Science in Twitter:
the first worldwide online open access microbiology course via Twitter
University of Oxford, the Institute Pasteur in Paris, Stanford University, CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), are some of the eighteen international universities and research centres which will collaborate in the first worldwide open access Microbiology course online via Twitter. A total of twenty-one professors and researchers will use this social network as a tool for teaching and communicate scientific knowledge. With a frequency of three classes per week, each lesson will address a different topic. For instance, Marta Cortesao, from the German Aerospace Center-DLR will talk about space microbiology, or Jorge García-Lara, from University of Central Lancashire (UK) about the microbial path to cancer. Vaccines and antivax, antimicrobial resistance, gut microbiota, pathogens or microbiological warfare are also some of the topics that will be discussed during the course.
Using simple and concise language, the objective is communicate science to a general audience outside the academic environments using a social network as Twitter. Lectures will consist in 30-40 tweet-size statements with associated links, related web pages, blogs, news and specially images and videos.
The course will take place over seven weeks (from October 2 to November 15) with classes scheduled every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 17:00 (UCT/GMT +2). Tweets will be sent from the@SEMicrobiologia Twitter account and will be programmed to be posted at a frequency of one tweet per minute. It is not necessary a previous registration to the course. Students can easily follow this massive online open course through their mobile devices or computer either alive at the scheduled time or later, always searching the hashtag#EUROmicroMOOC. The same hashtag will be used by the students to interact with the lecturers. All the classes will be in English and they will be compiled and stored online using the open tool Wakelet.
10 reasons why you can´t miss #EUROmicroMOOC
1. It is the first worldwide massive online open access course via Twitter about Science and Microbiology.
2. An international course with the participation of twenty-one professors and researchers from nine different countries.
3. With the collaboration of eighteen universities and research centres, as the Institute Pasteur, the Spanish National Research Council, or the Universities of Oxford, Stanford, Salamanca, Navarra, …
4. It is organized and coordinated by the group of Teaching and Dissemination of Microbiology of the Spanish Society for Microbiology (SEM), with the collaboration of the Federation of European Microbiology Societies (FEMS).
5. It is online and open access: you can easily follow it through your mobile device or computer. You only need a Twitter account.
6. Its purpose is to communicate Science and Microbiology to a general audience outside the academic environments using social networks.
7. Twenty-one fascinating topics from space microbiology, microbes and cancer, vaccines, antimicrobial resistance, gut microbiota, to microbiological warfare, and much more.
8. Entertaining but scientifically rigorous: only 30-40 minutes each day, three days per week during seven weeks.
9. You can do it from the sofa of you home: each day at 17:00 h (UCT/GMT +2).
10. Only follow the hashtag #EUROmicroMOOC by Twitter, enjoy and learn science.
Para saber más (en castellano):