الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 71 |  |  |
| | | from | 71 | | |
Abstract
Facebook is one of many social networking site listed as having potential applications for teaching and learning. It has been argued that the current generation of youth, often described as Digital Natives, may be resistant to traditional methods of teaching and learning. The act of searching for and retrieving information on the Internet may have led to a shift in learning styles with a need for more interactive environments and more hands-on inquiry-based approaches to learning.
Aim of the work:
The aim of this study was to explore staff and students’ perceptions and attitude towards using a designated “Facebook page’ as a learning resource within the clinical skills’ lab at Alexandria Faculty of medicine, and identify any potential benefits and challenges
Subject and methods:
A mixed observational descriptive survey was adopted, with both quantitative and qualitative approaches. This study included 611 third year students and 11 staff members who were studying and teaching respectively in the Clinical Skills’ Lab at Alexandria Faculty of medicine. The total number of third year were divided into 12 rounds, six were chosen at random by closed envelop method. Total of 800 questionnaires were distributed. Voluntary participation was stressed upon. The number of students who responded to the questionnaire was 700 with a response rate of 87.5%. Six hundred eleven questionnaires were complete; the rest were rejected. The questionnaires included data that was processed both in qualitative and quantitative manner.
A mixed method approach was used to gather data from staff members including semi-structured interviews and online surveys. All of them were contacted and invited for an interview to probe their perception and attitude towards the educational utility of Facebook. The questions asked were developed after thorough literature review.
Results:
In the current study, SNS use - specifically Facebook use- was widespread among most of 3rd year medical students and Staff members in the Clinical Skills’ Lab at Alexandria Faculty of medicine, nearly all of the students (99.3%) and all Staff members already had an active Facebook account. Both the studied groups had almost the same current and anticipated uses of Facebook. Students seemed to be much more open to the idea of using Facebook instructionally than staff members do.
The findings from this study indicated that students were receptive to incorporating Facebook into their academic lives and perceived benefits through enhanced communication, interaction, and flexibility in course content delivery. The majority of staff members viewed Facebook as a strong communication and participation tool and felt it was more plausible to students than the traditional official online environment. They believed that Facebook is an educational tool better used by students, rather than themselves. Both of the studied groups perceived Facebook more as both formal/informal learning tool rather than a formal teaching tool.
Staff members may benefit from recognizing the inherent value in blending the best of traditional learning experiences with those enhanced by emerging technologies such as Facebook. Using this technology allows content to be more accessible and flexible for students, which may enhance the quality of student learning.
One of the challenges described was online professionalism. In this age of Internet communication, the identity of being a ‘professional” is expanding, and this is blurring the interface between work and personal time. It is important that if instructors would implement Facebook in their courses to also adopt policies to help distinguish between social and academic boundaries.
from our study we concluded that Facebook is one platform that may assist educators in promoting student learning. Integration of Facebook into courses may benefit students through enhanced ‘student to student’ and ‘student to instructor’ communication, which in turn may translate to greater learning outcomes.
We recommend that medical faculties should actively address both the opportunities for teaching and learning and the challenges with regards to online professionalism. In the light of globalizing medical education there is a need to define adequate policies for the use of Facebook -and other social media tools – across medical education systems.