with 16% on the app almost constantly. Since so many students already gather in this digital space, teachers can engage them by creatively incorporating it into lessons. Ask students to film reactions to course content using TikTok trends, conduct research via subject matter experts’ posts, or create response videos in place of traditional project reports.

Which social media platform is best for communicating with parents?

It depends on what kinds of content you want to share and which platforms parents and guardians are comfortable using. At the beginning of each school year, send out a survey asking parents to indicate their preferred social media platform, then use the top two results for parent-facing communications. With so many people on multiple social media platforms, it’s best not to limit school news to just one; fortunately, managing multiple accounts at once is simple with social media management tools like Hootsuite and Facebook Publishing.

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15 ways to use social media for education

Written by by Jamia Kenan

Published on  September 6, 2023

Reading time  9 minutes

With remote learning and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), social media is an integral part of education more than ever. There are many different ways to use social media for education inside and outside the classroom.

Because we believe in the power of social media to make nearly anything easier, we will share 15 ways to use social media for education, based on insights shared with us from top institutions.

Benefits of social media in education

Here are our top three benefits of using social media in education:

Benefit 1: Extends learning opportunities

Social media unleashes more learning opportunities. Online classes and remote jobs are the new norm, so teaching students to work from a distance becomes a necessity for digital literacy and preparing them for their careers. Social media platforms support educators in various ways from sharing announcements to holding live lectures.

Benefit 2: Create connections with students and alumni

Social provides a way for institutions to quickly and directly communicate with students, faculty, staff and alumni, fostering connections across various audiences. Social content can attract prospective students, keep parents informed, grow alumni networks, promote on-campus events and more.

Focusing on nurturing community and publishing engaging content can also help increase enrollment. According to our Higher Education Social Media Benchmarks for 2023 report, 41% of school officials can directly attribute increased enrollment to social strategy.

For example, Keele University said their campus photos on Instagram help students solidify their college decision. One student came to the university because she saw their posts on Facebook and it helped confirm her decision, later becoming a digital ambassador for the school.

Benefit 3: Build brand identity

Social supports and amplifies university branding . University marketing teams use social media to maintain a positive brand reputation for their institutions. With the right strategy, colleges and universities can attract more students, increase endowments, promote events or initiatives and improve alumni relations.

Social media in the classroom

From preschool to college, there are so many methods for using social media in the classroom to communicate and educate. Here are seven ways to use social media in the classroom across platforms:

1. Use posts to broadcast updates and alerts

Instructors and colleges can meet students where they are by incorporating social media platforms they’re likely already familiar with like Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter).

Have students follow a class Facebook Page or join a Facebook Group to view posts about course updates, homework assignments and tests. Universities can have publicly accessible pages dedicated to specific schools or departments that students can see even if they aren’t active on Facebook.

When using social media for education, it’s important to maintain a professional boundary. Email students a direct link to the Facebook Group for access and avoid sending friend requests. Groups are the perfect “home base,” especially for online courses because it makes it easy to connect with students. Similarly, instructors and departments can use Posts on X to keep students informed.

2. Use live streaming for lectures and discussions

Instructors can use Facebook Groups, Instagram Live, YouTube Live or LinkedIn Live to stream lectures and facilitate more accessible learning. If a student can’t come to the lecture hall, they can join online or review later. Adding live captions helps students who may be deaf or hard of hearing, non-native speakers, or learn visually. And platforms like Instagram and YouTube allow live streams to be recorded, providing students with review material for midterms and finals season.

Recorded live streams also widen the institution’s reach and authority by making lectures available to scholars and professors from other colleges, states or countries.

3. Use X for class updates and more

X is a great option for providing quick updates and reminders to students. Teachers can create a single handle per class and reuse it every year, or they can create a new handle each school year. Use X threads to share resources like practice quizzes, interesting perspectives or thought-provoking quotes to foster critical thinking. Hashtags can mark specific discussions or chats with guest speakers.

4. Create a class blog for discussions and cross-channel learning

Blogs are another great outlet for incorporating social media in the classroom. Students can link to the class blog on other social channels. For example, a student might share a photo from their visual essay on LinkedIn to attract the attention of recruiters for job or internships. Using blogs as a semester-long assignment can improve students’ short-form writing and critical thinking.

Don’t feel limited to just an English or writing class; this use of social media in education can be transferred across all subjects. There are also several platforms professors can use to create class blogs, such as Tumblr, Medium or WordPress. The course syllabus, updates and resources can be shared on the blog as well.

5. Use Instagram for digital storytelling

Have students practice storytelling on Instagram by creating class-specific accounts where they can present photos or graphics (and delete them once the course is over, if they so choose). This can work especially well in visual-heavy classes: Have photojournalism students post essays or challenge the social media marketing class to create a faux-brand campaign.

6. Create a class-specific Pinterest board

Educators can use Pinterest to prepare and organize resources, lesson plans and worksheets for their classes in one place. They can also set up Pinterest boards for each of their classes and save pins that are relevant to lessons.

Create boards according to class or subject, and create sub-topic boards for weekly units, projects or worksheets. Pinterest can also be useful for students to curate a digital bibliography for research projects, papers or group assignments. Students can pin websites, books or videos to a board on a single topic and refer back to it when it’s time to write an essay or thesis.

7. Prep for post-graduation and create alumni relationships

LinkedIn can help current students develop networking skills, craft their personal brand and connect with alumni. Flexing these career muscles could help them earn internships, gain mentors and secure job offers before they walk across the stage on graduation day.

Institutions can use LinkedIn for university colleges as well.  For example, a business school may have several private LinkedIn Groups for regional alumni chapters to connect them with students and faculty for internships, fundraising, volunteer opportunities and events.

Encouraging students to post relevant articles, projects and research, internship experiences and other academic accomplishments helps the university develop social proof on the platform. This is also an excellent example of the importance of incorporating advocacy into your social strategy.

Social media for education marketing

Just as there were many ways to use social media in the classroom, there are also many uses for social media in education marketing. Social media marketing can help if you’re looking to reach a larger audience for your college or university. Let’s dive into how social media can empower education marketing.

8. Leverage TikTok creators and influencers for user-generated content

Although many public universities have banned TikTok from campus Wi-fi , some educators and institutions embrace the app to educate and connect with students. Student and teacher influencers can provide user-generated content that satisfies a prospective student’s desire to see authentic content from their peers and future professors.

For example, Chapman University professor @itsmattprince went viral after challenging his class to earn 1 million likes on a TikTok video in exchange for canceling their final:

Fun, yet real-world applications like this illustrate the power of social influence—plus who doesn’t love a canceled final?

9. Include social media links on your school website

In the Higher Education Social Media Benchmarks for 2023 report, we found that 68% of high school students use social channels to research schools. Many parents and prospective students will check a school’s website first if they’re interested, and offering even more ways to follow the school creates a different insight into campus life.

Make it easy for parents and students to find your school’s social media profiles by adding links to the website’s main navigation or creating a social media directory that houses them all in one place.

10. Give a glimpse into student life through photo and video

If you want to attract new students and parents to your school, share photos of campus events to showcase what they could expect. Use short-form video like Reels, TikTok or YouTube Shorts to help prospective students envision themselves attending college there.

