Take Home: UMass Medical School and WPI have developed an app that can detect atrial fibrillation. This moves connected and mobile health closer to reality. The really important development with this approach might allow us to treat patients who have AF intermittently (paroxysmal) differently than we currently do. Because we are worried about stroke, patients now get blood thinners all the time because we are concerned that they will have recurrences without knowing about it. With this technology, in the future, we might see validation of a strategy that allows use of blood thinners when patients are in AF only, sometimes called a pill in the pocket.
"Formerly hosted by the UNC TLT Collaborative, this year the TLT Conference is being hosted by UNC-Pembroke, with support by the UNC System, and will be held April 13-15, 2010 in Second Life.
The presentations and demonstrations will be held on the five NC Education WeBIEE islands. NC Education is a Second Life group funded by the community colleges and open to all of North Carolina education.
Registration for the 2010 UNC TLT Conference is free! You can attend from your home, office, library . . . anywhere you have a broadband internet connection -- for free!!"
An important report on trends in educational technology. A must read for keeping current and understanding context of future learning tools and techniques.
something of interest in the report that I heard Chris Dede talk about in 2007 was the rise in use of mobile technology for learning. The new blackboard 9.1 allows for some connection to its LMS from mobile devices. It will be interesting to see how we harness this technology to be more than just another means of information delivery. I would really love to work on some app ideas that were specifically designed for learning on these devices.
I agree! Mobile Learning is coming and it should be - has the potential to be so much more than improved access. it can be more than simply having access to recorded lectures in your car or on the bus via an iPod.
I'm optimistic about the use of twitter and mobile devices to extend the classroom experience and improve communication. But I think we can do more. These mobile devices ( smart phones, Blackberry, iPad) are powerful computers in their own right.
Perhaps we should start looking for and bookmarking mobile learning initiatives.
Absolutely. And as luck would have it, some folks on the IT list forum I am a part of have posted some. I'll log in and take a look. I am excited about the portability of information and would love to see such devices invited into the classroom for the purpose of learning instead of just seeing them turned off. When you think about it, mobile devices are pretty powerful mini computers networked to global information that could be, and should be harnessed. The power of google at my fingertips, whenever I need it.
This is an interesting post on clickers and one that should be read. The first time I saw clickers used, I was evaluating a junior faculty member and she had many many questions. And I was unsure of the connection of the question with objectives. This article recommends:
many things but I will focus on 2:
1. Limit the number of clicker questions to five per class
2.Reserve questions for specific learning outcomes and goals (What do you want to stress? What cognitive skills do you want to develop? What do you want to reinforce?)
I think if you get these two right the clickers will be a useful tool.