Innovative Uses of Mobile Devices in Health Sciences

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="CellScope"][/caption]

Here are a couple of great and innovative uses of mobile devices I stumbled upon on SmartPlanet,com. Not only do these innovations increase the ability to provide better healthcare in the developing world, but also has great potential in mobile learning (m-learning).

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cne_flash/production/media_player/proteus/one/proteus2.swf

You can read more about the CellScope at UC Berkeley News.

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cne_flash/production/media_player/proteus/one/proteus2.swf

Visit Tapan Parikh's page to learn about the social media and mobile technology projects in which he is involved.

Flash Tutorials on Screenr

As a Adobe Flash addict, I am always on the lookout for tutorials and new tips and tricks that can make Flash development easier. Every now and then I peruse Screenr.com for Flash tutorials. Because screencasts on Screenr have a five minute limit, they are usually very succinct, which is what I like. They are also easy to search if you do a site search (flash site:screenr.com). Below are a few I found. I threw in one of my own too.

FYI: If you are interested in creating screeencasts, Screenr is easy to use and free. Thank you Articulate for offering this free tool. Also, if you are looking for Articulate tuts, they have plenty of those too.

http://screenr.com/Content/assets/screenr_1116090935.swf
To see the remaining tutorials for the paddle game, visit @paulkeenan59's Screenr page.

http://screenr.com/Content/assets/screenr_1116090935.swf

http://screenr.com/Content/assets/screenr_1116090935.swf

http://screenr.com/Content/assets/screenr_1116090935.swf

http://screenr.com/Content/assets/screenr_1116090935.swf

http://screenr.com/Content/assets/screenr_1116090935.swf
Had to throw the last one in with the release of the iPad looming (feh).

If you are creating Flash tutorials on Screenr, please feel free to add a link to it in the comments section. Thanks!

March Big Question - Open Content in Workplace Learning

This month's Big Question is "how do we leverage open content in workplace learning?" To learn more about about some of opportunities available in open content, I visited the sites listed on the Big Question post. These were OER Commons and Open Courseware Consortium. For the first time, I perused these sites. A bit embarrassed that I have not visited these sites before, but it is never too late to find new learning opportunities. My first impression was that these are very heavy on the academic end. They certainly have many opportunities for learning and development. In fact, I found a course on e-learning accessibility, an interest of mine.

So, back to the Big Question. I am confident there are corporate trainers creating the same training content as their brethren. Wouldn't it be great to upload those software sims, leadership or sales courses, etc. somewhere that other companies' staff can access them. And in return, I don't need to create those ______ software sims because XYZ, Inc. made their sims available to my staff. Oh, how great would that be?

Sorry to piss on the parade, but here are the challenges that pop into my mind that make sharing corporate training difficult:

• Most corporate training is designed specifically to the company's audience. For example, the training probably includes policies and procedures as they pertain to internal staff.


• Much of the content is proprietary information not to be shared externally.


• Often quality training is seen as one of the things that "gives us the  edge" over the competitor, why just hand it over?


• "Do we have to talk to legal about whether we can do this?" Will they find a potential liability?

Would I like to leverage open content in the workplace? Yes. Something I will do is to keep an eye out not only for open content that will benefit my company, but also what am I producing that can be used as open content. Of course, anything shared as open content has to overcome the fore-mentioned hurdles.

Earthquakes Online

With the tragic news of the recent earthquakes, first Haiti and now Chile, I thought I would share some of the e-learning resources regarding earthquakes and tsunamis. Prior to that, it is important to note the valiant relief efforts so many are doing and the support they need. There are many relief groups in need of donations and it can be done easily online or via text. Mashable has posted a list of ways you can make online and text donations.

Here are some e-learning resources regarding earthquakes along with emergency preparedness:

• "Written in Stone" Earthquake Animations - SDSU


• Earthquakes - SDSU


• Earthquakes for Kids - USGS


• Forces of Nature - National Geographic


• Seismology Animations - IRIS


• The Tsunami Disaster Explained - BBC (2004)


• The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire - Bancroft Library


• Be Red Cross Ready - American Red Cross


• Are You Prepared? - 72hours.org

These are also now listed on the Free e-Learning page.

Preview a Tablet, but This One has Flash

As we all know, that tablet everyone has been talking about recently does not have Flash. Oh well, I am over it. However, Dell will be releasing a multi-touch tablet of their own, the Mini 5, and it WILL have Flash. Take a look of the preview below from Adobe TV.

http://images.tv.adobe.com/swf/player.swf

Yes, I know what you are thinking. A 5 inch screen and they are calling it a tablet? It may be a stretch, but Dell is talking about scaling it up and offering larger versions. Beyond a 5 inch screen and I will let them slide on the semantics.

A Great Example of Using Multiple Forms of Media

Last year "We Choose the Moon" was launched in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. This is a fantastic example of using video, audio, photos, and animation all in one course. Here is the link, www.wechoosethemoon.org. It is absolutely worth the visit.

Also, here is a video from AdobeTV that provides some background on the development of "We Choose the Moon."

http://tv.adobe.com/assets//swf/player.swf

If you liked this course, you will also like these courses on space and NASA.

Explore the Apollo 11 Landing Site - NASA

International Space Station - NASA

One Small Step - NASA

NASA 50 Years - NASA

Rocket Science 101 - NASA

A Sense of Scale - The Elegant Universe

Trace Space Back to You - NASA

And there are plenty more on the Free e-Learning page.

Development Tools - Should I Cut Out the Middle Guy?

Back when I first started developing e-learning courses, I used Macromedia's Authorware. For more interactive elements, I used Flash and imported the SWFs into Authorware. Over the years, I have used ToolBook, Trainersoft, and even Dreamweaver with Coursebuilder. Almost every course involved using Flash for interactive elements (animations, games, quizzes, simulations, video, etc.). It has gotten to a point where some of my courses are all developed in Flash and the e-learning authoring tools (DHTML) have been used more as a "shell" that decompiles it as a SCORM package. I really prefer the robust ability of creating courses in Flash and only use the DHTML e-learning authoring tools for their ability to make the course SCORM or AICC compliant.

So,  do I really need to continue using these authoring tools? No, I can skip the middle man and produce entire courses in Flash. These courses can be published as SCORM or AICC compliant courses. This includes the learning interactions that are easily added as components. The learning interactions can be used for multiple types of quiz questions that will be tracked by a learning management system (LMS).

Here is a tutorial on How to Add Basic SCORM code to a Flash Movie from Pipwerks.

And from Adobe, Creating e-Learning Content, which includes configuring learning interactions and tracking to a SCORM or AICC compliant LMS.

Granted, many authoring tools provide a great deal of  ease when adding content, navigation and quizzes, but the interactions they include within these tools are limited.  For me, if I am already developing so much of the course in Flash, I might as well use the Flash learning interactions for the quiz questions and publish the entire Flash file as a SCORM compliant course.  I will note that I will keep Captivate in my toolbox, as it is more effective for developing software/application simulations than building them from scratch in Flash. Of course any sims developed in Captivate (also SWF files) can easily be included, or launched from, a course developed with Flash.