ECigs: ETech Meets Public Health Again (Part One)

One of my Twitter healthcare friends tweeted this morning, with some evident concern, about the issue of 3D printed guns.

Defense Distributed claims working 3D printed handgunbit.ly/10ASJmX via @boingboing #tech #gunviolence

— Matthew Katz (@subatomicdoc) May 6, 2013

Regular readers of this blog have already heard about this, and the counter argument that it isn’t the 3D printed guns that are the problem, but the ammo, and OOPS, we already have 3D printed ammunition, also.

So, yes, this is an issue with an emerging technology, and it is a public health issue. When I blogged about it before, I didn’t make that overt and explicit. I assumed people would figure that out on their own. But now I am thinking perhaps I should make more overt some of the issues I’m tracking which have potential health impacts.

This brings me to the topic of electronic cigarettes, a relatively recent technological approach to changing how people smoke for recreational purposes. This weekend I collected over 40 (FORTY!!) hashtags from the conversation space around electronic cigarettes. That should be another post, later. For those new to the idea, eCigs have become a big deal awfully quickly. And it is extremely complicated. I’m just going to pull out a very few tweets illustrating some of the potential health issues in the conversation.

Electronic cigarettes could save millions of lives. So why does Health Canada ban them? theloop.ca/opinion/politi… #vpLive #ecig #vaping #ecigs

— Vapor S. Thompson(@gonzovaping) May 5, 2013

The thought here is that electronic cigarettes can be and ARE BEING used as smoking cessation devices, kind of like the nicotine patch, but more like actually smoking.

Simon Cowell has quit! Smoking, that is – “He’s got electronic cigarettes” says Amanda Holden mirr.im/YQ6Oxe#vaping #ecig

— Vapor S. Thompson(@gonzovaping) April 24, 2013

In fact, the “healthiness” of electronic cigarettes is one of the leading marketing justifications.

Start your week on a healthy note.Quit smoking or looking for a healthy alternative?Salmon & Trout starter kit #ecig salmonandtrout.co.uk

— Salmon & Trout (@Salmon_n_Trout) April 21, 2013

But there are some who question the safety and “healthiness” of the electronic cigarettes. Like, um, the American Cancer Society? And the American Lung Association. And the FDA.

Who leads the fight against banning e-cigarette sales to minors? Guess again: it is the America… wp.me/p2Guev-dW via #vapecommunity

— Michael S. Parker (@msparker32) April 26, 2013

American Cancer Society: Electronic Cigarettes – Boon, Bane, Blessing, or Boondoggle? (2011) http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/expertvoices/post/2011/05/03/electronic-cigarettes-e28093-boon-bane-blessing-or-boondoggle.aspx

American Cancer Society: Restrict the Sale of Electronic Cigarettes: http://www.cancer.org/myacs/eastern/areahighlights/cancernynj-news-ny-ecig-health-vote

American Cancer Society: What about electronic cigarettes? Aren’t they safe? (2013) http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/questionsaboutsmokingtobaccoandhealth/questions-about-smoking-tobacco-and-health-e-cigarettes

Reactions against official organizations with concerns about e-cigs are vigorous. These are a couple of the lighter and tamer responses.

The American Cancer Society just released a study showing that smoking E-cigarettes causes pretentiousness.

— Grant Cotter (@GrantCotter) January 22, 2013

@americancancer You’d save a lot more lives than that if you’d tell the truth about tobacco harm reduction: #e-cigarettes and #snus

— Patricia Clewell (@TreeceVapes) January 17, 2013

American Lung Association: E-cigarettes: Another Option to Help You Quit Smoking? http://www.lung.org/associations/states/florida/educational-programs/e-cigarettes.html

American Lung Association: Some say vaping e-cigarettes is worse than smoking the real thing: http://www.lung.org/associations/states/florida/news/top-story-in-the-news/some-say-vaping-e-cigarettes.html

Super Bowl e-cig commercials have lung association officials fuming: Another atricle, same old study. The … bit.ly/129RAV7 #ecig

— TheVapeBook (@TheVapeBook) February 9, 2013

RT @smokefreegov: Don’t be fooled! The #eCig is NOT a safe alternative 2 the real deal. More info from @fdatobacco: 1.usa.gov/kT2KC1