Highlighting events, sports, extracurriculars and the beauty of campus can make your school stand out from the rest. While school and university websites tend to follow the same mold, social media allows you to be more unique and casual like this Barbenheimer-inspired post from the University of Georgia:

11. Create alumni community groups

Many alumni want to remain involved with their alma mater after graduation. Creating a dedicated community via Facebook Groups or LinkedIn Groups can increase engagement.

For example, the University of Newcastle has over 148,000 alumni. Their team features current students, staff and alumni to amplify the career opportunities that manifest from being part of their community.

Alumni groups, groups for different graduating classes or departments, and groups for different extracurriculars and organizations allow former and current students to engage and meet others with common interests. Take a look at our alumni engagement best practices guide to learn more ways to keep the school spirit flowing.

12. Incorporate a social media crisis strategy

How would you communicate to the entire campus during an emergency? Whether it’s a fire, tornado or other immediate campus emergency, a social media crisis plan can help institutions proactively prepare. Keep parents and students updated on the situation by sharing information about the crisis and if authorities are involved. Many campuses have automated messaging alerts set up, but using social also enables people to be updated in real time.

Institutions can use social listening , which involves analyzing conversations and trends related to your brand , to aid with public relations crisis management plans. Seneca College leveraged Sprout’s capabilities a few years ago when 12,000 staff members went on strike. Using Brand Keywords and the Smart Inbox, the social media team was able to sort through and respond to a deluge of inbound feedback from concerned students.

13. Use chatbots to support students outside of office hours

In our higher education social media playbook , we talk about the importance of social customer service. Using automated replies or chatbots can help the student body get their questions answered immediately, or at least guide them to a solution faster.

Keele University used chatbots via Sprout’s Bot Builder to respond immediately to common questions about courses and bursary information. In the five months after using chatbots, nearly 500 conversations addressed a variety of topics from housing applications to international student services.

14. Iterate social strategy to create student-centric content

Using social media for education allows educators and marketers to meet students where they are by connecting on channels they use everyday. Social creates an opportunity for institutions to be more even more student-centric. But to keep students engaged, institutions will need to produce content that caters to the wants and needs of their audience(s).

If you want to manage your institution’s social channels successfully, you’ll need to iterate and improve your strategy by reviewing the top and lowest performing content.

Dartmouth College uses Sprout’s Sent Messages report to determine content performance and iterate their overall social strategy as needed. After reviewing which posts performed well, they schedule new posts with similar content to inform their content calendar.

15. Manage your communities all under one roof

Social media empowers universities to bring their various audiences together. Many institutions have an extensive community of prospective and current students, faculty, staff and alumni, but this causes a common pain point: decentralization.

Since colleges and universities have multiple social media accounts, it can be difficult to manage them all seamlessly. However, using a social media management software centralizes multiple networks in one place, so overseeing various accounts becomes more manageable and scalable.

Texas A&M University , one of the largest public universities in the nation, uses social media to connect with these various communities. The university has hundreds of departments, 16 colleges and 19 NCAA sports, so using a social media management tool is essential. Their social team uses Sprout’s publishing suite to discuss strategy, collaborate on content creation and provide feedback to interns all on one platform. In just six months, between August 2020 and January 2021,  Texas A&M earned over 131 million impressions and 8.3 million content engagements across X, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

A tool like Sprout Social can help make social media management a breeze, regardless of whether you’re a solo marketer or a full marketing department. Multiple users can use the Sprout platform to create content with consistent messaging and schedule posts across networks at the best time using our ViralPost® feature .

And the Post Performance report takes the guesswork out of identifying what content resonates because teams can pinpoint top posts and view engagement across channels.

Sprout enables you to monitor and manage multiple accounts across different networks, which is ideal for educational institutions. Each department or teacher at your school might have their own separate social media accounts for specific information, and a social media management tool can help you ensure the right posts are going out on each of these accounts.

And if there is news or content relevant to multiple departments, Sprout enables users to share the same content across multiple profiles with a single click.

Start using social media for education

Using social media for education goes beyond the classroom because it helps educators shape a modern holistic learning experience, build community and establish academic authority.

Take some of these ideas for a test drive, and sign up for a free Sprout Social trial to help you manage it all.

• Data Report
• Higher Education

Higher Education Social Media Benchmarks for 2023

• Social Listening

Choose wisely: Higher education marketers take on College Decision Day

How Texas A&M uses Sprout Social to build communities and accessible content

• Social Media Strategy

How the University of Newcastle uses Sprout to power their full funnel marketing strategy

• Now on slide

Build and grow stronger relationships on social

Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection.

• Our Mission

Social Media in Education: Resource Toolkit

This collection of blogs, articles, and videos aims to help educators deploy social-media tools to develop professionally, connect with parents and communities, and engage students in 21st-century learning.

Creating Social Media Guidelines

Davis, in the first half of a pro-and-con discussion about social media in the classroom, positions it as a vital life skill and provides 12 positive examples of classroom use. For the second half of the discussion, read this post by Ben Johnson: " Too Much Technology and Not Enough Learning? "

In this first installment of his Digital Lives of Teens series, Levinson considers the problem of translating the teenage urgency of 'always on' into the mindfulness of 'being present.' Be sure to read all five parts of this series to learn more about about the impact of social media and instant data access on teen life and the role of parents and educators in helping teens to navigate these realities.

Holland, communication coordinator and instructor at EdTech Teacher, gives three age-appropriate examples of introducing social media to children in the lower elementary grades.

Ray covered the social media discussions at SocialEdCon and found that positive changes in student behavior happen when schools and parents embrace, rather than ban, social media.

Student Engagement With Social Media

Engage young readers by showing them the value of composing and sending tweets to authors whose books they've enjoyed during a read-aloud.

• Frictionless Formative Assessment With Social Media , by Paige Alfonzo (2014)

Alfonzo, a reference librarian, cites EMS (experience sampling study) as a foundation for using social media as a formative-assessment tool for students who already live in that world.

Guymon, an online middle school teacher, defines visual literacy and proposes using three popular social-media modes -- Instagram, Emoji, and memes -- to enhance students' academic fluency.

Ito, an expert in young people's use of digital media, shares her research on informal learning in online communities, where students can build technology skills, learn media literacy, and create and share their work.

English teacher Lampinen shows how weekly blogging assignments can transform a high school classroom into a community of enthusiastic writers.

Finley defines social media as the new frontier, and he notes that adolescents are the early frontierspersons. Included in this blog are ten tips for adding social-media tools into the classroom.

Selecting Social-Media Tools

Social media can enhance differentiated instruction if the tools are selected with a careful eye on individual students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles.

Heick suggests helping students find their voice in the classroom through technology, whether a medium in which they're already comfortable or one that you believe will make them more articulate.

Loyola, known for using authentic materials in her Spanish classes, explores ten ways that social media can engage a generation of students who prefer creative and collaborative learning over memorizing vocabulary lists -- including some suggested tools to use.

Hertz gives us the basic on how educators and schools can make the most of Google Hangouts. You may also want to read blogger Andrew Marcinek’s post, “ Google Hangouts as Edtech: Connecting, Sharing, and Learning .”

Home, School, and Community Connections

A school leader shares his strategies for connecting his community via the school website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, WeChat, and staff blogs.

Facebook is a place where schools can take charge of their image. Check out these suggestions for building a page for your school.

While each school community is unique, there's a wide range of digital tools to keep parents involved when face-to-face communication isn't possible.

