"Twitter Doctors is a new site that lists and ranks all the doctors who are active on Twitter based on number of followers, retweets, etc."- Bertalan Meskó In short, a directory of the most influential doctors on Twitter. I love it :)

 IMAGINATIVE SUCCESS! WOW! I never thought that my 'Introduction to Critical Thinking' presentation would be viewed more than a 100,000 times on SlideShare (or would be my first SlideShare presentation to reach that feat!).  It took four years, but so what! In Justin Beaber and Lady Gaga viewing terms that is probably achieved every second, so I am not going to use that as a measuring stick.However, I am happy and grateful that this presentation and other things shared using a variety of tools over the last few years have benefited many teachers and students out there in one way or the other. Interestingly, over the last four years, I have gotten e-mails from some top experts/lecturers/teachers in critical thinking, and have even been invited to contribute to a book on critical thinking...Seriously!Anyway, here is the infamous presentation again (if you missed it!):Introduction to Critical Thinking View more presentations from Zaid Alsagoff Of course, I turned the book request down, because I only taught Critical Thinking for one semester at UNITAR (Surely not enough experience to make a significant contribution!), and then I was kicked out (gently)... THE TRUE STORY !I am thinking, what if I had continued with Critical Thinking, and made a career of it? Never happened! So, I am not going to waste anymore thinking cells on that :)

 E-LEARNING PEARLS A couple of years ago I was very fortunate to be part of the first National e-Learning Audit (team) of Universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and during this wonderful learning journey I got to visit some of the top Universities there offering e-learning in a variety of flavors. However, since that journey I have mostly kept my learning discoveries out of this blog.   However, today I thought: "Lets' share with you all one of those e-learning pearls." Actually, since this e-learning pearl loves to share its' own e-learning journey in a comprehensive documented manner, it is rather easy. Here we go: CLICK HERE to Download the E-Learning Report QASSIM COLLEGE OF MEDICINE To really understand what I mean by e-learning pearl, let's look at some of their e-learning statistics: (Source): All (100%) courses use e-learning. More than two million hits monthly (Only 749 registered users... WOW!).Each visit a user opens 19.7 Pages/Visit.Number of courses now online is 45 for this year, total 149 since launch.Number of registered staff members is 123.Number of online discussions is 19000 (Another...WOW!).Number of resources is 2300 lectures (Not bad!).Average 580 visits to the sites daily this month, total 20000 visits/month, 60-140 % of college students' daily online (note that double visits are common).151 e-learning satisfaction surveys since launch.51 completed electronic paperless exams in the exam center.Three complete sets of clinical exams available online either for download or streaming.A dedicated video streaming site for training videos.ITunes site with physical exams.8 workshops conducted on e-learning this year (2011).First to launch a (Moodle) mobile app for a College in KSA and in The Middle East (Not sure about that!).    45000 hits from mobile phones.Interestingly, they are also a member of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, and through their Learning Management System (Moodle) they have made available 12 complete online courses for free.All this is good, but what really caught my wondering mind's attention was that they had managed to create something really special that most of the other Universities we visited (at that time) had not and that was an...(Shall I continue? Exciting or what!)EMPOWERED (E-)LEARNING CULTUREThey had managed to facilitate a common culture among staff (and students) that empowered all members to create content, manage interaction, communicate with students, release grades, and many other activities. Among the remarkable men that I met at the College, I was really impressed with Mohammed Saqr; The Assistant Professor of Medicine, who self-converted himself to become the e-learning supervisor of the e-Learning Unit.  Impressively, all of their e-learning systems have been developed/customized in house. All of the software used is open source, and they have proven that community projects are viable and represent an alternative solution for the highly expensive commercial solutions. According to Mohammed Saqr they amazingly spent only around 100 US dollars a year to host all their e-learning services.  Yes, the college staff (Doctors) do the upgrade, maintenance, and day to day help. And they are honored to proclaim that NO single contribution by any company or any support of any kind outside the college, all support and planning is done by their staff members.They have changed the whole assessment process to use digital examination. Today, their exam labs are being copied in other colleges, and the question bank will be generalized in KSA. Online surveys and user feedback has become the base of decision making in the college.Their mobile learning portal enables every student to access his lectures and learning materials anytime. The college has also produced many simulation videos, DVDs, manuals, booklets, e-learning workshops and made them available FREE TO THE WORLD.They have also published two international papers (I need to find them, NOW!), and according to the site they are working on 10 ongoing research projects.Finally, the College has a strict policy regarding copyrights, every user has to agree before using their  facilities; the policy respects the rights of others and disseminates the culture of copyrights (whatever that means!). I wish, copyrights will just go away, and I could live happily in a copyleft world! Or better yet, a CREATIVE COMMONS world!Overall, I was really impressed 2 years ago, and I am still impressed with what they are achieving (of what I am seeing), especially in empowering everyone to get involved and inspire learning. Now, that is an e-learning pearl... I arrest my case :)

