Social networks in dental training: opinion of students from a Brazilian university
Keywords:
social media, learning, dentistry.Abstract
Introduction: social networks play a fundamental role in the way young people perceive and relate to other people, the world and information. Is it possible to use the information and communications technologies present in everyday life as learning tools in school life?
Objective: evaluate the opinion of dental students from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, about the use of social networks -Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp- as facilitators in biosafety training.
Methods: the study sample was the students attending the course Biosafety and Ergonomics 2 (n= 53), who filled in a Google electronic form evaluating the adherence, applicability and usefulness of social networks as educational platforms.
Results: data analysis revealed an increase in the use of social networks: 94.3% (Facebook), 100 % (Whatsapp) and 88.7 % (Instagram). All the students surveyed referred to Facebook as a useful tool for the subject, and 60.4 % stated that its main strengths are its ease of access and the possibility of retrieving educational materials published in the website of the subject. Whatsapp was ranked as useful by all the students, with quick doubt clarification as the most commonly cited strength (58.5 %). Use of Instagram was evaluated as good by 92.5 % of the students surveyed. The main use mentioned was the possibility of obtaining new information in easy-to-read texts.
Conclusions: the young students were quite receptive to the incorporation of social networks into Biosafety in Dentistry training, and stated that these would be beneficial to the learning process, with specific uses depending on the social network used.
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