Through the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) model of technology, school communities can function more easily in supporting students and keeping parents informed.

Mazza presents two new initiatives -- the #Nt2T chat and the Twitter 101 eCourse -- designed to bring teachers, school leaders and parents into the communication- and information-rich Twitterverse.

Social Media for Professional Development

Taking Charge: 5 Key Strategies for DIY PD , by Michelle Manno (2015)

Educators create their own professional-development opportunities with the many resources available via social media, bringing their admins on board with this new model. You may also want to check out the following related articles and posts:

• DIY Virtual Professional Development: Taking Ownership of Your Learning , by Monica Burns (2014)
• The 4 Components of a DIY Professional-Development Toolkit , by Dave Guymon (2014)
• DIY Professional Development: Resource Roundup (2014)

By journaling about your challenges and triumphs, you grow as a teacher. By blogging about them, you affirm, inspire, and help others grow. For additional resources and guidance to help you start your teacher blog, also see Matt Davis's " Start Your Teaching Blog: Resources, Advice, and Examples ."

Holland recalls how she came to recognize that professional learning embodies curating, sharing, and connecting, and reviews the tools that help her meet these needs.

Dabbs provides another helpful, encouraging guide to developing your social-media savvy.

Whitby, a 40-year veteran of the teaching profession and an extremely connected educator, offers some basic, practical wisdom about what a PLN is and how to get one -- including tips for interacting and collaborating on social media. Also, check out George Couros’s post, " 21st-Century PLNs for School Leaders ," for additional tips geared toward school leaders.

Digital Citizenship and Online Safety

Teach your students about the "9 Key Ps" of digital citizenship as you help them acquire both proactive and experiential knowledge of the online world.

As cyberbullying increases, our best options are recognizing patterns, keeping evidence, intervening when appropriate, reporting any incidents, and educating everyone -- bullies included.

Hertz considers the problem of digital distraction in school, the dividing line between mobile devices helping and harming student performance, and the good-sense policy of teaching self-management skills.

Curwick, who was a high school senior when this post was written, describes how he decided to fight high school cyberbullying with a positive-themed Twitter account and ended up launching a global niceness trend.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act was put in place in 1998; Watters suggests that it could be time for a review.

Check out Edutopia's big list of articles, videos, and other resources on internet safety, cyberbullying, digital responsibility, and media and digital literacy. You can find all of Edutopia's content about digital citizenship, including relevant community discussions, on Edutopia's digital citizenship page; be sure to "+Follow" the page to receive updates.

Additional Resources on the Web

• The Guide to Pinterest for Educators , USC Rossier School of Education (2016)
• " Bringing Twitter to the Classroom ," The Atlantic (2014)
• " Should Schools Teach Social Media Skills? ," KQED's MindShift (2013)
• " Say Hello to Teachers on Pinterest! " Pinterest's "Oh, How Pinteresting!" blog (2013)
• " 11 Sites and Apps Kids Are Heading to After Facebook , Common Sense Media (2013)
• " Teachers Talk About Using Social Media ," Educational Horizons (2013)
• " 8 Ways to Use Social Media to Connect and Coordinate With Parents ," The Innovative Educator (2013)
• " Kids Online: A New Research Agenda for Understanding Social Networking Forums ," The Joan Ganz Cooney Center (2012)
• " The Teacher's Guide to Twitter ," Edudemic (2012)
• " 100 Twitter Tips for Teachers ," TeachThought (2012)
• " A Simple Guide on the Use of Hashtag for Teachers ," Educational Technology and Mobile Learning
• A Blog about Social Media in Education , edSocialMedia
• Learn Voxer, Joe Mazza's Lead Learner blog

How Social Media is Reshaping Today’s Education System

by Lori Wade

There’s no denying that, ever since social networks and social media made way into our lives, everything is different. Beginning with the way we socialize, interact, plan for parties or even how often we go out. We won’t go into a debate regarding the ethical aspects of the way Social Media is influencing our lives. Instead, this article proposes to focus on the numerous ways in which social media is changing the way the education system works. So, stay tuned to find out what effects does social networking have on the way our children are educated both at school and outside of it.

Empowering Effects Starting from elementary school up until university graduation, social media has the role to empower parents, students and teachers to use new ways of sharing information and build a community. Statistics show that 96% of the students that have internet access are using at least one social network . What’s even more extraordinary is that, even though some of the students use the social networks for entertaining and other purposes, there are a lot of them that actually use it to promote a lot of positive and useful activities. From finding a summer internship, promoting a success story about how to win the student-loan battle or collaborate on international projects, everything is made possible.

Implementation in Schools? When it comes to social media, schools tend to adopt different positions. It’s a general consensus that they’re useful when it comes to sharing information or organizing the school tasks. And at the same time, the social networking is blamed for the lack of attention in students during classes.

But an increasing trend of adopting social media in school is starting to show. And since students already devote a lot of time for social media and connecting with others outside school hours, why not do it during school as well?

It’s a matter of practicability, really, because it makes perfect sense to use the online universe to communicate with your students since they’re already there most of the time. There’s no need for another case study about the usage of social media in schools. You simply need to walk through the hallways of any school or colleague to see kids of all ages totally immersed in their smartphones. Browsing their news feed, sharing photos on Instagram of sending Snapchat messages has become a part of their daily routine.

How Can Teachers Penetrate the Online World? Moodle and Blackboard are just two examples of learning management system that involves online learning for more than 10 years now. Slowly but steady, such systems will lead to the actual implementation of social media within classrooms. And the best tool available for teachers is social media itself. Only by being open-minded and using the technology themselves will they be able to really reach out to students.

“ The best teachers I’ve ever had have used technology to enhance the learning process, including Facebook pages and events for upcoming projects” – Katie Benmar, Freshman

  As the above statement emphasizes, students also react very positively when a teacher is willing to use their methods and adapt them as part of the educational process. And it makes perfect sense since a homework has a certain strictness about it, but an online chat discussing a certain book gives students the ability to open up and share their opinions.

Daring Teachers Of course, the examples of teachers already implementing social media in classes are far numerous that we can know of, however, there are a few that did such a great job that their students almost made them viral. For example, a biology teacher from Bergen County proposed a challenge to his students. They had to debate over the subject of meiosis on Twitter by using a specific hashtag. This is a great opportunity for students to have fun and learn at the same time. As you need to know your meiosis in order to compress it into 140 characters.

“ We live in a digital ecosystem, and it is vital that educational institutions adapt ”

Carla Dawson – Digital Marketing Professor at the Catholic University of Cordoba

Professor Dawson really has a valid point there as history showed us all that, no matter how strong the resistance, technological progress and new trends will eventually become a standard. Of course, this applies to developed countries that already have a well-structured traditional educational system. It’s a totally different situation when it comes to developing countries that are still struggling to find their way.

A Stronger Community Through Social Media The benefits of social media in the education process doesn’t have to stop at the teacher-student relationship. There are a lot of other benefits that can be extracted from the use of social networking at higher levels as well. For example, principals or administrators can find a new way to integrate social media. Like sharing school news via social networks, holding online meeting with the parents or even starting fundraising for different projects.

And social media can quickly become the only channel of communication since we’re living fast-paced lives, parents are usually busy with work and cannot attend school meetings. But this doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be in touch with events or be able to check on their kids every once in awhile. Just like in every other field, communication is vital and if it can be done easily with the help of social media, why not go for it?

