The potential for social media use in K-12 physical and health education

• Social interaction has been shown to be an important factor in education.
• Social interaction can be increased and enhanced by the use of social media.
• Social media is being utilized by physical and health education programs outside of K-12 education.
• There is a need for research in the use of social media in K-12 physical and health education.

This paper did a review of the literature on social interaction in education, social media and social interaction, and the use of social media in personal/community health and physical education programs in order to set a research agenda for the use of social media in K-12 physical and health education. The findings were that social interaction can positively impact education and that social media can enhance the social interaction in the educational setting. It also showed how current health/wellness programs outside of the K-12 system are already using social media. There is a need for research on social media in K-12 settings in order to find if it can have an impact in creating healthy and informed decision makers in K-12 physical and health education.