Week 11 - Podcasts

Thing 17 – Podcasts

What is a podcast?
Podcast is a former word of the month in the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary.
"a recording of something like a radio programme that you can download from the Internet and play back on your computer or on an MP3 player "

Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minute commentaries to much longer in person interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and since most podcasts have an RSS feed attached, you can subscribe to podcasts in the same way you subscribe to the RSS feeds way back in week 3.
The best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod (iPods are just one example of MP3 players) or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker, although if you want to listen to the podcast when you're away from your PC, then of course, you'll need headphones and an MP3 player.

To learn a bit more, try listening to the item below:

Increasingly university lectures are being recorded to be made available as podcasts (our own clinical students have loads of podcasts available to them on ERweb/MedPortal.

Cambridge University, just as it has a YouTube channel, makes podcasts available to the world at large and has its own channel of iTunesU.

This requires that you have iTunes downloaded on your computer in order to listen to the podcasts. If you' unfamiliar with iTunes please come and have a play on my computer (I'll cover your desk while you do so)

TASK:

• go to BBC podcasts  or BMJ podcasts and  listen to a podcast you find interesting 
• set up an RSS feed from either the BBC series of BMJ podcast of your choice

BLOG

Add a link to a podcast you find interesting.

How might health professionals make use of this technology?

double cake awards

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important cake... or 2 in fact.
The sharp-eyed and slightly peckish amongst you will have noticed that I missed the cake award last week - my apologies.

This means that there are two cake awards this week for my pick of the bloggers from week 9 and week 10.

So, I'm going to have a second attempt at a coffee cake (remember my first attempt? fear not, I'll be using a different recipe, I promise!) and a mystery cake (ie I've not decided yet!) tonight:

But who are the lucky winners? Well...... for Week 9 it's N Page  

And for Week 10, it's Hoarder1.

well done both.

Week 10 – Maps

Thing 16 - Online Maps

Maps are great - (as a geography graduate, perhaps I would say that, eh, ewe2?) Ordnance Survey  have made all their maps available online - you can even order a map to be printed to your specifications!

And by putting maps online and making them interactive, they just got even better.

bing maps / google maps / StreetMap / MapQuest / Map24 /  

and this is just a small selection of what's out there.

you can get satellite view, road maps, hybrid view and also street view (via Google Maps).

You can enter your starting position, and where you want to get to and the map will generate directions, even giving you distance and time.

TASK 1
- use any of the mapping tools and try getting directions from your house (perhaps using the postcode) to the Medical Library (CB2 0SP) - exactly how far is it? - post the distance (not your address!!!) on your BLOG.

StreetView is part of GoogleMaps, and it "provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world. It was launched on May 25, 2007, originally only in several cities in the United States, and has since gradually expanded to include more cities and rural areas worldwide"

It's not without it's critics - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7959362.stm

TASK 2

Go to using Google Maps, search for your house and play with Street View.

Why not go to Paris, or Berlin or New York, and enjoy the Street View.

BLOG about what you thought of it

TASK 3
Watch the video below - Tim Berners Lee is showing what can be done with maps when they are combined with other data. As more and more data is made available by government (both local and national) it's possible to present information in a variety of more meaningful ways.
OpenStreetMap is also presented - a wiki-map (remembering that a wiki is an opportunity for lots of people contribute to the same document).
Then compare the quality of OpenStreetMap (you can read about OpenStreetMap),with Google Maps - look at an area of Cambridge (or anywhere!) that you're familiar with, and see which is the most up to date. If you cycle a lot does OpenCycleMap give you routes you didn't know about?
Write a BLOG post about the difference.


EXTRA TASK (OPTIONAL)
Create your own google map (such as this one - click on the blue pins to read the comments about each library):

View 5 libraries in cambridge in a larger map)

- go to google maps, and login with your google/blogger login

- click on "my maps" and "create a map"

- give your map a title, and a description if you like

- look for the blue pin, click it and drop it wherever you want on your map
- give your pin a title (and description if you like), and click OK

- and then keep on adding more pins, or drawing lines, with more details, according to what you want to identify.

- Once you're done, get the code for your map and embed it in your blog (click on the link option in the top right-hand corner of the map, copy the text in the box headed "paste HTML to embed in webpage" - and do as you did to embed the YouTube video!)