It may not be criteria just yet, but soon enough questions like ‘Does this school have a Facebook page?’ could become just as important as the things that parents are asking right now. Like, how well equipped the library is or what are the optional classes their child can be part of.

Conclusions The bottom line is that social media is a big part of our day to day life and there’s no point of keeping it away from the education process. School, college and university staff should be encouraged to make use of technology for student and parent communication. This could easily turn into an argumentative essay topic for college . But the benefits are obvious, starting with healthier parent-teacher relationships and all the way to permanently changing the way our children will learn.

Teaching with Social Media

Statement on guidelines for the use of social media as an instructional tool.

The Committee on Courses of Instruction (COCI) in consultation with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), Educational Technology Services (ETS), and the Privacy Office recognize that social media are embedded into the lives of many 21st century students. In recent months COCI has received proposals for new courses that include the use of third party social media platforms that are not licensed by the University as part of the instructional activities. COCI recognizes that the use of social media as a communication channel can help create a collaborative learning environment and engage students in a discussion of course topics in a more dynamic and current, authentic way. Instructional staff (e.g. professors, lecturers, graduate instructors, etc.) earnestly work to keep their curriculum relevant and to find timely ways to engage students in course topics. However, requiring students to register for, post, upload, or otherwise communicate via a social media platforms not licensed by the University (such as Facebook, Twitter, Piazza, and many others) raise concerns about privacy, accessibility, and equity that make such required assignments potentially problematic.

COCI asks that instructors first and foremost consider the question: Does your use of the social media platform adhere to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)? It is the instructor’s responsibility to adhere to FERPA. Among other items, student records that are protected under FERPA include: grades, class lists, and schedules. Participating in a social media platform as part of a class assignment could potentially disclose a student’s class enrollment. Comments or feedback on social media could disclose a student grade. Or class activity planning via social media (e.g. field trips, outside research, etc) could disclose a student’s schedule. Each scenario places the student, instructor, and University at risk.

Furthermore, COCI recommends that instructors consider the following questions as they contemplate using social media in their pedagogy:

1. What pedagogical enhancement does the assignment gain by being on a third party social media platform? When thinking about using a social medium it is important to have a clear objective and understanding of how this medium will enhance or be a value-add to the course instruction. Tools and applications that are licensed by the campus may suit your pedagogical goals in a fairly similar manner but include the added benefit of having been reviewed for adherence to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and privacy concerns.

2. Is the functionality you need available in an application either produced or licensed by the University that can support the same outcome? If the University provides or licenses a service that allows for the same, or equivalent, benefit as the third party social media platform, the University service should preempt any third party tool. This helps to ensure that University policy, protections, and support is provided to the instructional activity.

3. What is the vendor/company doing with the information they are collecting about the student? Facebook is an obvious case where the company markets directly to account holders. There are also platforms that market “free” tools for instructors and students directly applicable to online learning. However, these companies sometimes/often are mining the data generated by students to use as a revenue generation tool (e.g. providing it to potential employers).

4. What tools are being provided by the instructor/university, or must students have personal access in order to participate? Some social media forums are multidevice functional and transition easily from laptop to smartphone to tablet. Some are solely designed for single device use. Willingness by students to use social media does not necessarily equate with all students being able to access the tool equally. Also, social media platforms may not support the assistive technology tools used by students who experience disabilities. Students who are unable to or unwilling to access the social media platform may feel they have no choice, or are being singled out unfairly.

5. What are the long-term ramifications of the assignment? Part of the experience of college is for students to explore their own ideas and opinions that may transform over their time at Berkeley and beyond. The permanency of social media means that a single comment posted today can follow the student across their entire life. As an example, many employers now research a potential candidate’s social media profile(s) prior to making hiring decisions.

In the same measure, some students curate their social media persona very carefully, choosing to promote political, social, and personal beliefs in very specific ways. Engaging in a class assignment may not align with individual expressions the student has self-established. Issues of constitutionally protected freedoms and highly valued academic expression freedoms become relevant in this scenario. With many third-party platforms requiring the use of real names, the ability of a student to use an alias or pseudonym may not be viable under the legal terms of the third party platform. Knowing that these questions are broad and that the nature of social media is ever changing, the Center for Teaching and Learning has established a repository of resources for instructors to find more support (see: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/teaching-socialmedia ).

Resources on Teaching With Social Media

Tips from Social Media for Educators: Strategies and Best Practices

8 Things You Should Know Before Using Social Media in Your Course

Learning in Bursts: Microlearning with Social Media

(includes privacy considerations and partial mitigations for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook)

FERPA and Social Media

I s Your Use of Social Media FERPA Compliant?  

Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Classroom

Consenting Adults? Privacy in an Age of Liberated Learning Data

Overcoming Hurdles to Social Media in Education

Facebook 'real name' policy stirs questions around identity

Repository of Campus Policies and Other Guides

Berkeley Privacy Office

Educational Technology Services

Residential Computing: Resources

UC Statement on Privacy Values

UC Berkeley Social Media Guidelines

UC Statement of Privacy Values and UC Privacy Principles

UC Principles of Community

Social Media in the Classroom: Opportunities, Challenges & Recommendations

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Opportunities & Challenges with Social Media

Recommendations for using social media in the classroom, social media faq.

The EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR) conducts an annual survey of over 250 institutions of higher education, including the University of Washington, examining the technology experiences of undergraduates and faculty. A recent ECAR survey included questions exploring faculty and student perceptions of and experiences with social media as an academic resource. While the ECAR findings raise more questions than they answer, there is significant evidence that UW faculty and students are interested in the potential utility of social media as a learning tool. Read on for to learn about opportunities and challenges with social media in the classroom as well as recommendations, authored in consultation with the University Registrar, for incorporating the use of social media in academic work.

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Considering both the potential opportunities and challenges in using social media as an educational tool, UW instructors should take steps to ensure successful adoption in the classroom. Fortunately, best practices and guidelines can help set appropriate expectations for using social media in teaching and learning. These recommendations, created in consultation with the University Registrar, address actions that can be taken by instructors.

What is social media?

Social media is a communication tool that allows users to interact with, and contribute to, content online. It includes popular online social networks such as Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, with new platforms emerging. Although social media has a large presence in news and entertainment, when used in the learning setting for educational purposes it has the potential to facilitate communication, augmenting the student experience and improving outcomes, by:

• Encouraging interaction and engagement among students
• Nurturing a student-centric learning setting
• Extending the learning environment beyond the classroom
• Facilitating the flow of information between students, faculty, and the campus community

Why would I use social media in my teaching?

Current research suggests that in the higher education setting, social media may be used to improve communication between students, instructors, and the surrounding campus community. While many different types of communication tools are available in the learning setting, the advantage of using popular social media platforms is that most students arrive to campus as fluent users of these virtual tools. Whether or not instructors adopt social media as an education tool, chances are their students already have created a class-specific Facebook group, use Twitter to share course information, or use another social media platform to communicate with other students outside of class.

Do I need to be concerned about privacy?

It’s best to view anything posted to social media as publicly available information, and treat content accordingly. While many social media platforms, such as Facebook, provide users with the ability to filter who is able to see their content, it is difficult to ensure privacy. Once posted, social media content is held by a third party, and the user more or less relinquishes ownership in exchange for free storage.

What can I do to protect my privacy?

