Model for a Journal Club using Google Reader and Facebook OR if the prophet does not go to the Mountain.... bring the journal club to FB!

Challenge:
Create a collaborative learning environment for discussing key journal articles for our residency program.

Proposed solution:
Create an automated method for posting key journal articles to an online discussion group.  Each article abstract should be a separate post in the forum with space for comments.

Assumptions:
With tighter duty hour restrictions, going online might be more acceptable.
Most residents use social networking (e.g. Facebook) and have Google accounts - so our solution should try and leverage these 2.
It would be more likely to succeed if we go to where the energy is (Facebook) rather than create a new site with a new log in.
A few faculty members or Chief Residents would take on the task of filtering and selecting the articles.

Model for using Google Reader and Facebook Groups for an Internal Medicine Journal Club

Steps:

1. Faculty member/Chief Residents set up Google Reader accounts
2. Subscribe to RSS feeds for some selected Journals in their specialty.
3. Periodically (at least weekly) review the feeds and share some of the most relevant articles in Google Reader
4. Find the RSS feed for their shared items list
5. Create a Group in Facebook (possibly a closed group so only members can view and comment)
6. Authorize the Facebook Application RSS Graffiti for this Group. (only group admins can do this)
7. Create a feed in RSS Graffiti with the RSS feed of the shared items list
8. Ensure that specific settings are modified and test for the posts to show up within about 30 minutes.
1. You have to authorize RSS Graffiti for your Facebook account before it will work on your Facebook Group.
2. You have to be the admin for that FB group
3. Edit the feed and under the Filter tab, make sure you change to date to when there are some items to show.  By default it is set to the time of creation of the feed in RSS Graffiti
4. Edit the feed and under the More tab, make sure you are posting as yourself and not as the Group.
9. Invite/add members to the Group.
10. Enjoy!

Screenshot of the Journal Club in a Closed Facebook Group

Resources:
Google Reader
Subscribe to important medicine journals with one click (you can also click on the button in the right column of this blog)
Facebook Groups
RSS Graffiti Blog and RSS Graffiti FB app