Science blogs and online forums as teaching tools

Science Blogging 2008: LondonAugust 30, 2008

Version 1.1

Martin Fennerfenner.martin@mh-hannover.de

Hannover Medical School, Germany

The Good Paper Journal Club

A Nature Network Forum that presents and discusses well-written papers

http://network.nature.com/forums/goodpaper

An online forum makes a better journal club

• No restriction by time or location

• Hyperlinking to related resources

• Paper authors can participate in discussion

• Papers and discussions are archived

What could be done in the future?

• Better integration with Connotea and other bookmarking tools

• Measurement of interestingness:access and comment counts, digg-style voting

• Annotation of fulltext articles

Why should students participate?

• when the online version greatly adds value

• when the student earns credit for classes

Why should teachers participate?

• when the online version greatly adds value

• when the online version helps with the regular teaching

• when the teacher has other benefits, e.g. recognition from the university

Personal conclusions

• Online tools can greatly enhance science teaching

• Blogs work best for individual efforts

• Blogs work best when they enhance a regular class

• Teaching blogs are a good starting point to promote science blogging at universities