Instructors and students should familiarize themselves with social media platform-specific privacy settings, and stay up-to-date with them. Many social media platforms enable the user to determine how widely their content is shared, restricting access to a designated group or making content publicly accessible. While these settings offer some degree of protection, there’s no guarantee that anything posted to a social media platform is actually private, so best practice is to treat any posts as public.

Some students and instructors might prefer to compartmentalize their online social and academic lives by creating separate accounts for coursework. Over Twitter for example, instructors can offer students access to a shared class account, using a handle or username associated with the course itself, e.g. @Bio101. In this case, students would all have access to the same account, utilizing this account to contribute to discussion and post content. Over Facebook, instructors and students may opt to create a group or page specific for class. While these social media groups can be set to “private” or “secret,” enabling instructors and students to control who has access to them, instructors should continue to collaborate with their colleagues, TAs, and students for ideas on preserving privacy.

What should I do to protect student privacy?

In addition to the above recommendations, instructors need to be mindful of what type of content they post to and about their students. Posts should not include any personal data about students, including images, recordings, or any documentation related to a student’s performance in class.

Protecting student privacy also means that instructors model positive social media practices and privacy considerations in class. When using social media for a class-related activity, instructors should talk to their students about social media and privacy, and encourage students to keep themselves up-to-date with changing privacy policies.

How should I communicate how social media will be used in the classroom, to my students?

However you choose to communicate expectations about how social media will be used in the course, it is essential to make students aware of these expectations as early as possible, equipping students with the information they need to make informed choices about their course schedule. Instructors may opt to clarify expectations in the course description, so students are aware even before enrollment. Such expectations can also be detailed in an accessible course Canvas page, over MyPlan, or in course marketing materials. Students should have a clear idea about how social media is used, if it is required, and what, if any, accommodations or alternative assignments are available.

What are some ways I can use social media in my courses?

One way to begin integrating social media into the classroom is to ask other instructors, TAs or students what they are doing. In addition to these sources, here are some ideas for ways instructors can use social media as a teaching and learning tool:

• Implementing Live Twitter Chat Discussion Sessions
• Teaching with Twitter: Podcast and getting started
• How Social Media Can Help Students Study
• Collaborative Online Projects: Wikis
• Keeping remote collect students connected: Virtual student unions provide communities for online learners
• Social Media: A tool to increase college students’ engagement and success
• Facebook groups as LMS
• How-to use social media platforms to create meaningful learning assignments
• Virtual office hours
• The impact of social media on the dissemination of research: results of an experiment

Educators Say Social Media Hurts Their Colleagues’ Social Skills. Their Own? Not as Much

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Educators have a pretty bleak outlook on how social media is affecting their students’ social-emotional skills and overall well-being. And that bleak outlook carries over to their adult colleagues as well, at least in part.

But are their perceptions of social media’s harmful effects off-base?

A recent survey by the EdWeek Research Center asked educators how they thought social media affected their students, their colleagues, and themselves. And there’s some evidence from the survey that educators are judging others more harshly for their social media use than they’re judging themselves.

But before we get to that and why it matters, let’s first look at how teachers, principals, and district leaders think social media impacts high school students’ social-emotional skills—such as their ability to interact with peers and think for themselves.

As the following charts show, roughly 9 out of 10 educators say that social media has had a negative impact on how students communicate and how they treat others. And a whopping 97 percent of educators say that social media contributes to groupthink among their students.

The responses come from a nationally representative sample of 595 educators, who participated in a survey administered from Dec. 21, 2023 through Jan. 2, 2024.

Treating others with respect, learning how to communicate, and developing an identity or sense of self are all part of social-emotional learning.

High school students in a separate EdWeek Research Center survey paint a very different picture of the effects social media has on them. They are more likely to see benefits , such as opportunities to develop hobbies, learn about career paths, find mentors, and learn about other cultures.

Part of the discrepancy between students’ and educators’ perceptions about how social media is affecting the former might be because teenagers aren’t fully aware of how much social media is impacting them. As Common Sense Media’s Merve Lapus said in a recent story for Education Week , today’s middle and high school students have grown up with social media. They don’t know what it feels like not to have it, while many educators do remember a—many would argue simpler and better—time before social media.

But maybe part of what’s at play here is the human tendency to see others’ faults more clearly than our own.

Consider the following chart: when the EdWeek Research Center asked educators how social media impacted their own social-emotional and communication skills and their colleagues’ skills, survey respondents were more likely to say social media had a neutral or positive effect on their own behavior and a negative effect on their peers’. This begs the question, are educators (and let’s face it, probably all adults, but EdWeek didn’t survey non-educators) just more likely to see the negative impacts of social media on their peers and students than on themselves?

Why does this matter?

First, these data prompt the question of whether adults are being truly clear-eyed about the extent to which social media is damaging to kids. This is not to say that social media doesn’t harm kids—there are studies suggesting that it does. One common criticism of social media is that addictive design features, for example, may keep kids on their devices to the detriment of their sleep and mental health. But it serves no one to make the problem out to be worse than it is or ignore the full picture, such as the benefits teens say they derive from using social media.

Second, experts say an important part of teaching adolescents how to use social media productively and respectfully is to model that behavior, and adults aren’t always good at doing that. If an educator is oblivious to the ways social media is affecting their own social-emotional and communication skills, then they are probably going to struggle with modeling healthy social media habits.

Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center’s work.

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Healthcare practitioners’ views of social media as an educational resource

Adam g. pizzuti.

1 Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences, University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy, Columbia, South Carolina, United States of America

Karan H. Patel

2 Kaiser Permanente Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Erin K. McCreary

3 University of Wisconsin Health, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

4 University of Maryland College of Pharmacy, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Christopher M. Bland

5 University of Georgia College of Pharmacy, Savannah, Georgia, United States of America

Eric Chinaeke

Bryan l. love, p. brandon bookstaver, associated data.

All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

Social media is increasingly utilized as a resource in healthcare. We sought to identify perceptions of using social media as an educational tool among healthcare practitioners. An electronic survey was distributed to healthcare administrators, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physicians, and physician assistants f hospital systems and affiliated health science schools in Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. Survey questions evaluated respondents’ use and views of social media for educational purposes and workplace accessibility using a Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Nurses (75%), pharmacists (11%), and administrators (7%) were the most frequent respondents. Facebook® (27%), Pinterest® (17%), and Instagram® (17%) were the most frequently accessed social media platforms. Nearly 85% agreed or strongly agreed that social media can be an effective tool for educational purposes. Among those who had social media platforms, 43.0% use them for educational purposes. Pinterest® (30%), Facebook® (22%), LinkedIn® (16%), and Twitter® (14%) were most frequently used for education. About 50% of respondents had limited or no access to social media at work. Administrators, those with unlimited and limited work access, and respondents aged 20–29 and 30–39 years were more likely to agree that social media is an educational tool (OR: 3.41 (95% CI 1.31 to 8.84), 4.18 (95% CI 2.30 to 7.60), 1.66 (95% CI 1.22 to 2.25), 4.40 (95% CI 2.80 to 6.92), 2.14 (95% CI 1.53 to 3.01) respectively). Residents, physicians, and those with unlimited access were less likely to agree with allowing social media access at work for educational purposes only. Healthcare practitioners frequently utilize social media, and many believe it can be an effective educational tool in healthcare.