PROBLEM!Have you seen this great collection (Click the link!!!)?Alright, it is not great, but it is a useful list of links (URLs) to mostly free learning repositories and resources (that needs to be updated!). Now, how can I CONVERT this web-page full of web links into a visually mind stimulating magazine/newspaper (web-page) in an efficient manner? I could add one link at the time to Delicious or Scoop.it...STOP! Isn't happening!!!Now, imagine how many web-pages there are of link collections (from A-Z) curated by people around the world? As of now (this millisecond), there are exactly 22,679,232 such web-pages on the WWW. Don't ask me how I got that figure!   No, what if...WISH?Now, what if we could feed tools like Delicious and Scoop.it with a URL (e.g. http://zaidlearn.blogspot.com/2008/06/university-learning-ocw-oer-free.html), and then the curation tool would auto-convert the link collection into a more visually stimulating web-page with thumbnails and short descriptions customized to our preferences. From a coding point-of-view, I doubt that would be difficult for a good programmer (count me out!).Of course, after feeding it the URL it will recognize all the broken-links (so we can update or delete), and allow us to 'Select all' or those that we want to be visualized in our stunning magazine/newspaper/or whatever you want to call it! Better yet, it will have a nutty, but stunning algorithm wizardly auto-arranging the sites on our magazine/newspaper according to (Google) ranking, relevance, rating, etc. and allows us easily to change views according to our preference. Wow! Finally, we surely want to keep our old view collections (URLs) intact, so after converting, we can add our converted version URL to it in a creative manner; just like adding an icon for PDF version. Yes, now we have the Magazine/Newspaper version (icon), too.       Then someone is going to spoil my idea by telling me that we already have a browser plugin (or a widget we can add to a site) that enables us to see a screenshot of the site automatically by hovering over the link (URL). Well, that is cool, but that is not what I want! Social Curation Tools... PLEASE read my auto-conversion wish above and INNOVATE! If you already have such a feature or something similar...PLEASE voice out!So, is my idea doable? Without spamming the world... :)

 Date: Wednesday, 28th DecemberVenue: Online (WiZiQ)   Time: 2:30 - 3:30 P.M. (Malaysian time) (GMT + 8 Hours: 6:30 - 7:30 A.M)AGENDA Can Facebook be used for teaching and learning? How can it be used? In this online session we explored how it can be used for teaching and learning with a specific emphasis on using Facebook Groups and Pages.  FACILITATORS Zaid Ali Alsagoff Fareeza Marican RECORDINGYou are recommended to skip the first 10 minutes, so that you can get right into the action. If you have problems viewing, try updating your Flash Player.IMU Learning Series 01 - Facebook for Learning and Teaching?  CLICK HERE (To view the recorded online session)PRESENTATION SLIDESIMU Learning Series 01 - Facebook for Learning and Teaching? View more presentations from Zaid Alsagoff.Stay tuned for the upcoming online session, which will be revealed soon :)

Alright, we should not talk big before things happen, but sometimes in life you get that feeling... "THIS IS GOING TO WORK!"ORIGINSomehow, I got that feeling when I joined 'iPTA-iPad (and Tablets) for Academicians' Facebook group (invited by the electrifying Prof. Karim). Since late 2008, I have been dreaming (passively) about collaborating with a core group of passionate educators in Malaysia to really transform education for the better (without much luck!). But, then I stumbled upon this Facebook group, and the rest is history in the making (Hopefully!).  When I joined the group, they were passionately planning to conduct a TEDx session, but then I opened my big mouth (Devil's Advocate)! Within a short period, the TEDx idea was history. TEDx is great, but it doesn't really fit into our mission.   While TEDx is often associated with 'Big Ideas' and 'Changing the World', we are thinking about creating multiple venues (Face-to-face, Webinars, Second Life, etc.) for sharing learning stories on how to use technology (e.g. using iPad apps) to transform the way we learn and teach. Small ideas matter as much as big ideas! And importantly, you don't have to be out of this world to present. Everyone is welcome, as long as you think you have a learning innovation to share (small or big!). Welcome to...   LEARNING INNOVATION TALKS  As a result, we used our collective intelligence to conceptualize Learning Innovation Talks. Learning Innovation Talks (LIT)Yes, I will be one of the presenters. Please come! If you don't, you will be able to view the recorded sessions later. So, either way we do hope our learning innovation sharing sessions reaches you.LEARNING INNOVATION CIRCLE Learning Innovation Talks is the first learning gem to spark out of this brand new Learning Innovation Circle. Confusing? Come and join the Learning Innovation Circle!I got this fuzzy little feeling that this group is going to conceptualize and implement some pretty awesome initiatives in the coming months (and years), so why not be part of history in the making... Everyone is welcome to join... :)

