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James Fowler on the Power of Social Networks

I referred to the book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, by James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis, in my recent lecture at SIU's Symposium on Teaching and Learning.  I've been thinking about the implications of this book with respect to medical education and how to incorporate these findings into teaching strategies.  This video podcast is a nice introduction of the book by one of the authors, James Fowler.
PopTech : popcasts.

Using social networking for pathology teaching

I had the privilege of presenting yesterday at the "1st Annual Symposium on Teaching and Learning" at Southern Illinois University-School of Medicine in Springfield (my alma mater!).  I am uploading a pdf of the slides from the presentation.  This is my (very!) preliminary experience from last fall teaching the organ-specific  lung section of the second-year pathology course at Rush Medical College in Chicago using a course blog (Lung Sounds) and Twitter profile (@lungsounds) to enhance the traditional curricular format of textbook, lectures and course syllabus.

It is interesting that there was not more participation on either the blog or Twitter.  One of the comments in the discussion is that Twitter may not have yet caught on in the med-student age group.  Maybe.  Another was that the students may need more "hands-on" in-class development of groups before migrating to social networking groups.  One suggestion was to have break-out small groups discuss a simulated case prior to the formal lecture presentation.  This is a work-in-progress.  I am considering using a Facebook course page for a proposal next year that would incorporate the ideas behind the blog/Twitter.  An M2 student I spoke with has informed me about Google-Wave which has some interesting possibilities.  Anyone else using social networking sites in their teaching?

Download SIU presentation--Pool