Found a terrific feature of Google Maps called My Maps on Google Maps Mania. For example a map with all the interesting Beatles locations in the UK and the US
On this video you can see how to use My maps.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Google Maps Mania
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Technology Review: Brain Electrodes Help Treat Depression
Technology Review: Brain Electrodes Help Treat Depression
Electrically stimulating specific parts of the brain using an implanted electrode can help severely depressed patients, according to two studies published this month. The findings are the latest evidence suggesting that "deep brain stimulation," a surgical therapy already widely used to treat Parkinson's disease, could be an alternative treatment for people with severe depression.
Still, experts urge caution in interpreting the results. For one thing, says Karl Deisseroth, a psychiatrist at Stanford who studies experimental treatments for depression, "no placebo-controlled trials have been done" to confirm how well the therapy works on a larger population.Doctors involved in the studies caution that larger clinical trials are needed to determine how effective and long-lasting the therapy is.
Book review: Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms
This book was published in 2006 by Corwin Press. To me a new publisher not very well known. I mostly read fiction or computer books. I am also a teacher in a large university hospital, at least to Dutch standards. Education is progressing and the use of the web with students becomes common sense. Besides "Blackboard" the use of wikis in educating medical students recently started in our curriculum. Since I am interested in computer, software and the web this urged me to look for books that are about web tools and integration of these techniques in education.
This book is a good starter. It has 9 chapters. The first chapter is about the web and how it is changing life. Skipped it, not much news here. The following 2 chapters are about blogs. Followed by chapters about wikis, RSS, social bookmarking, Flickr and podcasting and screencasting. The chapters become shorter in this order. Probably because the later chapters describe newer technologies with less educational experience. The chapters usually describe the tool and simple howto's for choosing and using the free variants of the software. I find the software described very usefull and up to date. The author Will Richardson is obviously a very experienced educator. His examples are very good. Example websites and blogs are presented in all chapters. The only problem is that these links are difficult to type in your browser and sometimes outdated.
Conclusion
A very good introductory book for integration of new web technology in education. The examples are illustrative allthough mainly for high school students. The main critique is the lay out of the book. Next edition I suggest a lay out comparable to O'Reilly's books. This editor obviously is not used to publishing IT books. Another suggestion would be an accompanying website for errata's, links, updated links, and new links.
Info:
# Paperback: 168 pages
# Publisher: Corwin Press (March 6, 2006)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1412927676
# ISBN-13: 978-1412927673
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wikipedia DVD to Become Available Soon | Gear Live
Wikipedia has a lot of information about ECT. Also in the Dutch version thanks to one of the members of the WEN. Soon there will be a version on DVD. The new DVD will concentrate on about 2,000 articles, with emphasis on mostly unchangeable topics such as geography and literature.
The most valuable information to my opinion is the new initiative: Citizendium.Wiki with stricter editing rules and obligatory disclosure of editor's real names, mostly professionals.
It also has information about ECT
Monday, April 23, 2007
Forest plots: trying to see the wood and the trees
I am writing a systematic review about antidepressants. For this I need a "forest plot". Found a nice and comprehensive article in the BMJ.
In short this what a "forest plot" is:
Forest plots show the information from the individual studies that went into the meta-analysis at a glance
They show the amount of variation between the studies and an estimate of the overall result.
And here is link with a spreadsheet to make a forest plot in excel:
www.evidencias.com/forest01.xls
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Belling the cat: ECT practice standards
In his commentary in the Journal of ECT Prof. Max Fink pleads for a ECT Accreditation Service (ECTAS) as in the United Kingdom. In the eighties and nineties of the previous century national surveys of actual practice of ECT in the U.K. revealed deficiencies in the practice of ECT. One third of the clinics did not meet the guideline standard, 41% still used outdated equipment. First in Scotland psychiatrists undertook a 3 year cycle of audits to systematically answer questions about patient demographics and outcome. Each ECT clinic was visited twice. In 2003 this initiative was followed in the U.K. Each ECT site was evaluated. Each site evaluation begins with team members completing a 284-item questionnaire assessing facilities, staff and training, consent, anesthesia, treatment and recovery procedures, and precautions and adherence to protocols. A visit by an assessment team (a clinician, a nurse , and an anaesthetist) to observe actual practice follows. Resurveys of evaluated sites are scheduled in a 3 year cycle. An update of ECTAS standards was put on the website in December 2006. An improvement of the quality of ECT in the UK developed. Is this also possible in the US he asks himself, or in The Netherlands I ask myself?
Saturday, April 21, 2007
The Shifted Librarian
When reading the book: "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and powerfull web tools for classrooms from Will Richardson I came across this link: The Shifted Librarian. In her post on thursday, April 19, 2007 she had a wonderfull suggestion. Use pbwiki as a presentation wiki, put your presentations on this wiki or anything else. In this way you can ad projects to your blog. I'll do that in the recent future as well as place a review of the aforementioned book when I've finished reading it.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Long-term Follow-up After Successful Electroconvulsive Therapy for Depression: A 4- to 8-Year Naturalistic Follow-up Study
A recently published article by our group in the Journal of ECT. This article describes the long term follow-up of patients who participated in a 6 month continuation trial after ECT. The group with and without relapse during this 6 month period were compared with regard to recurrence of depression up to 8 years later.
You can read the abstract following this link
Monday, April 16, 2007
ECT online, an English website about electroshock or ECT
This website aims to represent the science, the sociology and the emotion of electroconvulsive therapy fairly and in a way that can be easily understood
Sunday, April 15, 2007
High Dynamic Range photography
High Dynamic Range photography, tried it in Spain. On flickr there is a lot of information about this technique as well as a lot of examples.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
The Savvy Technologist
When reading the book: "Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerfull web tools for classrooms" I came across this blog. It is all about using new web technologies and education. http://technosavvy.org/ The book is by Will Richardson and when I've finished it I will review the book on this blog.
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