Recently in Link Category

Golf has too many rules

Day 373: Golf has too many rules, originally uploaded by samwebster.

I was complaining about the number of rules in golf in a 365 Flickr photo last week and then this happens in the USPGA:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/8916112.stm

Swansea-Gambia Link Project 2010

A group of students are out in the Gambia looking at health in the context of international development. If you want to find out more and keep up with what they're doing, take a look at their blog:

swanseagambialinkproject2010.blogspot.com

Higher Education Academy mag & Turning Point clickers

I've been a proponent of using interactive feedback technology in lectures (which means I can ask questions in my lecture, students can answer using a remote control with 10 or so buttons on it and we can all see how well we're doing) for some time. As such I've been occasionally pulled out to demonstrate the tech and to get other people using it.

I've written a couple of brief things about how we've been using this in embryology lectures in the School of Medicine and the Higher Education Academy's magazine "01" has included an article in this quarter's copy.

The students like it and the lecturers like it. Everybody likes to use the clickers (instant gameshow) and teachers get to see immediately how much the audience is getting from the lecture. It's simple to use and as more people have used it more Schools have bought their own sets. I imagine that in modules with very large student numbers if you can afford enough clickers you'll learn a lot about your audience. Is it possible to interact with every individual in a lecture with 300 students in an hour in any other way?

For more information:

- see the HEA 01 article here (HTML) or here (pdf)
- visit Turning Technologies to find out more about the tech

He who looks after my legs

The bloke that looks after my legs has just got a website:

swanseahealthsolutions.co.uk

Recommended.

How much energy can you produce on your bike?

For 12 hours?

The BBC's Bang Goes the Theory programme investigated (and demonstrated) what it would be like to try to power a single household by pedal power. Sure, it's not a practical idea but it gives the viewer some real energy awareness. Well, if the viewer has ever ridden a bike anyway.

I won't be powering the microwave when I'm on the turbo then.

See the whole thing on iPlayer if you're in the UK (probably until the 10th December) here.

Simbryo - embryology animation

I mentioned Simbryo in one of my recent lectures. If you want to find out more go to the official website at simbryo.stanford.edu.

If you have, or are planning to buy, a copy of the Langman's Medical Embryology textbook I believe that you get a copy of Simbryo with it.

Google Wave, aha, I get it

There's been a lot of chatter about Google's new product, "Wave", for the last couple of months. Looking from the outside it's difficult to see what it does, what it does different, and what we can really use it for. It's in beta at the moment so only a limited number of people are able to actually use it.

I was kindly given an invitation to try it and as soon as I got into the preview it was clear how hugely beneficial this could be to people like me with organisational nightmares. To teach anatomy we have 2 main lecturers, 3 technicians and dozens of clinical teachers. We need to co-ordinate the teaching of 450 learning outcomes, a shed-load of exam questions, and the use of a varying number of prosections, models, bones, projectors, laptops, and rooms among a different group of people every week. Try doing that through email. Luckily Jo's brain can cope with much of this but we still make mistakes.

So imagine something that's easy to access that looks like email. Except that we can all edit, add to and delete our plans live (we can all edit the same stuff at once, and see those edits in real-time) and talk about it while we do it. This is all well organised in itself and we share these waves among those that need the information and keep the others to ourselves.

I can see who will be teaching which learning outcomes, have a discussion about how to link my bits in with other people's bits, lob up images for the other teachers to use, and Greg (our technician) can suggest the materials we have available and we can all argue about who gets to use the plastic model of the arm with the nerves on it and who gets to use the prosections. Good stuff, eh? I can argue with a surgeon that he's better suited to teaching part of the abdomen, and I can amend his assigned learning outcomes and he can suggest additions and take away stuff that's not important. The history of this development is all recorded - nothing is lost and we can all see who did what.

The discussions we need are far more likely to take place in this environment than face-to-face. We're all too busy and most of the people involved need 6 weeks notice to get help with clinics if they're going to spend a morning with us. Try getting 4 or 5 of those people in a room together. It's not easy.

The key here is that it's very easy to use. People are scared of wiki's but they won't be scared of this. The whole School of Medicine could take advantage of this.

Take a look at this long preview video and see if it makes sense for you. You can use Wave with me using samvwebster@googlewave.com.

Learning Lab podcast

I feature in the current Learning Lab podcast! Chris Hall interviewed and filmed me (yes, its a video podcast) a little while ago about using TurningPoint clickers in embryology lectures, something that Jo and I will also be speaking about at tomorrow's opening of the Swansea Academy of Learning and Teaching (SALT).

Links:

Swansea Learning Lab Podcast
Tomorrow's SALT presentations

More MS Courier Info

I still really like the ideas within Microsoft's future Courier device, but I bet it won't play nicely with all my data.

Link: Gizmodo - Courier User Interface in Depth

Cell Size & Scale

Do you struggle with the concept of scale, like I do? How small is a red blood cell compared with a grain of salt? How big is a virus? What does a glucose molecule look like to a cell?

Try this:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/

I love Halloween

I've always loved Halloween, maybe from an interest in all things ghoulish (and I guess that interest may have lead me to my current job).

Go and get your Halloween wallpaper:

- Lifehacker: Wallpaper Roundup: All Hallow's Eve and Spooky Scenes

Mobile phones in developing countries

Jezebel have an interesting article on the importance of easy communication, in this case via the mobile phone, in developing countries. (I don't read Jezebel, honest - this was linked to from Gizmodo). There's an important need to be able to easily contact someone, but also to access information.

I'd love to know more about how students, lecturers and clinicians use mobile phones in our links (e.g. Gambia, Nigeria: swanih.org).

How Mobile Phones Contribute To Female Progress In Developing Nations (Jezebel, via Gizmodo).

Tim Don - Advice for beginners

There are a bunch of new first years on the course getting into (and a few very much already into) triathlon. If you new guys & girls are looking for advice there's nowhere better than to start than with words from the Don.

Have a look at some of the other Oakley Armchair Sessions on Youtube too.

More Microsoft Courier Info - perfect for students?

Take a look at another video of the Microsoft Courier tablet in use. It looks like the perfect tool for students: note taking, organisation, time management, linking, information searching, information storage, and if you can view and annotate Powerpoint files, possibly the perfect lecture companion.

The price may crash this idea, of course. Also, does this mean I'll have to learn to write with a pen again?

Link:
Gizmodo - The Courier Files: How Microsoft Thinks We'll Use Their Secret Tablet

Real cyclists can't be put back together

Via Gizmodo.