Introduction

Social media is an effective communication tool allowing people to connect and share information [ 1 ]. Approximately 75% of online Americans are influenced by information on social media [ 2 ]. Social media platforms have grown into a habitual activity for many, including healthcare professionals. While the perception for negative impact on productivity and efficiency may exist, many use social media as a tool for program marketing, research dissemination, and education and training [ 3 – 12 ]. Social media platforms such as Twitter® have been used in the educational curriculum of medical training programs, increasing access to key resources and content knowledge [ 13 , 14 ]. Many leading healthcare organizations and medical expert groups link conference attendees, members and others using a Twitter hashtag (#) chat to educate and discuss current and controversial topics [ 15 , 16 , 45 ]. Given the influx of professional users and benefit to intended audience, several groups have published guidance on how healthcare practitioners and institutions may use social media as a positive platform for marketing and disseminating scholarly deliverables [ 17 , 18 ].

Healthcare information is constantly changing as new clinical evidence becomes available. It is suggested that clinical practice guideline recommendations are often outdated within 6 years of publication [ 19 ]. Social media platforms have the potential to aid the individual practitioner in notifications of newly published evidence and pipeline data. Many journals have turned to social media to disseminate updates and healthcare information to end users [ 20 – 22 ]. While this could be a potential outlet for acquiring or alerting to new, evidence-based information, many institutions limit or block access to social media in the workplace [ 23 ]. This decision may be because of the lack of awareness of social media’s potential benefits and use by healthcare workers. The purpose of this study was to assess healthcare practitioners’ views on and the use of social media for educational purposes.

Materials and methods

The study protocol was reviewed by the University of South Carolina Institutional Review Board (IRB) and determined not to meet the criteria for human subjects research; therefore, this study received exempt status. This was a cross-sectional, survey-based study conducted at four health sciences colleges (University of Georgia, University of Maryland, University of South Carolina, and the University of Wisconsin) and affiliated hospitals within the United States. The primary study objective was to measure and compare attitudes regarding social media platforms use for educational purposes among healthcare professionals. The survey instrument consisted of 70-items developed by two authors (AP, KP) with input from all co-authors. Survey items were comprised of various question formats primarily of Likert scale type (1 = strongly agree, 5 = strongly disagree). Participants were asked to provide insight into their quantitative and qualitative use of social media, attitudes regarding social media use for educational purposes and stances regarding social media use in the workplace. The survey also included a series of demographic questions (e.g. position, time since terminal training and geographic location). Educational use of social media was defined at the beginning of the survey as anything regarding the healthcare field that you deem as knowledgeable and useful information (e.g. accessing journal articles, reading drug updates) ( S1 File : Survey PDF). Respondents who have a split position (e.g. clinical faculty) were asked to answer the questions related to social media access from the perspective of their institution where patient care activities primarily occur.

The survey was piloted among health science faculty excluded from the final study population. Feedback resulted in condensing the survey to increase likelihood of survey completion. The estimated survey completion time was 5 to 10 minutes ( S1 File : Survey PDF). The survey was created and electronically administered using REDCap® (Vanderbilt University–Nashville, TN, 7.5.2, 2017) beginning January 2018 [ 24 ]. Licensed healthcare practitioners and administrators were the target population. Residents were intended to be physician or pharmacist trainees currently in a post-graduate residency program. Students were excluded from the survey. Branching logic was used to allow questions to be visible based on previous answers regarding which social media platform they use. Respondents received up to three email reminders until survey closure in May 2018. Survey respondents remained anonymous but were offered the option to enter a random drawing for an incentive upon survey completion. Co-investigators from each of the included sites were responsible for ensuring distribution to targeted healthcare practitioners.

Statistical analysis

Responses were analyzed to compare how different healthcare professionals are using social media and to identify the potential for educational use. Bivariate analyses were performed to examine unadjusted variation between professional affiliation and each of the various covariates (e.g. age, access) in the survey. We conducted multivariable logistic regression to evaluate the likelihood of professionals to agree or disagree with each of the survey questions: (1) social media is an effective educational tool and (2) social media should be accessed at the workplace for educational purposes only in separate models. We chose the Likert-style question stating social media is an effective tool for educational purposes to fulfill the analysis of what factors contribute to those who use social media for educational purposes. The confounders controlled for in this analysis were age, social media access at work, and profession type. These were Likert-style questions transformed to agree (yes), for all responses that were strongly agree and agree, or disagree (no), for all the responses that were strongly disagree and disagree. The answers for neither disagree or agree were not used.

To account for potential selection bias due to unbalanced nurse professional response, we conducted a propensity-weighted logistic regression using age and geographical location to define the weighting class which stabilized the unbalanced nurse professional’s response. Higher propensity weights were assigned to subjects with low responses and vice versa. It is assumed that one weighting adjustment is enough to address non-response bias in all estimates [ 25 , 26 ]. A p-value of < 0.05 was deemed statistically significant. All analyses were conducted in SAS version 9.4.

There were 1,644 initial responses, with 141 excluded due to respondents’ primary professional role(s) not being an active healthcare practitioner. Most respondents were nurses, followed by pharmacists, administrators and physicians. Among respondents, 53% were under the age of 40 and 60% had worked for 10 years or less in their current role ( Table 1 ). Of respondents with social media accounts, 43% reported using it for educational purposes, but there was a higher percent of those who agreed that social media could be an effective educational tool (85%) ( Table 2 ). Facebook® (27.2%) was the most commonly used social media platform for any purpose, followed by Pinterest® (17.4%) and Instagram® (16.6%). The social media platforms used for educational purposes differed however, as Pinterest®, Facebook®, LinkedIn® and Twitter® were the four most frequently used platforms ( Fig 1 ). Table 2 shows the use of social media for educational purposes by profession and the bivariate analysis results.

Passively reading information was the primary way respondents used social media for educational purposes. Twitter® users reported following conference highlights (51%), health agency alerts (48%) and journal article alerts (46%) for educational purposes. About 25% of Facebook® users reported educational use in 8 of the areas evaluated. Less than 10% of respondents reported social media for research collaborations ( Fig 2 ). Regarding social media access at work, unknown access was the most frequent answer ( Table 1 ). Those with the most unlimited access amongst their profession were physicians (26%). Administrators reported having the most limited access (43%). The majority of administrators (77%), pharmacists (75%), nurses (70%), and residents (51%) all agreed that access to social media at work should be restricted for educational purposes only ( Table 2 ). Additionally, the majority (59.7%) of respondents use their personal phone/computer to access social media at work ( Table 1 ).

*Percentage excluded of other platforms with n < 100.

The propensity score weighted multivariable analyses compared a specific variable to all others regarding their likelihood of agreeing with two Likert style questions (i.e. answering strongly agree and agree). Residents, physicians, and those with unlimited access were more likely to disagree that social media access at work should be restricted for educational purposes only (OR 0.49 (95% CI 0.29 to 0.83), 0.50 (95% CI 0.31 to 0.81), 0.31 (95% CI 0.22 to 0.43) respectively). Those in the age group 40–49 also disagreed with this statement (OR 0.71 (95% CI 0.53 to 0.95) ( Table 3 ). Respondents aged 20–29 were 43% more likely to agree that social media access at work should be restricted for educational purposes (OR 1.43 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.98)) ( Table 4 ). Residents, who were primarily aged 20–29 (67%) responded that they use social media for social reasons more often compared to educational purposes ( Table 3 ). Among physicians, 78% use social media for social reasons ( Table 2 ). The age group of 40–49 was mainly comprised of nurses who disagree with allowing access to social media at work for educational purposes only. Administrators, pharmacists, and those with limited access were more likely to agree that social media use should be restricted to educational purposes at work (OR 2.09 (95% CI 1.31 to 3.34), OR 1.97 (95% CI 1.24 to 3.11), OR 1.30 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.66) respectively) ( Table 4 ).

The second question analyzed by the multivariable analysis was regarding whether social media can be used as an effective tool for educational purposes. Pharmacists (OR 0.21, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.38), nurses (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.56), and physicians (OR 0.17, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.33) all were in disagreement with this statement ( Table 5 ). Among the pharmacist, nurse, and physician respondents that use social media, 52%, 41%, and 45% of them respectively, use it for educational purposes ( Table 3 ). Administrators (OR 3.41, 95% CI 1.31 to 8.84), those with unlimited and limited access (OR 4.18, 95% CI 2.30 to 7.60 and OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.22 to 2.25 respectively), and those in the two age groups of 20–29 and 30–39 (OR 4.40, 95% CI 2.80 to 6.92 and OR 2.14 95% CI 1.53 to 3.01) all agreed with this statement ( Table 5 ).

Healthcare information is continuously updating, and the volume of newly added data has never been greater. Healthcare workers must be both creative and efficient in their methods for maintaining an updated database that is relevant to clinical practice. Our investigation aimed to express the views of healthcare professionals regarding the use of social media as a platform for healthcare education. A large percentage (43%) of the respondents reported using social media for educational purposes.

Educational uses of social media

Sharing/exchanging ideas with other professionals, chat discussions, following conference highlights, and healthcare agency alerts were some of the ways respondents in this present study expressed their use of social media for educational purposes. This is similar to the findings of authors from the University of Scranton who highlighted 5 ways social media is used by healthcare professionals: sharing information, comparing and improving quality, training medical personnel, live updates during procedures, and communication through times of crisis [ 27 ]. Ventola and colleagues also described social media in healthcare use to include professional networking, professional education, organizational promotion, patient care, patient education, and public health programs [ 8 ]. There are many resources in the literature on this topic [ 28 , 29 ]. Not surprisingly, those under 40 years of age strongly agreed that social media was an effective tool for educational purposes. Although, it is unclear why pharmacists, attending physicians and nurses in our present study disagreed that social media was an effective educational tool. Interestingly, Twitter® (61.9%) and Pinterest® (59.5%) had more low frequency users but were in the top group for social media accounts used for educational purposes. The effectiveness of social media has not been fully evaluated in the literature and may not correlate directly with social media use depending on certain platforms.

An increase in journal awareness is another way to utilize social media. O’Kelly and colleagues found that the presence of a Twitter® feed contributed to an increased impact factor (P = 0.017) in urological and pediatric journals from 2012–2016 [ 30 ]. Additionally, a new non-traditional metric of professional impact called Altmetric ( https://www.altmetric.com ) analyzes the penetration of a published article through social media and non-publisher or journal affiliated outlets. It provides an alternative way to view and measure the article’s activity outside of the journal’s impact factor [ 31 – 34 ]. Professional conferences increasingly utilize social media and designated hashtags to link and disseminate conference and other pertinent healthcare information. These topical hashtags have prompted numerous interactions on social media [ 35 ]. Our survey results were similar to several previous studies, demonstrating the multifunctional use of social media in healthcare for education. Although, in our study, research collaboration was not a common reason for social media use, interactions and relationships built over time may allow for future collaboration through more traditional means (e.g. meeting at conferences, email contact).

Social media access at work

In general, our data show access to social media at work affected ideas regarding using social media for educational purposes. Those with unlimited access to social media were less likely to agree with the benefit of social media for education (OR = 0.30, P < 0.0001). We hypothesize this is due to the wording of the survey item. Since the item stated using social media for educational purposes only in the workplace, then those with unlimited access could have viewed this as a restriction to their current access. In contrast, those with limited access could have agreed with the statement because of more desired access at work. In today’s age of smart phones and data plans, it is safe to say this also could have affected these results.

Nursing response impact

This study was impacted by a large percentage of nurse respondents (75%). Prior studies have shown an interest in electronic resources for educational purposes by nursing beginning as early as 1990 [ 36 ]. With the advancement of technology, nursing use of social media for healthcare education has become present with protocols, activities, and resources [ 37 – 39 ]. Rutledge et al designed a tool on social media for Doctor of Nursing Practice program students in rural health care [ 40 ]. Another survey-based study among first year nursing students demonstrated that 81% of students felt Twitter® was beneficial in increasing awareness of nursing issues [ 41 ]. With nurses being the largest group healthcare members who responded to this survey, this could also explain why Pinterest® was in the top group of social media platforms used for healthcare education since nursing responded to using Pinterest® the most (60%) out of the practitioners. One study analyzing the accuracy of information on Pinterest® for psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) found 87.7% of the 57 pins analyzed reporting at least one factor indicative of PNES [ 42 ] Pinterest® has also aided nursing faculty in preparation and educational activities [ 43 ]. Targeting social media platforms like Twitter® and Pinterest® in future studies may be beneficial to analyze potential correlation between frequency of social media use and use for educational purposes. Our results having a high response-rate by nurses could be attributed to the amount of nursing education and connectivity with social media in this field. Results were adjusted by a propensity score in order to reduce bias in the data.

Healthcare administrator perspective

Healthcare administrators (n = 98, 5.96%) in this study were more than 4 times as likely to agree that social media could be an effective educational tool ( Table 5 ). They were also 59% more likely to agree with allowing social media use for educational purposes in the workplace ( Table 2 ). This was interesting since a higher percentage of respondents answered that they had limited or no access at work. The Sentinel Watch, a blog by American Sentinel University that offers degrees in nursing and healthcare management, encourages hospital administrators to have a presence on social media [ 44 ]. In addition, some healthcare organizations, including the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, have published reports or conducted webinars to provide advice on the importance of and how to build a digital brand through social media [ 45 – 47 ]. Social media is a platform that could be utilized to market services of the healthcare system or to provide access for complaints or appraisals in a quick manner [ 48 ]. There are many further options to utilize social media as a resource to reach patients and deliver patient care, and while not educational per se, it does encourage social media activity among healthcare administrators [ 49 – 51 ]. Because of this open interaction, it is imperative to note the potential dangers of social media which include poor quality of information, damage to professional image, breaches of patient privacy (e.g. HIPAA), violation of the patient-healthcare practitioner boundary, licensing issues, and legal issues. The necessity of professional guidelines for the use of social media by institutions needs to be stressed [ 8 ]. Interestingly, a large percentage of respondents (40%) did not know their workplace social media policy ( Table 1 ). However, this mirrors previously published data where a similar percentage of healthcare workers were unaware of their workplace policy [ 52 ]. These are also important to recognize if trying to implement social media for educational purposes into clinical practice, as there may be significant institutional or operational barriers. Only 31% of healthcare organizations have specific social media guidelines for writing or posting social media content. However, 26% of U.S. hospitals are already utilizing social media in some form for education [ 53 ]. On the other hand, 70% of respondents in this study, stated that access to social media at work would be or currently is a distraction. As mentioned above, distraction is another consideration that is noted as a risk in previous literature explaining how to use social media in the workplace [ 8 ].

