ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by outlining the key problems with social media use in professional practice and education that have found particularly troubling. It aims to raise questions for consideration rather than present recommendations for higher education, there are implications for teaching and learning as well as research. In medical education, social media tools still seem to be used sparingly in the main, although there are pockets of creative activity using tutor blogs, class Facebook pages on particular topics of instruction, and wikis to promote student engagement and provide. Social media 'risks' are typically framed in terms of a disciplinary professionalism, where social media use becomes a matter of professional ethics. People need a closer consideration of how these intersecting forces and the resulting processes affect the online interactions of professionals, their peers and their stakeholders. In pre-service professional programmes, the issues around student professional's engagements and learning with social media are attracting widespread interest.
