IMU Learning Series 01 - Facebook for Learning and Teaching?

 

IMU Learning Series Launched!

CLICK HERE
(to read the first article)

WHAT?

The idea with this 'IMU Learning Series' initiative is to invite lecturers at IMU to share their learning and teaching experiences, and how they are innovating and inspiring students to learn and think (short articles: 250 - 1000 words). Later, we will also be inviting students to come forward sharing their learning stories and best practices.

A few more lecturers have also taken up the challenge (in progress), and hopefully more will follow. There are a lot of innovations and inspiring learning stories happening at IMU, and it would be wonderful if more lecturers came forward to share them. Especially, younger less experienced lecturers at IMU could benefit tremendously from these reflective learning and teaching stories.

Also, these learning stories will also be reaching many educators and learners beyond IMU. To date, IMU e-Learning Blog has had visitors from more than 50 countries (within a couple of months).

Finally, imagine if many IMU lecturers participate in sharing their inspiring learning stories over the coming months. By year end, we could actually compile and organize 'IMU Learning Series' articles into a digital e-book (e.g. IMU Learning Series 2010), which would be a wonderful learning resource.

In short, let's celebrate and participate sharing our inspiring learning stories and best practices.

Think big, start small, innovate fast :)

Let's make a difference! :)

Finally, if you are interested in experiencing IMU E-Learning learning stream on Facebook (including pictures from learning sessions), just CLICK HERE :)

Discover IMU E-Learning on Facebook!

CLICK HERE to discover IMU E-Learning on Facebook!

WHAT?

Facebook will be one of the main tools that we (IMU E-Learning) use to connect and share our e-learning adventures and stories as we explore, learn, share, facilitate and reflect together with IMU (International Medical University) educators, staff, and students regarding the amazing learning possibilities we have today.

As we are in the early stages of exploring social media (social networking, wikis, blogs, podcasts, Twitter, etc.) for learning at IMU, we hope that by openly sharing our learning stories, we will increasingly encourage more to participate and share. More and more universities or educational institutions around the world are exploring social media for learning, and we hope that our experiences shared can benefit others out there, especially new comers. Also, we do hope that this sharing initiative will lead to more connections and discussions with educators and students at IMU and beyond.

We have so much to learn, and by sharing and connecting with great people like you, we can learn faster and more effectively using our collective intelligence, or wisdom of the crowds (Oops, a few big words!).

Some might argue that you lose your competitive (e-learning) edge by being open and willing to share. I would argue that if you want to be leader in any field, you have to share your work and efforts, and be open to feedback and criticism. If you reflect and act upon these nuggets of feedback and criticism, you are probably going to improve faster than sticking to the old paradigm emphasizing indirectly that 'Hoarding Learning (knowledge, competencies and skills) is Power!'.

It should be 'Sharing Learning is Power'. Not much can be done alone, but it is amazing what we can do together collectively.



INGREDIENTS
We are using the Facebook Page feature to share our e-learning adventures and stories. Here you will find the following tabs (sections):

• The Wall
  Enjoy the learning stream, and please share your ideas, feedback (Like!) and comments, too.
  
  
• Blog
  Here you can get easily access all the learning stories and resources explored on IMU E-Learning blog.
  
  
• Discussions
  Here you can participate and share your thoughts and ideas on how we can improve learning at IMU, or anything related to learning, facilitation, creativity, innovation, etc.
  
  
• Video
  For now we will mostly upload screencasts exploring the different learning tools explored during the workshops, and discuss how we could use them for developing more sizzling learning environments or content.
  
  
• Pictures
  Pictures from all e-learning related events and workshops. So, if you have attended one, we might have caught a nice picture of you learning, or perhaps ______ :)
  
  
• Links
  Resource links (URL) to amazing learning resources from around the world. Most of these amazing learning resource links are shared through IMU E-Learning blog, which collects and tries to make sense of them via refreshing resource collections.
  

IMU E-Learning Facebook Page is still very much under construction, so you can probably expect some interesting surprises as we explore and discover further.

MOVING ON!

Currently, most of the learning stories and resources shared on the Facebook Page are from the e-learning team, but we are working with several lecturers to share their learning stories, and will soon be encouraging several students to share their learning stories, too.

We are also working on a website (using Google Sites) entitled the 'Learning Innovation Lab', which will enable...(still under construction). For this social media learning sharing initiative we will be mostly using technology that is free and reasonably easy-to-use, meaning that anyone interested in doing something similar (or better!) to what we are doing, can do that without needing worry too much about hardware, software and hosting budgets (big zero!). Though, you would require time to do it, but if you see the value and have the passion, you will most likely find the time.

The good thing today, is that we have so many learning tools and possibilities to potentially use to facilitate learning. The sad thing is that due to that fact, many of us are obviously facing information (and tools) overload, and are clueless where to start.

In a learning shell, how do we use emerging (and old) learning tools to facilitate sizzling learning environments? How do we use learning tools and open educational resources to nurture students to ask deeper and more reflective questions, master their learning areas, think more creatively and innovatively, discover their passion, and eventually inspire them to become, or achieve their ultimate dreams (even the impossible)?

Let's explore the possibilities together :)