Follow that.... READER! (optional extra answers)

So, how did you get on with the optional extra Follow That... READER! task?

The answers are below, and a bonus prize "goody" bag will be given to all those who took part.

(in no particular order) Well done to.....NPage; Hoarder1; Tiger007; Here We Go!; Top Blog; Ewe 2; 23 (46) Things;


1-IMAGING PICTURE TEST FOR MRCPCH(STUDY GUID) BY ANDREW P WINROW
Imaging picture tests for the MRCPCH / A.P. Winrow
WN 18.51.1 etc


2-TOWARDS MRCPCH (THEORY) EXAMINATION PART2 ,HOLDER ARNOLD PUBLICATION BY SURAJ GUPTE,TAPABRATA CHALLERJEE,DR JO KOSTER
not held in the medical library


3-questions for MRCPCH part 2 written examination by dr nick barnes and dr julian forton isbn no 9781904627166
not held in the medical library

4-250 questions for mrcpch part 2 (MRCPCH STUDY GUIDE ) by james L R obertson,adrian P Hughes
250 questions for the MRCPCH part 2 / J.L. Robertson, A.P. Hughes.
WS 18.115.1 etc

5-MRCPCH DATA INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS (GET THROUGH) BY NAGI GIUMMA BARAKAT
100 data interpretation questions in paediatrics : for MRCPCH/MRCP Part 2 / editor Nagi Giumma Barakat.
WS 18.65.1 etc



6- DATA QUESTIONS FOR MRCPCH PART 2 (CHURCHILL'S PASS PAEDIATRICS) BY JAMES ROBERTSON AND AP HUGHES
Data questions for the MRCPCH Part 2 / J.L. Robertson, A.P. Hughes.
WS 18.76



7- MRCPCH PART 2 PAEDIATRICS PRACTICE EXAM BY D. PAL ,P GRINGRAS, M GREENBUR
MRCPCH part 2 paediatric : practice exams / P. Gringras, D.K. Pal, M. Greenberg.
WS 18.92



8- PAEDIATRICS GREY CASES FOR MRCPCH (STUDY GUID) BY ALAN FENTON
Paediatric grey cases for the MRCPCH / Alan C. Fenton ... [et al.].
WS 18.86


9-MRCPCH PART 2 PRACTICE EXAM BY GILES KENDALL ABD IAN POLLOCK
not held in the medical library



10 MRCPCH PART 2 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR THE NEW FORMAT EXAM ;THE COMPLETE REVISION GUIDE BY KATE H GREES, COLIN VE POWELL,PATRICK H. T CARTILAGE
MRCPCH part 2 : questions and answers for the new format exam / Kate H. Creese, Colin V.E. Powell and Patrick H.T. Cartlidge.
WS 18.125.1 etc

another week another cake winning blog

This week's prize is a mixture of Blondies and Brownies (nut and chocolate sensations respectively). Just sorry I couldn't work out how to do Reddies, Gray-ies, Mousies etc to cover all hair colours, but such is life....

The winner will find their prize in the fridge, marked appropriately.

(There's also a spare box in the fridge too for the rest of us.)

But who's the winner???

Congratulations!

Week 9 - Video

Thing 15 - Video
except video is the old way - a chunky VHS tape you put into a machine that's connected to your television. With the birth of YouTube in 2005 (it's that young!) it became incredibly easy to create a film, upload it and share it with the world.

It doesn't necessarily have to be any good, admitedly - there's no quality control - and the content can range from movie clips, TV clips, music videos, promotional films and educational material as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos.

What is your general opinion of the quality of material on YouTube?

TASK

• If you've not tried before, go to www.youtube.com and browse - YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine after Google (indeed it's owned by Google), so it's worth having a look.

TASK (optional extra)

• Try embedding a video in your blog.
• Look for the "embed" option at the bottom of the video you like, copy the code.
• open your blog, and start a new post.
• Switch from "compose" view to "edit HTML" view
• Paste the code wherever you want it in your blog.
• Save and preview, and if you're happy, publish.
• (see for more details of where to look for the embedding code, and to embed it in your blogger blog)

To make it easier for you to find useful content on YouTube, the films are divided into sections - channels. One of those channels is YouTube Edu - you can find other channels from the YouTube homepage by clicking on the "browse" option, and looking through the categories.

