MERLOT Mobile App - Contribute an App to MERLOT

MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching) needs your help.  We need for users to add mobile apps along with a brief description to the MERLOT database.  Of course, as a healthcare provider, I am especially interested in health related mobile apps. MERLOT is free for all users.  Just create a login and password to access the resources. 

As of today, there are over 106,000 members from all over the world.

The timing is important because of the release of the MERLOT app for the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android phones (as well as the iPad and iPod touch).  A view of the MERLOT app is  noted below.

Chaper 6 - Informatics and Nursing Website Update

Linda updated the website for chapter 6 on word processing in the Informatics and Nursing textbook at http://dlthede.net/Informatics/Chap06WordProcessing/referencesscholarly.html.  

The information on the American Medical Association (AMA) was updated.  AMA is a citation style used by many journals.  It uses numbers for the citations instead of author(s) & year.   While it is easier to read, it is more difficult to write unless using a citation manager. 

Dictation on the New iPad - with the Wireless Keyboard

This is one of those days that has been extremely busy - finishing up the summer semester, posting grades, and getting ready for fall semester.  I am working diligently to use some of the new productivity tools that I discovered, such as, dictation on the New iPad.

Since my text messages often contain more graphical characters than words (using the Emoji keyboard found in Settings > General > International Keyboards > Emoji), I wanted to use both the Bluetooth wireless keyboard and dictation.

Yes, the feature was under my eyes the entire time.  All that I had to do was to click on the top-right key of the wireless keyboard to get the iPad keyboard to show up - and then click on the microphone to dictate!  So easy to do!!

Dictation shortcuts:

• "Period". The "." is the standard way to end a sentence. It includes a space after the period, so you are ready for your next sentence
• "Question Mark". The "?" also includes a trailing space
• "New Paragraph". This keyword phrase starts a new paragraph. Remember to end the previous sentence before beginning the new paragraph
• "Exclamation Point". The "!" includes a trailing space
• "Comma". The "," includes a trailing space
• "Colon". The ";" includes a trailing space
• "Semi-Colon". The ":" includes a trailing space
• "Elipsis". The "..." includes a trailing space
• "Quote" and "Unquote". The " produced by saying "quote" does not produce a trailing space. The " produced by saying "unquote" does include a trailing space
• "Slash". The "/" symbol
• "Asterisk". The "*" symbol
• "Ampersand". The "&" symbol
• "At Sign". The "@" symbol

Source: http://ipad.about.com/od/ipad_tips/ss/How-To-Use-Ipad-Voice-Dictation.htm

Interoperability - National Learning Consortium Informatics and Nursing Website Update

Update for Chapter 15 on interoperability:

National Learning Consortium was added to the textbook website for Chapter 15 at http://dlthede.net/Informatics/Chap15Interoperability/chap15.html. This site represents the lessons learned from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) outreach programs (Regional Extension Centers, Beacon Communities, State Health Information Exchange) and through the Health Information Technology Research Center (HITRC).

Regional extension centers (RECs) was added to the index.

Google Hangouts for Video Chat

While at the Sloan C/MERLOT conference last week, one of the sessions was on Google Hangouts.  Google Hangouts allows up to 9 people to participate in video chat.  I have used Skype for video chat for many years but I have not tried Google Hangouts.  You have to have a Google Plus account (which I have) to participate.  Jane Moore, the Teacher's Ed editor for MERLOT said that their editorial board is now meeting using Hangouts.

Read more in the article, Google Upgrades Gmail Video Chat with Hangouts, at http://www.macworld.com/article/1167948/google_upgrades_gmail_video_chat_with_hangouts.html

To learn how, read Make Google Handouts Your New Meeting Room at http://www.macworld.com/article/1166883/make_google_hangouts_your_new_meeting_room.html#lsrc.mod_rel or view the video below from MacWorld.