— National Cancer Inst (@theNCI) June 24, 2011

FDA: Electronic Cigarettes (e-Cigarettes) http://www.fda.gov/newsevents/publichealthfocus/ucm172906.htm

FDA: E-Cigarettes: Questions and Answers: http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm225210.htm

FDA: For Consumers: Health Fraud: Electronic Cigarettes: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ProtectYourself/HealthFraud/ucm267560.htm

The New Face Of FDA Tobacco Control, Mitch Zeller: The first director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administ… bit.ly/YZFGhU #ecig

— TheVapeBook (@TheVapeBook) March 4, 2013

FDA rescinds its color graphic warning regulations, which Judge Leon ruled unconstitutional: FDA rescind… bit.ly/15rVrhP #ecig

— TheVapeBook (@TheVapeBook) March 20, 2013

Deeming regulation by the FDA for e cigs bit.ly/10sMFOU #fda #regulation #ecig #ecigaretteregulation #nrt #nicotine

— Firelight Fusion (@FirelightFusion) April 1, 2013

Whoa. Despite the FDA information above, and despite demands that the FDA involve itself in the topic (and demands for the reverse), there is no move at this time to manage the claims and safety of e-cigarettes at the federal level. The FDA is, however, collecting information and opinions on whether or not they should be involved.

#Ecig cos.want to have it both ways on if they are #cessation aids:@fdatobacco can & should stop theseclaims now tinyurl.com/ax92wr3

— Stanton Glantz (@ProfGlantz) January 18, 2013

The #FDA is now seeking comments from the public for input regarding upcomming proposal of#ecig regulations 1.usa.gov/WYD4fP

— Modern Smoke E Cig (@modern_smoke) January 17, 2013

Prevent the FDA from regulating or banning the sale and use of electronic cigarettes wh.gov/E2hF #ecig #FDA

— Heinous Hex (@HeinousHex) January 23, 2013

While the FDA considers, states are actively involved.

NC Vapers Please sign a Do NOT pass petition: I just signed the petition “NC House Judiciary Subcommitte… bit.ly/13isp5g #ecig

— TheVapeBook (@TheVapeBook) May 5, 2013

The link in the tweet leads to information asking the broader e-cig community to sign a petition to block the North Carolina House Bill 864 / Senate Bill 530, Prohibit E-Cigarette Sales to Minors.

Why is the legislature so concerned about sales to minors? I’m not sure, but it might have something to do with the eCig liquids being flavored, many of them tasting like candy.

Fresh Reviews Halo Cocoa, TPR Magic Melon, Fancee Pep Chocomint, MBV UdderlyNuts, MEL H2Omelon Drm. Ttl Reviews169 VaporRater.com

— The VaporRater (@TheVaporRater) April 6, 2013

Fresh Reviews Xmas Edition: @gingersejuice Pumpkin EggNog, LJ’s XmasCookie (HooliganVapes), & Halo Kringle’s Kurse VaporRater.com

— The VaporRater (@TheVaporRater) December 20, 2012

If you look at the petition page, you immediately notice alerts highlighting other states and local legislatures with similar initiatives regarding e-cigs.

CASAA is a lobbying and advocacy organization for the e-cig community, and they collect the wide array of state and local initiatives to regulate e-cigarettes in the United States. Just in the past month, CASAA alerts mentioned Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Louisiana, New York City, Maine, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Washington.

“Perhaps most surprising is that when the topic of electronic cigarettes was finally pushed enough that the panel had to respond more adequately, it seemed clear they had no idea what electronic cigarettes were. When presenters offered to let the panel hold, pass around, and inspect their e-cigs, it was clear they had either never seen one or had only seen the ones that very closely resemble conventional cigarettes. And yet, the board was ready to discuss and vote on bills that would affect their control within the city.”
Creating Unintended Consequences: http://www.ecigadvanced.com/blog/creating-unintended-consequences/

Not just the USA, either. Other countries are even more aggressively opposed to e-cigarettes, and the e-cig community is equally passionate in their stance that the research evidence does not support the negative claims.