Can you find the Cambridge University YouTube channel?

TASK

• Find the Cambridge Unviersity YouTube Channel and watch a video (remember you might need headphones to get the full effect)
• Find the Health & Medicine section of YouTube education section and browse the content.
• YouTube isn't the only site which hosts video - go to google and search for a topic, but pick "video" from the options at the top of the page. Browse the content.

BLOG

• Write a blog post about your opinion of YouTube content - and perhaps about how/if it has changed.
• Include a link to (or embed!) a video you've found interesting.
• Include a link to (or embed!) a video from a site other than YouTube 

Follow that.... READER! (optional extra)

The list of books below was email to me to check to see if we had them.
(I’ve not changed/tampered/improved/worsened the list – I quote verbatim)

Test your Newton searching skills to see which books we have.

Answers will be posted on Monday 19th July, but BLOG your answers before then, and you may be in with a chance of a bonus prize!
(assuming you've got all the answers right!)

(ps – clue: you may find that some of the titles and authors are not entirely accurate…..)

(thanks to Dawn Endico)

  1-IMAGING PICTURE TEST FOR MRCPCH(STUDY GUID) BY ANDREW P WINROW

2-TOWARDS MRCPCH (THEORY) EXAMINATION PART2 ,HOLDER ARNOLD PUBLICATION BY SURAJ GUPTE,TAPABRATA CHALLERJEE,DR JO KOSTER

3-questions for MRCPCH part 2 written examination by dr nick barnes and dr julian forton isbn no 9781904627166

4-250 questions for mrcpch part 2 (MRCPCH STUDY GUIDE ) by james L R obertson,adrian P Hughes

5-MRCPCH DATA INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS (GET THROUGH) BY NAGI GIUMMA BARAKAT

6- DATA QUESTIONS FOR MRCPCH PART 2 (CHURCHILL'S PASS PAEDIATRICS) BY JAMES ROBERTSON AND AP HUGHES

7- MRCPCH PART 2 PAEDIATRICS PRACTICE EXAM BY D. PAL ,P GRINGRAS, M GREENBUR

8- PAEDIATRICS GREY CASES FOR MRCPCH (STUDY GUID) BY ALAN FENTON

9-MRCPCH PART 2 PRACTICE EXAM BY GILES KENDALL ABD IAN POLLOCK

10 MRCPCH PART 2 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR THE NEW FORMAT EXAM ;THE COMPLETE REVISION GUIDE BY KATE H GREES, COLIN VE POWELL,PATRICK H. T CARTILAGE

mmm, caaake....!

Great to see all your contributions to the wiki - there's still time to make your contributions.

Last week was all about mobile technologies, and this week's prize is a Hummingbird Cake - a pineapple/banana/walnut delight that looks vaugely like the picture...

(with thanks to ulterior epicure for the picture)

and the winner is......

congratulations!

Week 8: Follow that.... READER!

We tell readers all the time that we offer this, that and the other facility or service, but when was the last time we actually performed any of the tasks ourselves, or used any of the tools we make available? If we don't know how our own equipment works, we can't possibly hope to help readers when they come unstuck. Are the instructions we provide adequate? 

This week we're following a reader, from registration, through a library introduction, and then through some of the things they do in the library on  a regular basis: photocopying, printing, scanning, using the wireless network.

Task

Photocopying

- take staff photocopy card, and made a double sided photocopy (perhaps of this sheet??)
- (optional) enlarge or shrink a document (eg reduce to 50% of the original size)

Computers
- login (after re-setting your library card if necessary) and add £1 of printing credit

Scanning
- login to computers with scanners attached, and scan this page
- save the image to a memory stick
- add this image to an entry on your blog with a short commentary on how easy/difficult you found it to use the scanner

Access the wireless network using the library laptop
(overlap with Thing 13 - don't say I'm not good to you!!)

Binding (optional)
- get a few pages of scrap and bind them

BLOG

write a blog post (containing the image you scanned in the task) about how easy it is to perform all these tasks. What additional information could we provide to make life easier for our readers?