Date: Wednesday, 11th January 2012Venue: Online (WizIQ)Time: 2:15 - 3:30 P.M. (Malaysian time)Facilitators: Zaid Ali Alsagoff and Fareeza MaricanAGENDA Can we use Web Conferencing (WizIQ) for teaching, learning and meetings? This online session will explore the basics of using Web Conferencing and how it can be used for teaching and learning. By the end of this session, participants shall be able to use Web Conferencing for teaching, learning, meetings, etc. RECORDING You are recommended to skip the first 22 minutes of the recorded webinar, so that you can get right into the action. The actual learning session starts roughly 22 minutes after the recording started. If you have any problems viewing, try updating your Flash Player. CLICK HERE (To view the recorded online session)* Currently, WizIQ (the version we are using) does not have a post-editing feature for webinar recordings. Also, there is no 'pause' button to use while recording a webinar. Please skip the first 22 minutes of the webinar above to really enjoy the learning session.  PRESENTATION SLIDESThe presentation slides for this webinar is only available for IMU staff (from the e-learning portal). However, here are similar presentation slides from WizIQ, which basically covers what we covered during the webinar. Wiziq training materialUploaded by Sunil on WizIQ Tutorials

Title : How to Become a Rapid E-Learning ProDate : 8th February, 2012 Venue : Online (WizIQ)  Time : 10.00 AM (Kuala Lumpur Time) Description:Many developers work with limited budgets and resources. How can they build effective elearning courses with these constraints? Tom Kuhlmann shared in this webinar some practical tips on getting the most out of the resources you have to build engaging and interactive elearning content.Speaker:  Tom Kuhlmann is the author of the Rapid E-Learning Blog, which has over 85,000 subscribers each week. He shares practical tips and tricks to help people learn more about elearning. He also manages the Articulate user community. He holds a Master's in Education Technology from Pepperdine and is very passionate about learning and technology. Yes, the actual session turned out to be an enriching and engaging WOW session for learning how to convert your boring PowerPoint slides into sizzling e-learning content. RECORDINGPRESENTATION SLIDESRapid Elearning Pro View more presentations from IMUelearning Click here to access the full list of recorded and upcoming webinars for IMU Learning Series.

IMU LEARNING SERIES (ROUND 4) Title : Facilitating a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)Date : 22nd February, 2012 Time : 10.00 AM, Kuala LumpurVenue : Online (WizIQ)Description:In this (nearly 2 hour online) talk Stephen Downes, one of the originators of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) format, described the organization and management of a MOOC, beginning with the arrangement of technology, organization of learning materials, communications with students, support tasks, and interaction with guest presenters. This talk is based on fifteen years’ experience designing and delivering web-based instruction, as well as knowledge amassed though the delivery of six MOOCs to almost ten thousand students since 2008.Speaker:  Stephen Downes works for the National Research Council of Canada where he has served as a Senior Researcher, based in Moncton, New Brunswick, since 2001. Affiliated with the Learning and Collaborative Technologies Group, Institute for Information Technology, Downes specializes in the fields of online learning, new media, pedagogy and philosophy. RECORDINGYou are recommended to skip the first 30 minutes of the recorded webinar, so that you can get right into the action. The actual session starts roughly 30 minutes into the recording. If you have any problems viewing, try updating your Flash Player. CLICK HERE (To view the recorded online webinar) Click here to download the recorded webinar. Click here for an excellent audio recording of the webinar captured by Stephen  Downes.PRESENTATION SLIDESFacilitating a Massive Open Online Course View more PowerPoint from Stephen Downes UPCOMING WEBINARS?CLICK HERE!

DON'T BELIEVE? WATCH THIS...Yes, my brother-in-law Adam has a GOD GIVEN gift to engage babies to talk. In this video, Adam is talking to my baby daughter Salma (turning 2 years old next week). Although, we have no clue what they are talking about, we are enriched with happy moments to cherish for life.Now, imagine if Adam rethinks his existing law career, and...IMAGINE..Collaborates with Giggles to develop the most wanted app in the world for any mum and dad: 'BABY CHAT!' Now, for the first time since Adam and Eve parents can actually understand what their babies are babbling about. Even better, with 'BABY CHAT' babies also understand what their parents (or anyone) are babbling, meaning a real conversation can take place. It will for sure be revolutionary for baby learning. Adam, please rethink your career and explore the possibilities to reinvent the way we communicate with babies...Please don't answer me, just think about it!In the meantime, can anyone decipher what baby Salma is really trying to say? :)