Technology Conferences, Twitter

The 2009 5th annual TTIX Conference held at Utah Valley University was a lot of fun. The sessions are all online.

There was a social media contest to crown the next Grand Poo-bah. Here is a picture of the crown the lucky winner will get.

Lots of Twittering going on at TTIX got me to thinking who I follow and why. Here are my favorite groups I follow:

• UENPD
• Smithsonian
• GoogleatWork
• TED
• PBS Teachers

I am now setting my sights on NECC09 in Washington, DC. I am looking forward to sessions on social media, Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, blogging, and Google.

NECC09 - Washington DC

I am really excited about going to NECC this year. I have signed up for some great workshops and look forward to learning more about topics relevant to educational technology.
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Susan Boyle: Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover.

This 47 yr old unmarried, unemployed Scottish woman gave one of the most amazing singing performances I have ever seen.

She came out on stage on Britains Got Talent 2009. People snickered at her before she even spoke, writing her off because of her dress and looks. Audience members rolled their eyes, snickered, and grimmaced when she said she would like to be a professional singer like Elaine Paige seen below:

Then Susan Boyle started singing. WOW. The video has gone viral, and I want to put in my two cents. She is incredible. Here she is singing I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables. She is amazing. I hope we see more of her.

Quicksilver

Sometimes we want our students to be able to REALLY see a message. Quicksilver can help us do that. Look at the image below. See how the word 'quicksilver' really pops out at you?

Want to see how to do this?


The following video explains how to download and set up Quicksilver so you can create those large, easy-to-read messages on your screen. Although there are many other uses for Quicksilver, this post discusses the 'large type' effect you see in the images here.

http://screencast.com/t/PyEHKMjh

There are multiple ways to find and download Quicksilver. It can be downloaded from www.blacktree.com or just Google "Quicksilver for Mac". It will be the first or second hit. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Mouseposé

Some teachers have purchased Mouseposé from Boinx Software and have asked me to create a tutorial on how to use it. So here it is: Mouseposé Tutorial.

Mouseposé highlights the screen area around the mouse pointer and visualizes keystrokes and mouse clicks. For more information about Mouseposé, go to www.boinx.com.

This program is not free. I am posting this tutorial by request.

Draper Elementary Podcast

I had such a delightful experience at Draper Elementary. I worked with Mrs. Valdez's student teacher, Miss Evans and her class in creating a podcast on sound. I brought in 30 headsets so that each student could have their own headset.


We talked about how students would record their script in GarageBand, add photos, jingles, zingers, and sound effects. Students practiced their part so that when they recorded their final version they could do their best.

We found that we needed more than one hour to do a podcast from start to finish because we wanted students to experience GarageBand, adding images, sound etc. We could have just recorded the podcast with an iPod and a microphone, but that would have just been getting the job done rather than have authentic learning going on.

Mrs. Valdez has a great group of students. They were fun, respectful, and very excited about learning something new.

Using Wikis with Radiology Residents

My sister, Susie Muir, MD, PhD, asked me to help her get a website up and running for UCLA radiology residents to share their cases online.

The residents don't have much time to spend on learning how to edit webpages, so we wanted a type of web page that was quick and easy to use. We decided to use a wiki--and over the last few weeks we developed The Pediatric Imaging Wiki.

We iChat quite often at night tossing ideas around, trying to refine the wiki and make the navigation easy to understand. During this process, we realized that a website is a living thing. It will change over time, and we must to listen to the ideas and concerns of the residents who are using the wiki so that we can improve and make it as accessible as possible. To this end, we created several video tutorials for the doctors to explain how they could start a case page, add the radiographic, MRI and/or CT images and how to add links to resources.

Things are coming along. Several very interesting cases have been uploaded. One med student was so excited about the wiki that she uploaded a case, learned to use a software program to create a movie of the MRI images she had taken, and listed some great resources.

Each Thursday my sister chooses a case of the week and presents an award to the doctor who has uploaded the most interesting or challenging case that week. The interest in the wiki is growing as more and more residents hear about it and want to participate.

It has been a really fun project on which to work. I am learning a lot about radiology in the process. My sister is a brainiac and funny as can be, so this project is not work, but fun.