Please support us in fighting the eu ban: It’s D-day in the european parlement; tomorrow the 8th they wi… bit.ly/15BExCO #ecig

— TheVapeBook (@TheVapeBook) May 7, 2013

Up in a puff of smoke? EU plan threatens e-cigarettes: Anti-smoking groups angry at new directive which could price devices out of market
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/up-in-a-puff-of-smoke-eu-plan-threatens-ecigarettes-8554820.html

Safer Alternative to Cigarettes to Be Banned by EU: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/janice-atkinson/safer-alternative-to-cigarettes-banned-by-eu_b_2827043.html

“I used to smoke cigarettes, until I switched to E cigs. For me they are a healthier way to deliver nicotine They come in all sorts of shape and sizes and do not necessarily look like a real cigarette. E Cigs can prevent 750,000 premature death per year. Now the EU want to regulate them out of existence This will force me and others back to conventional cigarettes The EU’s policy is to “quit or die”. I do not not want to do either.”

Smoke without fire: The Story of the electronic cigarette: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/1931-smoke-without-fire

There are concerns about the safety, as well as oversight of the ingredients and consistent production criteria and quality control (as mentioned earlier in the FDA links).

#e-cig blows up in smoker’s mouth, creating severe burns: Is that enough to provoke action? tinyurl.com/899qw53 @fdatobacco

— Stanton Glantz (@ProfGlantz) February 16, 2012

Maryland Injury Lawyers: Are Electronic Cigarettes Dangerous Products? http://www.maryland-injury-lawyer.com/2012/02/are-electronic-cigarettes-dang.html

But, like I said before, it’s complicated. Last month an article was published in JMIR about health effects reported in those online forums for “vaping”.

“A total of 405 different symptoms due to e-cigarette use were reported from three forums. Of these, 78 were positive, 326 were negative, and one was neutral.”
Hua My, Alfi M, Talbot P. Health-Related Effects Reported by Electronic Cigarette Users in Online Forums. J Med Internet Res 2013;15(4):e59 http://www.jmir.org/2013/4/e59/ PMID: 23567935

Check out the research yourself. What do you think?

Pubmed: “electronic cigarettes” OR “electronic cigarette” OR “e-cigarette” OR “e-cigarettes” OR “ecig” OR “e-cig” OR “e-cigs” OR “e-cigs”

End of Part One. Part Two digs deeper into some of the social and cultural aspects of vaping, which also have potential health impacts.

Cheap and Easy Ways to Make Comics or Cartoons for Digital Storytelling

Another one of last week’s Enriching Scholarship Sessions, this one in partnership with John Beals.

Cheap and Easy Ways to Make Comics or Cartoons for Digital Storytelling: https://ttc.iss.lsa.umich.edu/ttc/sessions/cheap-and-easy-ways-to-make-comics-or-cartoons-for-digital-storytelling/

ABSTRACT:
Digital storytelling, also referred to in educational circles as digital media assignments, often centers around making videos, but there are many other ways to tell stories. Comics and cartoons offer an attractive alternative approach to storytelling. In addition to uses for storytelling, they can also make engaging images for slides, presentations and illustrations. With the many online tools and software packages now available for creating these, there are many options to choose from for all levels of skill and expertise. This session will provide a survey of some tools, with illustrations of educational uses.

Even though the slides say “Part 2,” I actually started off, because I had to run across campus for another session right after, and John was gracious enough to be flexible. The slides were a rush job, because I was out sick so long with bronchitis, and I actually have a lot more content than is shown here. It worked out that this was just the right amount of content for the session. Lucky me!

Cheap and Easy Ways to Make Comics or Cartoons for Digital Storytelling: http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscienceslibraries/cheap-and-easy-ways-to-make-comics-or-cartoons-for-digital-storytelling

This is an abbreviated set of the links and tools I’ve collected for doing this. What inspired me was a webcomic idea I have and want to do, but not being the kind of artist who can draw my own comic, I have been looking for … alternatives. I started out with some of the ways in which I use comics in my work already, with examples; then highlighted just a few of the many tools available. Last but not least, I also touched on using smartphones with photo filter apps or added word bubbles to generate images to tell your stories.

The session ended with John talking about real world educational uses of comics in the classroom, tips and tricks for how to design assignments, books for more info, and similar excellent content. John is FAR more expert than I in this area, which made for a great partnership. He used no slides this time, so these are from another session he did on a closely related topic earlier in the year.

Johnathon Beals: Comics in the Classroom: http://www.slideshare.net/jbeals1/comics-in-the-classroom-20893525

You know you’ve done something right when you hear from people after the session who want to share what they’ve done with the tools you discussed! And what could be better than being one of the first to see new comics? This was such great fun to do, and had such a great response, I hope we do this again next year.

