Have everybody interacting at lectures

By Dr. Eduardo Mayorga

(I have no financial interest in any of the products mentioned below)

In past blogs we talked about making face-to-face lectures interactive with answering response systems. We also talked about the interactivity that webinar software allows when giving online lectures.

Residents training takes place every day, all over the world. A lot of teacher effort is used to teach small groups of residents in their own hospitals. Today technology allows to share face-to face teaching with online attendants and make them interact. It is possible to blend both and have attendants in the room interact with online attendants, sharing responses from both groups on screen. 

We have tried and tested different  webinar software such as GoToWebinar, Blackboard, Webex and Adobe Connect. All of them have in common excellent features and may fit different needs. At this time the one we are using most is  Adobe Connect and the description below refers to it.

In the screenshot that follows you can see how attendants in the room and online can see on the screen the results of the responses from residents in the room (top right) and residents connected online (bottom right)

Attendants in the room require an answering system such as "Turning Point", unless they have mobile devices to answer through the webinar software. When using Adobe Connect you will need the computer holding the answering system to be also promoted as "Host". If you would like more detail on how to set this up you may contact us at educators@icoph.org 

Editing videos with the YouTube editor

By Dr. Eduardo Mayorga
Videos are an excellent tool for teaching and learning. In one of our past posts we described how our residents use video segments of their own surgeries to reflect on them and share them with their fellow residents.
Usually resident surgery may take a long time and may require a lot of editing to keep the desired segments.
Video editing software can be expensive and difficult to use. What I like to use is the combination of 2 free software products. "Machete" and "YouTube Video Editor".

I usually use "Machete" for a first trimming of the video segments (YouTube does not allow uploading more than 15 minutes footage) and then finish the fine editing with "YouTube Video Editor". If wanted, you could do all the editing with "Machete". "Machete" has a paid version for less than 20 dollars that adds some more features to it. You can find instructions on how to use "Machete" clicking here

Regarding how to use the "YouTube Video Editor" you can go to the "Help" page clicking here and also watch the video tutorial below.

Foxit Reader – The easy companion to manage PDF Documents

Dr. Anthony Vipin

Portable Document Format or PDF is a very popular open standard of document exchange used today. It was created by Adobe in 1993. Many a time we have to work between PDF documents and other platforms such as Microsoft Word and Excel. There are quite a number of PDF readers available on the Internet today. I have decided to share the Foxit PDF reader with you all to list the handiest features for use in JOURNAL CLUB Powerpoint Presentations. The reason for the review is that most of the best functions are available in the FREE version as well.

Foxit Reader

FREE for Download
Current Version: 5.02
Download Size – 12 MB, Installation Size – 52 MB
Operating Systems
* Microsoft Windows® XP
* Windows Vista®
* Windows 7

Recommended Minimum Hardware for Better Performance
* 1.3 GHz or faster processor.
* 64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater).
* 800x600 screen resolution.

Features

Viewing PDF Files

- There are 3 different ways for you to read PDF files:
Multi-tab browsing - enables you to open multiple files in a single instance
Single document interface mode - enables you to open multiple instances of Foxit Reader
Multiple document interface mode - sets multiple documents under a single parent window

- At the start of the Application the History is conveniently displayed to the bottom left for fast access of recent documents.

- Add Image and Add Video are convenient functions to add Media to an existing PDF document.

Comments Tool

There are various tools to use to enhance our presentations. The colors for the following tools including the opacity level can be changed by clicking the color icons. The following functions are found in the Comments Drop Down.

- Highlight Text Tool

This helps to highlight various texts in the document. The text can be selected and the desired color chosen.

- Underline Tool

This tool helps to Underline the Text in various colors.

- Strike out tool

This tool enable us to strikeout the text in a chosen color in the PDF document.

- Squiggly Tool

This tool enables us to add a Squiggly line below the text in chose colors for spelling errors.

Apart from the above functions there are a range of other interesting tools to comment on the PDF document. Functions like Drawing, Measuring Distances, Areas and Perimeters, Typerwriter to fill forms, Callout boxes, Textboxes enable us to enhance the PDF during a Study Analysis for a Journal Club.

The reader also supports basic skins and allows the user to customize their shortcut keys as well for faster, more efficient work. Files can also be pinned on a Page.

I have only tried to highlight the extra newer functions that are available on this Free Version. I have also added below a sample PPT slide I use in my Journal Club presentations. Happy Foxit reading!

FREE Download available at - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/

The Author has no financial interest in the product described in this article.

Taking handwritten notes on your tablet.

Taking notes at lectures is one way we will be able to bring back ideas and concepts to enhance our medical practice. Using traditional pen and paper does not allow you to keep all your notes with you at all times.

Taking handwritten notes with an electronic device is as easy as using paper and pen, but allows you to keep your notes always with you and share them through email.

