Reviewing the Role of Instagram in Education: Can a Photo Sharing Application Deliver Benefits to Medical and Dental Anatomy Education?

Naomi Katherine May Douglas; Max Scholz; Matthew Alex Myers; Shivani Margaret Rae; Ahmad Elmansouri; Samuel Hall; Scott Border

doi:10.1007/s40670-019-00767-5

Reviewing the Role of Instagram in Education: Can a Photo Sharing Application Deliver Benefits to Medical and Dental Anatomy Education?

Med Sci Educ. 2019 Jul 16;29(4):1117-1128. doi: 10.1007/s40670-019-00767-5. eCollection 2019 Dec.

Authors

Naomi Katherine May Douglas¹, Max Scholz², Matthew Alex Myers³, Shivani Margaret Rae³, Ahmad Elmansouri³, Samuel Hall³, Scott Border⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dentistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
² Department of Engineering, Brunel University London, London, UK.
³ Centre for Learning Anatomical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
⁴ Centre for Learning Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Southampton General Hospital, Mailpoint 845, Tremona Road, Southampton, SO16 6YD UK.

Abstract

Instagram is an increasingly popular social media site tailored towards sharing photos and videos. An audit investigating current Instagram accounts focusing on anatomy education found a variety of successful teaching styles, including clinical images, descriptive videos, multiple-choice questions, and cartoons. Utilising Instagram for educational purposes, benefits such as ease of use, hashtags, and its effectiveness in conveying visual topics should be weighed against limitations such as passive learning and the requirement of committed staff to oversee its use.

Keywords: Anatomy; Dentistry; Education; Instagram; Teaching.

Publication types

Editorial