Guest Post: Enriching Scholarship 2013: Tech Talk

I’m trying to catch up with promised blogposts for the various Enriching Scholarship sessions I coordinated or in which I participated. Lucky for me, Shannon Murphy attended one of the sessions and blogged about it so beautifully that I am just reposting here, with her very kind permission and a very small number of copy-edits. You can see the original post at:

ES 2013 Tech and Trends: http://aquillam.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/es-2013-tech-and-trends/

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ETech guru Patricia Anderson presented. As usual, there are tons of resources.

The mind map for this is available at http://www.mindmeister.com/289740657/tech-talk-2013#

Members of the UM community may want to sign up for the Cool Toys Conversations email group in MCommunity. You can also follow the Cool Toys blog http://cooltoysu.wordpress.com/ or the ETechLib blog http://etechlib.wordpress.com/

The talk follows the mindmap, starting from the upper right and working around clockwise.

What is emerging tech?

It’s what’s new and hot and relavant and important.

New Media Consortium’s Horizon report is a good resource, and is what they usually focus on in the Cool Toys email group. Find out more about the project at http://www.nmc.org/horizon-project. Download the higher ed report in English from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2013-horizon-report-HE.pdf

The future is here (at UM)

Examples – last year’s ES poster winners http://www.crlt.umich.edu/node/514

Would have liked to have this year’s winners too. Our instructors are doing amazing things with today’s technology, and we’re developing things that can be next year’s tech. http://www.crlt.umich.edu/tipwinners2013

Issues

Many of these are issues we face year after year. For example, do students with the money for laptops or tablets to bring to class have an advantage over those who can’t afford portable tech? Should we be introducing students to high end computers and software if they won’t have access to those things in the jobs they get when they leave here? What competencies do the students actually need in the future?

How we answer those questions now will determine what higher ed looks like and whether or not we survive.

Resources and past years

The Resources bubble provides a lot of resources for exploring further.

The 2011 and 2012 Tech Trends are provided so you can compare where we were a year or two ago, and where we are now.

Tech Trends 2013

“My Take”

Wearable tech generated a lot of chatter on the cool toys email group http://pinterest.com/rosefirerising/wearable-tech/. However, what was is the Cool Toys chatter was not the same as what was in the horizon report. The Horizon report focused on things like the much hyped Google Glass, and smart watches like Pebble. But there are all sorts of things, like biometric tattoos that can warn diabetics if their blood sugar is too low, or buttons for your jacket that detect if you’ve had too much to drink. Also, some slightly disturbing options, like the tattoo that vibrates when you got a phone call. (This tattoo is not MRI safe. And what do you do when the technology changes??) Wearable tech can be big too, like the scarf with sensors so it you crash on your bike, it turns into an airbag bike helmet, or the power suit designed for soldiers but usable by paraplegics to allow them to walk again.

Patricia also discussed the power of technologies like Personal genomics, Personalized medicine, Quantified self and Biohacking. These let the individual learn more about themselves and their health through things like developing a personal genetic profile, tracking exercise goals or finding correlations between symptoms and diet. Lots of data helps the user and their doctor diagnose problems more quickly and treat them more effectively.

3D printing was also a big item. These bring their own set of questions and issues. What will it mean if everyone had the ability to print whatever they want? WILL everyone be able to do this, or will this be another thing that separates groups (those who can afford it and those who can’t). Are there things you shouldn’t be allowed to print, and how would a ‘bad’ be enforced? http://io9.com/you-can-now-3d-print-a-fully-operational-handgun-493142303 Bioprinting is also an emerging technology, with things like replacement bones and ears already possible.

Related to the 3D printing is the Maker Culture. Here in A2 we have MakerWorks http://www.maker-works.com/ and All Hands maker space http://www.allhandsactive.com/. There’s also the Maker Faire Detroit each year at The Henry Ford http://www.makerfairedetroit.com/. Groups like http://www.thingiverse.com/ make it easy for designers and makers to make their designs available to other makers, and to anyone with a 3D printer.

Gartner Hype Cycle

http://www.infoq.com/resource/news/2012/08/Gartner-Hype-Cycle-2012/en/resources/hype1.png

Handy for checking on what might be overhyped right now (like 3D printing, social analytics, and gamification), under-hyped, what’s likely to be a hot topic next year, and what we are seeing turn into practical, usable, and realistic tech (and as a slow typist, I’m rather glad to see speech recognition finally becoming useful!)