On today's post I will comment on devices that use Android as their operating system. On my next post I will comment on software that can be used on an Ipad.

Even though the following software is better suited for tablets, it can also be used on Android phones.

Genial Writing allows you to share memos with friends through email, other messages and facebook. You can customize your pen width and color and decide if you want to use portrait or landscape orientation. You can copy and paste between notes as well. There are 12 kinds of notebooks, you shake your phone to delete something and lastly you can insert pictures from your phone. You can do OK with the free version but the inexpensive paid version adds some features.

Bellow you can  see a short demo. In the demo, a cursor is used for writing, but on you tablet or smartphone you can use your finger or a rubber pointed pen.

  

Customized Virtual Learning Meeting Points

By Helena Filipe

Internet offers both learners and educators customized virtual meeting points. Today we will present software with such capability.

Drop box http://www.dropbox.com/ enables us to store our own multimedia files (photos, videos and other documents) and have them available in all devices (laptop, smartphone,…)where its app´s have been previously downloaded (offline working)

or in any computer with internet connectivity (online working).

We can store our files and have them instantly available on the move without the need of the classical pen drive avoiding its possible associated troubles such as simply forgetting it, spreading virus or losing our content for any other reason.

Documents will be securely saved in the virtual space, instantly available offline if we are working in a computer with this software or in any other device as long it has Internet connectivity. In this last case we must have a Drop Box account and once logged in, it will be as if we were working in our own computer: all our stored content is there ready to be worked on. This happens because whenever we store files using DropBox they are simultaneously saved in our computer and in Drop Box website.

Folders created to keep ophthalmic specific subjects can be shared within a group (learning community) with a common goal and same interests.

Once found a scientific article or a new surgical technique video focused on a specific ophthalmology subject and stored in a Drop Box shared folder, it will be instantly available for the whole group of people, previously invited to share that folder content.

Drop Box allows us to work together on the same projects and keeps track of what is happening concerning the evolution of those projects. This activity involves authorship at a certain extent, social tagging and collaboration falling under the umbrella of social bookmarking.

As examples of this software use we present: Ocular Surface Disease created to store scientific content related to be available among a group of colleagues sharing the same subspecialty.

Recently another shared folder was created to allocate and allow cooperation to build our monthly Portuguese Society of Ophthalmology newsletter. Since a group of three people is engaged in this task, whenever there is a change in the document it will easily tracked by the others which will optimize our work.

This software is downloadable from http://www.dropbox.com/ and a free use of a 2GB subscription can be used though it can be extended to 100GB. If we invite more “friends” to DropBox our subscription capacity can be extended. The Drop Box site offers a concise but complete explanation through a video clip of the concept at stake and how to make its best use.

Downloading Videos from YouTube: Can we? Should we?

By Dr. Eduardo Mayorga.

When looking for videos to train our residents, YouTube becomes a great source for them. The videos can be watched on line during a class or you can send the residents a link for them to comment on the video or part of it. On occasion and for different reasons, you may want to have the video or part of it on your hard drive so, is there an easy way to do this? Are we allowed to do it? Let's answer each question at a time.

Is there an easy way to download videos from YouTube?: Yes, there is. YouTubeDownloader works very well and easily converts YouTube videos into several formats. As with any free software you should be aware that some of them can install spyware in your system. I have not found this to be true with YouTubeDownloader. 

Are we allowed to download videos from YouTube?: A fast and safe answer would be: No, you are not allowed..., unless you have permission of the person that created the video. Please be aware that not always the creator (the owner of the rights) is the person who uploaded the video.

There are at least 2 ways to get permission: the first and faster is to look for the type of license the owner has assigned to the video. If it's a Creative Commons Licence, you may reuse and edit the video as far as you acknowledge the authorship to the real creator.  The other way to get permission is to write to the owner of the rights. You can read more on Creative Commons Licences clicking here. 

Evaluating computer skills

Computer skills is a competency all residents must acquire. Electronic medical records, searching for evidence in literature databases, preparing presentations, are only a few examples where they will apply these skills.

There are at least two ways in which you can evaluate their competency: The first one would be looking at the final product, eg: the completed medical record, the search results, the final PowerPoint presentations. The second one is the process. Evaluating the process is very important because sometimes you can have a good final product through an inefficient process. For evaluating the process you would need to sit beside them while they complete it. Many times finding the time to meet with your residents to do this is not easy. This is when screen capturing software can help you. 

Using screen capturing software you resident can record all the process he or she did to reach the final product. As it is recorded as a video, you can go through it fast forwarding so it may allow you to review the process in a shorter time that it would have taken if you sat beside the resident during the actual work.

There are many screen capturing software. One that you can try is Screencast-O-Matic.

Screencast-O-Matic is a cloud based software that can be used for free, for recording up to 15 minutes of continuous capture. You can see an example of how it works below