An Introduction to the Library for Graduate Students

Below is a presentation I gave at the “World of Science”. This is a 3-day course for graduate students that aims to provide them the fundamental knowledge and skills needed for scientific research, and to prepare them for their thesis at our hospital, the AMC.

The 3-day program comprises a series of presentations on aspects of medical and biomedical research. These include the position of the pharmaceutical industry, the role of scientific journals, the ethical and legal framework of medical research, and the organization and funding of scientific research in the Netherlands. There is also an introduction to the scientific strategy of the AMC, presented by the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

Furthermore there are group discussions, workshops, and individual assignments.

The course is held outside the AMC. It provides a unique opportunity for a closer and more personal meeting with each other and with leading AMC scientists, to discuss such matters as the choices they made in their careers.

I had 15 minutes (actually 20 minutes) to tell something about the library. (It used to be 30 min. but wasn’t received so well). That is too short to explain searching to them. Furthermore that is dealt with in our courses, so why give it all away?

I choose to show them how the library could serve them, in an interactive and loose way.

First I asked them how they saw the library. Many, if not all, used our website. Pfff, that was a relieve!

I spend most time talking about searching, showing  examples of searches that failed. Which is the best way to show them they might need some extra education in this respect.

The atmosphere was very good & informal, there were many questions and it was sometimes quite hilarious, not only because of the presentation itself, but because I almost managed to ruin the screen (fell against it) and because I walked away with the microphone.

I had the opportunity to listen to the next speaker too, a young scientist who recently finished his thesis. His talk was great to listen to. He talked about his experience (which was not really representative imho, because it was quite a success story) and he gave the would-be PhD’s 10 handy tips. All in a very entertaining way.

But for now, here is my presentation.

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Fighting “Powerpoint-Death” by Science, Prezi or…?!

Image via Wikipedia

Recently Kevin Clauson [@kevinclauson] made another great presentation, called the “Science behind Engaging Students in Class”. The presentation focuses on the use of “clickers” or an audience response system (ARS) to engage the audience (here mainly students in a class). It is an expanded version of “How to Fight Lecturalgia“.

First Kevin asks the audience questions about their knowledge/use of ARS -using the ARS system, of course-. Next he goes more deeply into the need to engage the audience (attention span, boredom) and then he addresses the successes and pitfalls of ARS.

Each statement has a scientific underpinning, and a reference to it.

For instance, one conclusion is that use of ARS improves performance with analytical type exam questions, but not with memorization exam questions.

Kevin stresses that ARS  it is just another tool, albeit a powerful one.

Of course you have to avoid the usual presentation-killer aspects of PowerPoint, like including too many slides, bullets and data, as so wonderfully illustrated by the famous “Dead by Powerpoint” presentation. I included it below, in case you’ve never seen it.

It also contains recommendations how to  improve your PowerPoint.

This following video elaborates on the same theme. It is called “Life after Death by PowerPoint”. Not an appropriate name, because it only magnifies Powerpoints killer-points. You might enjoy it though (if you can put up with the canned laugh).

Below is another presentation about the science of presentations. And although I noticed little science in it, I did find the CEO-presentation interesting because it discusses the use of live tweeting (and blogging) to give “contagious talks” (you know Twitter going “viral”).

Some people think that you should burn your powerpoints and use Prezi instead, like @Berci of ScienceRoll (see his post here).

But I disagree. Although I believe that in Berci’s hands, Prezi will work fine, it usually evokes instant nausea when I watch it: Prezi is an online zooming presentation editor. It often resembles a PowerPoint presentation with too much animation and often too much text as well.

But whether Prezi is a powerpoint-killer depends on the aim of your presentation and how you execute it.

I agree with Sharon Guan of the “Instructional Design and Development Blog” that Prezi can be very useful if you need to present a large illustration of multiple concepts that are interconnected, for audiences of the video game generation and for marketing of a simple message. I also think that it you have to invest some time to learn to handle it. You must have designer qualities too (if you like to do more than zoom in and out to letters)

For instance this Prezi-presentation a student made about Webicina (an e-company of @Berci) is o.k.*, but imo NOT better than a simple powerpoint presentation. Most Prezi-presentations fall in this category.

http://prezi.com/qpb4zww8eiv9/webicina/

Below is a Prezi presentation, which very original design fits its purpose. “Playing to learn” ((from the website: Teaching College Math) starts with an overview of  something that looks like a large goose bord. Next the presentation zooms in to “the start” and each square is followed, some with text, others with (video of games), till you arrive at the finish. It is difficult to describe, so please take a look yourself.

http://prezi.com/rj_b-gw3u8xl/playing-to-learn/

Thus, which platform is preferable, depends your aims and audience. But whether your presentation is effective depends on your message, your translation and your performance as well.

ARS may be one way to improve the effectiveness of PowerPoint presentations and may increase the fun.

For more evidence on what works and what not (and when) see the guest column “Evidence-based Presentation Design” at the blog Evidence Based Management.

Yes, the evidence-based approach  is also applicable to presentations and teaching. As Kevin says in his lasts slides:

In Healthcare, if you didn’t document it, then you didn’t do it.