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2013

http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/513981/introduction-to-the-10-breakthrough-technologies-of-2013/

A list by the MIT Technology Review.

See the list at http://www.technologyreview.com/lists/breakthrough-technologies/2013/

Again, wearable tech like smart watches and 3D printing apear on the list.

Also on the list are memory implants. While intended for people with cognitive dysfunction, could these be used by “normal” people who want a better memory.

Deep (machine) learning – AI is closer to reality. This have some unintended consequences too. For example, programs were designed to make spam look more like normal human speech, so it could get around the spam filters. However, it was still mostly gibberish. Poets found some of it interesting and started using the “creative” content from the computers to generate Spam Poetry (is that plagiarism?)

Big data from cheap phones also has some potentially profound implications. In Kenya, a database that used text messages from users to track the location of prescription medications eventually lead to (democratic) political upheaval. The Boston Marathon bomber was caught largely due to cell phone video. These open up privacy questions. According to David Brin, that can be OK as long as there is data equality. However, we will face serious problems if one side is transparent and the other is not. http://www.davidbrin.com/transparentsociety.html

Unchained: Finding Free eBooks for Pleasure and Learning

Well, it’s Enriching Scholarship week again! Today had the amazing keynote session, then I also attended the Third Century session (more on those later), and I had my first session on finding free ebooks.

BLURB FOR SESSION:
“With the increasing availability and use of ebook readers and mobile devices with apps for ebooks, it makes sense to incorporate them into the educational process where possible and feasible. With the high cost of education in general, and textbooks in particular, it can be attractive to students to offer options to facilitate use of free resources. This session will showcase sources of free educational ebook content and tools for integrating them with standard ebook reader devices.”

I want to get the information out from today’s session for everyone who attended, because (since I was getting over that evil bronchitis) I didn’t have any handouts. This will be the ‘handout,’ and hopefully acceptable to all.

All the links discussed were included in a Pinterest board, with a reaction from one audience member, “But I don’t take my Pinterest class until tomorrow!” Pinterest organizes boards in reverse chronological order, and does not allow custom sorts or organization. For my board, that means the most important content is mostly at the bottom, sort of like email conversations where you need to read from the bottom up.

Brief overview of what to expect to find:
– ebook search engines
– ebook forums
– free ebook review blogs & subscription services
– how to add downloaded ebooks to your device
– search tips for finding ebooks in Amazon & Google
– free ebooks from other countries and languages
– MORE!

Unchained: Finding Free Books
“Resources for finding free ebooks. Please note, sites and site ownership may change. While I have tried to not include sites providing illegal copies, I cannot guaranteed the legality of any of the books you choose to download.”
http://pinterest.com/rosefirerising/unchained-finding-free-books/
All links: http://pinterest.com/rosefirerising/unchained-finding-free-books/pins/

But there is so much there! What is the BEST?

Here are two blogposts I did early on in my explorations, which include several of my favorites that I still use.

Unchained: Where I Get My Free Ebooks: http://mhistoire.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/unchained-where-i-get-my-free-ebooks/

Cool Toys Pic of the day – 5 ebook search engines: http://cooltoysu.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/cool-toys-pic-of-the-day-5-ebook-search-engines/

We also had some phenomenal insights from Kathleen Folger about the phenomenal range of ebooks available from the University Libraries! Now, while these are not the usual “free ebooks” available to the general public, these are books available to the University of Michigan community members. Here are a few resources from the UM Libraries about these.

MLibrary: Guides: Electronic Books (e-Books): http://guides.lib.umich.edu/ebooks

MLibrary: AAEL: How do I find ebooks? http://www.lib.umich.edu/art-architecture-engineering-library/how-do-i-find-ebooks

MPublishing: Books: http://www.publishing.umich.edu/publications/books/

Now, for the winners!

Best general reader alerting service:
A tie between Pixel of Ink and Books on the Knob. Slight edge to Pixel for their email subscription service. Significant edge to Knob for having more than Kindle!

Best source for accessible formats:
The Internet Archive: Ebook & Texts Archive

IA beats out Munsey’s with 4,498,390 items even though Munsey’s supports more formats.

Internet Archive:
HTML, PDF (color), PDF (B/W), EPUB, Kindle, Daisy, ASCII, DjVu

Munsey’s formats:
DAISY, eBookwise, EPUB, Isilo, Kindle, MOBI, MS-Reader, PDF, Plucker, Rocket, Sony, Zipped

Best free audio books source:
LibriVox

Best non-English language ebooks discovery tools:
Carnegie-Mellon’s Universal Digital Library

UDL beats out the anonymously produced “Free Literature” collection of sources with a full service search engine for over a million books in many languages.

Best free ebook search:
InkMesh

Best ebook management tool:
Calibre

Most influential:
Project Gutenberg

Best overall!

Drumroll, please.

The Internet Archive

#IfIHadGlass Becomes #GlassExplorers

I’ve been hearing from friends that some of them have been accepted to the Google Glass program that I mentioned earlier. I thought it would be interesting to track how many of the folk I highlighted as having fun ideas actually made it in, and then we can all track what they do! I also added in some folk who are local, and folk I follow in various social media spaces, saving the best for last. Think of it, perhaps, as the ETechLib version of the Road Scholars. Meanwhile, track BOTH the hashtags in the title. They’ve been exploding.

#IfIHadGlass

#GlassExplorers

EDUCATION: In the classroom, for kids, language learning, journalism in context, and more (Alexandria Mooney YES and Chase Masters YES and Francine Hardaway NOT YET) Comment: No Francine? Why not? Is she too important and influential? Then why did you choose Alyssa Milano?

THIS happened! Squeee! RT @projectglass: @alyssa_milano You’re invited to join our #glassexplorers program. Woohoo!

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) March 29, 2013

Now, on the other hand, Geordi La Forge HAD to get a pair.

#ifihadglass It would be a downgrade. -Geordi La Forge

— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) February 21, 2013

PEOPLE: Street photography (and anthropology type investigations) (JJ Bentley YES and Renat Zarbailov NOT YET)

FOOD: Cooking instruction & management (Rebecca Otis YES, Lauren Atkins YES, and Jake Croston YES)

#AR/GAMES FOR LEARNING: Augmented reality role-playing game for learning in the forest (Luka Leduc-Boutin NOT YET) Comment: Good grief, how did they miss THIS one?!!!.

WORK: Integration with job functions for construction & architecture, hazardous waste management training (Kevin Reedy NOT YET and Mark Dunton NOT YET) Comment: Again, why on earth NOT? “I would show the right way to use hazardous materials and proper hazardous waste handling techniques.” This is really important stuff! Full of impact and saving lives. I am truly baffled by some of the choices they are making.

HEALTH: Life as a patient with an invisible disability or a child with special needs
(Frank Garufi Jr. YES and Lori Friedrich NOT YET)

HUMOR: “i would never have a problem with bad customers because i would replace their heads with rubber chicken masks so i could retain my customer service smile.” Matthew Stone NOT YET

Now, who are some more folk I already follow who have gotten into Glass Explorers.

NICOLE GUGLIUCCI (NOISY ASTRONOMER)

#ifihadglass I’d do the science outreach I do now… but BETTER. The Universe is ours to share. youtu.be/20sWgIw5zvs

— Nicole Gugliucci (@NoisyAstronomer) February 26, 2013

DANIEL KRAFT

#ifihadglass I’d help develop new applications for its use in health & medicine & inspire others to as well twitter.com/daniel_kraft/s…

— Daniel Kraft, MD (@daniel_kraft) February 27, 2013

TRISH WETZEL

I travel the world and with Google Glass I would see more and share more than ever before #ifihadglass

— Trish Whetzel (@TrishWhetzel) February 21, 2013

MELISSA HOGAN (SAVING CASE)

I would show the world what it’s like to care for a child with a #raredisease in a #clinicaltrial #ifihadglass

— SavingCase (@savingcase) February 26, 2013

LISA GUALTIERI

#ifihadglass I’d provide context-sensitive, evidence-based exercise, diet, & adherence reminders & risk warnings to improve public health

— Lisa Gualtieri (@lisagualtieri) February 21, 2013

JOHN NOSTA (FORBES)

Interact directly with your patients–not technology. #DigitalHealth #ifihadglass

— JOHN NOSTA (@JohnNosta) March 11, 2013

John NostaFeb 22, 2013 – Public
Simple, #ifihadglass I would help physicians and patients have a richer dialogue and enhance the quality of healthcare. https://plus.google.com/101926706159077857138/posts/E7zy1txiv6g