Strengths and limitations

The strengths of this study include the different sites represented which allowed for both a large sample size and responses from different regions in the US and professions. All the survey questions collected views on multiple social media platforms for educational use. The limitations of this study include the issues regarding none of the survey questions were required to answer in order to submit the survey. This limited some responses such as the primary profession indication and social media account use. The primary responses of “administrative roles” and “other” could have been confusing for the respondent and should have been defined. This confusion could have included unintended and/or excluded eligible participants. Throughout the distribution of the survey, not all sites received the survey on the exact same day, leading to the survey being available from January 22 through May 1, 2018. Additionally, an exact record of how many individuals received the survey emails was not able to be recorded. Email listservs were utilized which made it difficult to track the total number of potential participants. Responder bias also played a factor in this study. Those who are more engaged in social media may have been more likely to complete the study. This was accounted for by the propensity score weighted multivariable analyses. As mentioned previously, the large percentage of nurse respondents may have biased the results towards nursing profession, however, this was accounted for with propensity scoring. Based on these results and others, one future area of study will be to further evaluate the effectiveness of social media as an educational tool among healthcare practitioners.

Conclusions

The majority of healthcare workers in this study believe social media can be an effective tool for healthcare education. Understanding how to best leverage social media in this capacity may vary for each profession, since many healthcare practitioners currently use social media in various ways. Future studies should analyze how to utilize these platforms efficiently and effectively for healthcare education. Additional studies are also needed to better understand social media education platforms for physicians and healthcare administrators. These data can serve as a source for individuals who may want to propose social media as an avenue to obtain or provide healthcare-related education.

Supporting information

Acknowledgments.

We thank all study sites involved with the distribution of this survey: The University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy and Nursing, Prisma Health Midlands formerly known as Palmetto Health Hospital System, University of Georgia School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Wisconsin Health, and Wisconsin School of Pharmacy. We thank Dr. Kevin Lu from the Clinical Pharmacy Outcomes Services department at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy for assistance with statistical methods.

Funding Statement

Adam Pizzuti received a Magellan Scholar Award from the University of South Carolina for this research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Social Media Education: Barriers and Critical Issues

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 494))

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As one of the highest smartphone penetration regions in the globe, Hong Kong has more than 12 million mobile users are capable to access mobile data services. People spend time on their mobile devices for information, entertainment as well as communication. With the advancement of information, communication and technology (ICT) especially in mobile technology, various online social media tools, e.g. Facebook, WhatsApp, rapidly developed in the past decade. The use of these tools is so overwhelming which transformed people’s way of communication. Discussions on using social media in education are getting keen. However, regardless of the popularity of social media in Hong Kong, the effectiveness of using existing social media tools to facilitate teaching and learning is not noticeable. This paper illustrates the barriers behind this phenomenon in Hong Kong. Factors from technological perspective, institutional perspective and users’ perspective are critically discussed. It is believed that with optimal monitoring, motivation and planning, social media can be beneficial to both institutions, teachers and students in the long run.

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Au, M., Lam, J., Chan, R. (2015). Social Media Education: Barriers and Critical Issues. In: Li, K.C., Wong, TL., Cheung, S.K.S., Lam, J., Ng, K.K. (eds) Technology in Education. Transforming Educational Practices with Technology. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 494. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46158-7_20

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Social media can harm kids. Can laws protect them?

Leah Plunkett

BKC Faculty Associate Leah Plunkett coments on whether laws geared towards keeping children safe online will be enforceable.

“The government has to bear the burden of proof. ...For content-based regulation of protected speech, they have a very, very big lift.”

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Four Ontario school boards sue Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok owners over platforms’ alleged harm to students

Colleen Russell Rawlins, Director of Education with the Toronto District School Board, pictured with students at Selwyn Elementary School on Mar 27. Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

Four of Canada’s largest school boards are suing the companies behind social-media platforms Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat and TikTok, accusing them of negligently designing products that disrupt learning and rewire student behaviour while leaving educators to manage the fallout.

In four separate statements of claim filed on Wednesday in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, the Toronto District School Board , the Toronto Catholic District School Board, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and the Peel District School Board accused social-media companies of employing “exploitative business practices” and choosing to “maximize profits” at the expense of the mental health and well-being of students.

The addictive nature of social media means that educators spend more classroom time trying to have students focus on their lessons, the boards say in the statements of claim. They say the compulsive use of social-media platforms has also strained limited school board resources: Schools require additional mental health programs and personnel; staff spend more time addressing aggressive behaviour and incidents of cyberbullying; and information-technology services and cybersecurity costs have increased.

“The Defendants have acted in a high-handed, reckless, malicious, and reprehensible manner without due regard for the well-being of the student population and the education system,” according to the statements of claim.

Similar lawsuits against social-media companies have been filed in the United States in recent months by individual states and school districts. This would mark the first time it’s being done by school boards in Canada.

The four boards filed their lawsuits against Meta Platforms Inc. META-Q , which is responsible for Facebook and Instagram, Snap Inc. SNAP-N , the parent company of SnapChat, and ByteDance Ltd., owner of TikTok .

The school boards are advancing combined claims of around $4.5-billion. They are also asking that the social-media giants redesign their products to keep students safe.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

In an e-mailed statement, Tonya Johnson, a spokeswoman for Snap, said the platform was “intentionally designed to be different from traditional social-media” so that users could communicate with friends. “While we will always have more work to do, we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping close friends feel connected, happy and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence,” she stated.

Meta and ByteDance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Social-media use by children and young people has been the topic of widespread discussion among parents, policymakers and educators. Earlier this week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans social-media accounts for children under 14 and requires parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds.

In Canada and elsewhere, there are growing concerns over the role social-media platforms play in cyberbullying, disrupted sleep patterns, brain development, and the inability of young people to focus.

A survey from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in 2021 found that 91 per cent of students in Grades 7 to 12 use social media daily, and about a third spend five hours or more daily on it. Researchers surveyed more than 2,000 Ontario students. Almost one-third reported being cyber-bullied at least once in the past year.

In their lawsuits, the four school boards said the companies “knew, or ought to have known, that the deliberate design of addictive and defective social-media products would interfere with students’ access to an education, negatively impact the learning environment, and create a public nuisance within the education system.”

Colleen Russell-Rawlins, education director of the Toronto District School Board, the country’s largest school board, said in an interview on Wednesday that social media has affected the education system in “very significant ways.”

“Students are not present,” she said, describing the addictive nature of social-media platforms. Educators are hearing about more incidents of cyberbullying. They are witnessing the rapid escalation of aggression that starts online. And they are helping students who are coping with anxiety and other mental health challenges.

The lawsuits, she said, are not just about raising awareness, but about protecting children by calling for safeguards and ensuring that school boards have the resources to help address the negative effects of increased social-media use.

“I think there’s no other childhood addiction that’s impacting children’s futures through education that we as educators and leaders would be expected to remain silent about. We feel compelled to act on behalf of our young people,” Ms. Russell-Rawlins said.

Pino Buffone, the education director at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, echoed the sentiment, adding that the compulsive use of social media has further strained the finite resources of the school board. Educators and other school staff are being forced to manage behaviour that stems from social-media use.

“It has become clear that we need to hold social-media giants accountable,” Mr. Buffone said.

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