“The richest people in the world look for and build networks, everyone else looks for work”…Robert Kiyosaki

Have you ever thought about ways to enhance criminal justice student engagement and learning opportunities using Facebook?

According to Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, and Madden (2015) Facebook is still the most popular social media websites used among American adults. The popularity with Facebook offers an excellent virtual platform to extend learning and engagement beyond the criminal justice classroom. Guiding students to build their own Personal Learning Networks (PLN) with a social media platform they are comfortable navigating encourages networking among other criminal justice scholars and professionals working in law enforcement and other areas of the criminal justice system.

Creative Ways to Use Facebook in Criminal Justice Studies

Facebook contains a vast amount of information on current criminal justice research and news from the law enforcement community. Connecting with likeminded scholars and professionals offers opportunities to gain new knowledge in areas that are of interest to you. Many different criminal justice, criminology, and police group pages have active contributors posting updates on the latest trends on such things as policy development, new technology, community-policing strategies, public relations, leadership theories, criminology theories, current academic research, and breaking news articles.

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on”… Albert Einstein

Here are a few creative ways to use Facebook to enhance student engagement.

• Criminal Justice Honor Society Page: Connect with other criminal justice scholars and share research articles, newly released scholarship information, academic conferencing, and finding peer mentors/tutors.
• Criminal Justice Webinars: Stay current on the latest scholarly webinars hosted by leading criminal justice professors around the country.
• Book Reviews: Post a book review on a current eBook/textbook or other published articles.
• Schedule Events: Share information on criminal justice conferences, or social justice community event, videos, papers, photos, etc.
• Discipline Networking: Get to know other criminal justice/criminology students from other colleges and universities and find out what is happening and events you would enjoy attending.
• Connecting At a Distance: Connect with criminal justice scholars from around the world and share your knowledge, experience, and academic strategies for success.
• Grassroots Movements: Become a social justice change agent by connecting with your local police department and officers to support charitable events in the community.
• Academic Writing: Find and share tips on academic writing and APA Style help.
• Create A Class Page: Creating a class group page allows networking opportunities outside of class sharing intern openings, job postings, degree path planning, etc.
• Create A Department Page: Share news and research articles within your college or university criminal justice department.

Social Media User Tips

Social media is a powerful tool to connect us to instance information and people who share a common bond. Your social media footprint is a reflection of your passion and character.

Make a positive impression and get involved and immersed within the discipline. It will make your criminal justice studies more rewarding and enhance your opportunities to expand your knowledge.

Reference

Duggan, M., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2015, January 9). Social media update 2014. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2015/01/PI_SocialMediaUpdate20144.pdf

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