Department of Humanities, Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
Med Teach. 2011;33(8):e429-34. doi: 10.3109/0142159X.2011.586749.
Social media strategies in education have gained attention for undergraduate students, but there has been relatively little application with graduate populations in medicine.
To use and evaluate the integration of new social media tools into the curricula of two graduate-level medical humanities electives offered to 4th-year students at Penn State College of Medicine.
Instructors selected five social media tools--Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, blogging and Skype--to promote student learning. At the conclusion of each course, students provided quantitative and qualitative course evaluation.
Students gave high favourability ratings to both courses, and expressed that the integration of social media into coursework augmented learning and collaboration. Others identified challenges including: demands on time, concerns about privacy and lack of facility with technology. Integrating social media tools into class activities appeared to offer manifold benefits over traditional classroom methods, including real-time communication outside of the classroom, connecting with medical experts, collaborative opportunities and enhanced creativity.
Social media can augment learning opportunities within humanities curriculum in medical schools, and help students acquire tools and skill-sets for problem solving, networking, and collaboration. Command of technologies will be increasingly important to the practice of medicine in the twenty-first century.
社交媒体策略在教育领域已经引起了人们的关注，尤其是针对本科生，但在医学领域的研究生群体中，应用相对较少。
在宾夕法尼亚州立大学医学院 4 年级学生选修的两门研究生医学人文学科选修课中，使用并评估将新的社交媒体工具整合到课程中的情况。
教师选择了五种社交媒体工具——Twitter、YouTube、Flickr、博客和 Skype——来促进学生的学习。在每门课程结束时，学生们提供了定量和定性的课程评估。
学生们对这两门课程的评价都很高，他们表示将社交媒体融入课程可以增强学习和协作。其他人则指出了一些挑战，包括：时间上的要求、对隐私的担忧以及对技术的不熟练。将社交媒体工具整合到课堂活动中似乎比传统的课堂方法提供了更多的好处，包括课堂外的实时交流、与医学专家的联系、协作机会以及增强创造力。
社交媒体可以增强医学院人文课程的学习机会，并帮助学生获得解决问题、建立网络和协作的工具和技能。在 21 世纪，对技术的掌握将对医学实践变得越来越重要。
