Facebook as a Technological Tool for Teaching and Learning - 2

Facebook as a technology teaching and learning tool I reiterate appears to be a tool with exponential capabilities. Forming a closed group with my students would definitely infuse life and an excitement into the respective courses I utilize Facebook for. Apart from the fact that Facebook is a powerful social media that can empower human networking, I have personally even obtained employment offers from head-hunters on this media tool. Various political, religious, and professional organizations are on Facebook. A nurse practitioner community (https://www.facebook.com/nursepractitioner.np) offers networking opportunities and job opportunity information; The American Nurses Association also has a Facebook presence (https://www.facebook.com/AmericanNursesAssociation); CME Resource/NetCE for Nurses offers continuing education resources on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/netce4nurses), and a host of others even up to the White House (https://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouse) which can offer information on upcoming medical legislature.

Public health research depicts the media influences how people perceive nursing (Geller & Summers, 2014). Facebook is a technological tool that can help build up the image of nursing. In a study looking at social media adoption in local health departments (LHD) it was found out that amongst their sample group of 618 LHDs, twenty-four percent had Facebook, 8% utilized Twitter, and 7% used both. LHDs serving larger populations were more likely to be innovators, tweeted more often, and had more social media connections (Harris, 2013). Mark Zuckerburg is the CEO of Facebook, and was named 2010 TIME magazine person of the year for bringing 500 million people almost a twelfth of humanity together on one network (George, 2011). What Zuckerburg has achieved with Facebook is a phenomenal historical contribution which has trickled down to nursing.

                                                             Reference

Geller, L., & Summers, S. (2014). Changing how the world thinks about nursing. Canadian Nurse, 110(1), 26-30.

George, D. R. (2011). 'Friending Facebook?' A minicourse on the use of social media by health professionals. Journal Of Continuing Education In The Health Professions, 31(3), 215-219. doi:10.1002/chp.20129

Harris, J. (2013). Social Media Adoption in Local Health Departments Nationwide. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(9), 1700. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.301166