Facebook as a Technological Tool for Teaching and Learning - 3

Improving nursing education in the 21^st century is said to be a challenge for nursing faculty. Hence, faculty is encouraged to utilize new technologies and to embrace methodologies that include more interactions by the student. Within the last five or six years, social media such as Facebook and Twitter have been used by healthcare students as an instrument of sharing information (Roland, Johnson, & Swain, 2011).

My choice therefore to incorporate Facebook as my technological tool for teaching and learning, thus has empirical suggestive evidence as a logical tool for educating nurses. The results of a pilot study suggested the potential of utilizing blogs to store and share nursing knowledge, hence improving communication and analytical thinking skills (Roland, Johnson, & Swain, 2011).

I have noticed that co-workers are freer in expressing their thoughts on social media, as compared to the work place or in classrooms. It appears people are more apt to think outside the box, when they are not in the box of a classroom, so to speak.

A study looking at behavior modeling influenced by Facebook, found a positive correlation between the social media and identity development (Moreno, Kota, Schoohs, & Whitehill, 2013). This suggests that various thinking skills indeed can be modelled through the use of Facebook. I recently shared on my page on Facebook that I will be getting married in San Diego next week Saturday the 23^rd of August, and I suddenly noticed that two friends of mine who were confirmed bachelors for life are now engaged! This just made me wonder whether I may have been a positive influence in modelling this courtship behavior.

                                                        References

Moreno, M. A., Kota, R., Schoohs, S., & Whitehill, J. M. (2013). The Facebook Influence Model: A Concept Mapping Approach. Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 16(7), 504-511. doi:10.1089/cyber.2013.0025

Roland, E., Johnson, C., & Swain, D. (2011). “Blogging” As an Educational Enhancement Tool for Improved Student Performance: A Pilot Study in Undergraduate Nursing Education. New Review of Information Networking, 16(2), 151-166. doi:10.1080/13614576.2011.619923