In Education, if you didn’t assess it, you might as well not have done it.

(One to remember)

* Just randomly chosen, the last Prezi I saw.

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Practicing Medicine in the Web 2.0 Era

Many people don’t get Web 2.0 – and certainly not Medicine 2.0.

Just the other day a journalist asked me if the redesigned PubMed could be called PubMed 2.0.
I said: “well no….no… not at all” ….Web 2.0 is not merely tools or fancy looks, it is another way of producing and sharing information and new web tools facilitate that. It is not only simplicity, it is participation. PubMed has changed it looks, but it is not an interactive platform, where you can add or exchange information.

Well anyway, I probably didn’t succeed to explain in just a few sentences what Web 2.0 is and what it isn’t. For those that are unfamiliar with Web 2.0 and/or how it changes Medicine, I highly recommend the following presentation by Bertalan Mesko (of ScienceRoll and Webicina), who explains in a clear and nontechnical way what it is all about.

By the way Bertalan is a finalist with ScienceRoll in the 2009 Medical Weblog Awards (category Best Medical Technologies/Informatics Weblog). He could surely use your vote. (here you can vote in this category). You can see all Finalist here.

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Presentation at the #NVB09: “Help, the doctor is drowning”

Last week I was invited to speak at the NVB-congress, the Dutch society for librarians and information specialists. I replaced Josje Calff in the session “the professional”, chaired by Bram Donkers of the magazine InformatieProfessional. Other sessions were: “the client”, “the technique” and “the connection”. (see program)

It was a very successful meeting, with Andrew Keen and Bas Haring in the plenary session. I understand from tweets and blogposts that @eppovannispen en @lykle who were in parallel sessions were especially interesting.
Some of the (Dutch) blogposts (Not about my presentation….pfew) are:

• http://blogparty.web-log.nl/blogparty/2009/11/bezocht-nvb-dag.html
• http://tenaanval.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/observaties-uit-het-nvb-congres/
• http://dymphie.com/2009/11/12/nvb-09-bas-haring/
• http://dymphie.com/2009/11/12/nvb-09-andrew-keen-over-digital-vertigo/
• http://dymphie.com/2009/11/12/nvb09-joost-janssen-over-content-integratie/
• http://dymphie.com/2009/11/12/nvb09-lilia-efimova-over-blogs-en-kennismanagement/
• http://dymphie.com/2009/11/12/nvb09-imago-van-de-informatieprofessional/
• http://www.vpod.nl/nvb-jaarcongres-2009-korte-impressie/
• http://www.zijlmo.nl/mo/wordpress/?p=547

I promised to upload my presentation to Slideshare. And here it is.

Some slides are different from the original. First, Slideshare doesn’t allow animation, (so slides have to be added to get a similar effect), second I realized later that the article and search I showed in Ede were not yet published, so I put “top secret” in front of it.

The title refers to a Dutch book and film: “Help de dokter verzuipt” (“Help the doctor is drowning”).

Slides 2-4: NVB-tracks; why I couldn’t discuss “the professional” without explaining the changes with which the medical profession is confronted.

Slides 5-8: Clients of a medical librarian (dependent on where he/she works).

Slides 9-38: Changes to the medical profession (less time, opinion-based medicine gradually replaced by evidence based medicine, information overload, many sources, information literacy)

Slides 39-66: How medical librarians can help (‘electronic’ collection accessible from home, study landscape for medical students, less emphasis on books, up to date with alerts (email, RSS, netvibes), portals (i.e. for evidence based searching), education (i.e. courses, computer workshops, e-learning), active participation in curriculum, helping with searches or performing them).

Slides 67-68: Summary (Potential)

Slide 69: Barriers/Risks: Money, support (management, contact persons at the departments/in the curriculum), doctors like to do it theirselves (it looks easy), you have to find a way to reach them, training medical information specialists.

Slides 70-73 Summary & Credits

Here are some tweets related to this presentation.

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Presentatie Geert van der Heijden op Slideshare

De presentatie van Geert van der Heijden van vrijdag 18 april j.l. (BMI-ALV) is nu op Slideshare geplaatst (Lieuwe Kool slaat enkele web 2.0 stappen over ;).
Ik had er al in een eerder post melding van gemaakt, maar daar stond het zo temidden van de grote hoeveelheid tekst, dat het waarschijnlijk wat ondergesneeuwd raakte.
Verder had ik nog geen ervaring met embedden van een slide-serie, dus dat leek me meteen een aardig experimentje. Jammer dat Geert’s presentatie niet gepodcast is, want dan had ik meteen de SPOETNIK opdracht van deze week voltooid. Ik loop wat dat betreft nogal achter.

Fijn dat Geert deze presentatie ter beschikking heeft gesteld. Zo kan men even rustig Geerts’ verhaal in zijn eigen woorden (na) lezen in plaats van de afgeleiden hiervan op deze of gene blog.
Zo kan ik ook nog even lezen wat ik het eerste kwartier heb gemist.

Presentatie Geert staat online op slideshare: