Journal 3: The Case for Social Media

Kessler, Sarah. "The Case For Social Media in Schools." Mashable. N.p., 29 Sept. 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.

The article is exactly right: social media and the existence of an online presence is a core part of our culture at this time and its not going away any time soon. Trying to block high school students from using this resource at school is not going to prevent them from using it at all. Learning how to appropriately and responsibly manage an online persona is important. Its even something we teach in medical school to ensure future physicians can appropriately manage this new social space without causing professionalism or privacy issues.

A lot of the same issues that plague teenagers also plague young professionals. For example, the OB/gyn thatgot into trouble for venting about one of her patients being late. Learning where to draw the lines for use in social media and separating your personal and professional life when it comes to your internet presence is becoming an essential skill.

Lastly, I think the article has an excellent point about the educational utilization of these social media tools. When you have people (teenagers and 20-30 something’s alike) who have a tendency to brainless return to Facebook or twitter to procrastinate 20 times per day, if you can provide meaningful quick learning points within those tools you could improve learning. This is something that is slowly becoming popularized in medicine.

1)   How can we build teaching responsible use of the internet and social media into curriculums for teenagers and professionals?

I think having teachers use Facebook for assignments and communications with students is a good idea. Have a daily fact on Facebook or Twitter to tie education into the daily social media activities. There are hundreds of ways to utilize these technologies to encourage kids to learn. Additionally, I think actually providing feedback and information on what is and isn't appropriate and how everything stays online forever is very important. At the UC Irvine Medical School we provide an elective that covers professionalism in social media.

2)   Should teachers be held responsible when teenagers do not appropriately use technology and social media?

Absolutely not. Parents are responsible for their children and parents are the ones who should be watching what their teens are doing and adding to the conversation of how to be responsible online.