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Mastering Instagram as a teaching tool

Dr. Jessica Latimer, who is a graduate periodontology resident at Harvard University recently came on the CDA Oasis Good News Show. We talked about how she got interested in using Instagram as a vehicle for sharing professionally related information and how her persona as @theperioartist was born.

You can watch the 18-minute conversation at https://vimeo.com/547710584.

I took away from the conversation that social media has great potential as a communication tool for the sharing of good evidence-based information, and that practitioners of all ages appreciate how information has been made more accessible through social media.

One piece of advice Dr. Latimer would give to aspiring users of Instagram for educational purposes is to decide on a ‘brand’ and differentiate yourself as a quality knowledge sharer. She works to appeal to different types of learners with her posts. Particularly gratifying for her is that younger colleagues have reached out to her and thanked her for being such an inspiring role model.

Speaking of role models, Dr. Latimer sang the praises of Dr. Thomas Nguyen of McGill University for his mentorship role in helping her choose her residency program and in highlighting for her the power of Instagram as a teaching medium.

If you are an Instagram user, you can follow Dr. Latimer at @theperioartist. She draws all her own images, and she provides great information relating to these images in the text that accompanies an Instagram post. She puts a lot of effort into each post – probably a day getting the art right and another day, researching and writing the text. Colleagues around the world certainly benefit in great numbers from the fruits of her labours. Bravo Jessica!

 

 

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