WOW!!!!“@projectglass: @johnnosta You’re invited to join our #glassexplorers program. Woohoo! Make sure to follow us! #ifihadglass

— JOHN NOSTA (@JohnNosta) March 29, 2013

BOBBY MERCADER (TEDxDetroit)

If I had Google Glasses I would show people the Detroit you dont see in the news. #ifihadglass

— Bobby Mercader (@Rmercader) February 20, 2013

JOHN MINNI (TEDxDetroit)

John Minni, Feb 21.
#ifIhadglass I would use it when I teach my 3 year old and 7 year old sons things. I would record their reaction to my teaching and develop a database of their responses. The responses could then be played back at a later time to review the concepts.
https://plus.google.com/112173135159920007337/posts/8RsHe4wwS7m

John Minni, Feb 23
#ifihadglass I would take it to my wife’s kindergarten class and we would read a book together I would give them parts to play and film them while we read and then play it back for them.
https://plus.google.com/112173135159920007337/posts/QPDbpngZhoA

JEFFREY TAEKMAN

#ifihadglass I would explore its role in the continuum of healthcare education and practice. twitter.com/jeffreytaekman…

— Jeffrey Taekman, MD (@jeffreytaekman) February 28, 2013

#ifihadglass I would explore its application in safety in healthcare using games-based technology and simulation. twitter.com/jeffreytaekman…

— Jeffrey Taekman, MD (@jeffreytaekman) February 28, 2013

MISTY MILLS

I could show the world what the life of a roller-derby-reffing filmmaking Jedi is like #ifihadglass. twitter.com/mistymills/sta…

— Misty Mills (@mistymills) February 20, 2013

At the Movies: 3D Printing

If you haven’t already heard of 3D printing, then we need to fix that right away. If you have heard of 3D printing, this post will probably be fun for you, and will hopefully still include some new information. I have talked about 3D printing here before, and still am hoping that in the renovation of the library where I reside there will included be a small makerspace complete with 3D printer. We wouldn’t be the first medical library to do so! At least one other medical library is currently in the position of deciding which model to purchase.

Would appreciate it if #medlibs or other #librarians whose libraries have #3Dprinter would share what model they have & how used. Thanks!

— Kimberley R. Barker (@KR_Barker) March 14, 2013

What is commonly called 3D printing was probably something you first heard about in the guise of a Star Trek replicator. Actually, it has been a real emerging technology about as long as Star Trek has been around, and was called “additive processing” (or so I’ve learned by watching the TED Talk video of Lisa Harouni and her “Primer on 3D printing”).

Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhYvDS7q_V8

The earliest patents on this came out of efforts to print circuit boards, and were instrumental in the rapid decline of the cost of computers. There are now patents for how to print with biological materials instead of simply plastic and metal. Enormous advances. There is a fair amount of talk that this may be the year that 3D printing hits mainstream. Let’s just say that if the President of the United States is talking about it in his State of the Union address, that just might be a very realistic possibility.

President Obama on 3D Printing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01gJYQEyBWc

3D printing is becoming so ubiquitous that one of the grad students currently working in our library showed me the delightful 3D printed Valentine she received from husband, a box-puzzle that turns into a heart. There are so many amazing, wonderful, and scary things being made right now with 3d printing. Bicycles. Cars. Houses. Guns. Ammo. Jaws. Cartilage. Kidneys. Spaceships. Yes, really. Well, little ones, at least for the spaceship, anyway. We cannot imagine what will be created with 3D printing in the future.

Bicycles. Cars. Houses. Guns. Ammo. Jaws. Cartilage. Kidneys. Spaceships.

Microscale 3D printing of a spaceship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wThtfAtB5U8

3d Printing – 3d Cloning A Bicycle – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oChnml1Twy0

Rational automotive design for the human race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhJCTMkn9Yo
MORE:
Urbee 2 is the 3D printed Car of the Future: http://mashable.com/2013/03/01/urbee-3d-printed-car/
ExtremeTech: The First 3D Printed Car is as Strong as Steel and Half the Weight: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/149557-the-first-3d-printed-plastic-car-is-as-strong-as-steel-and-half-the-weight

Fully-customized modular solar house is 3D printed prefab. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R1CBFBxuew

3D Printing Gun Revolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8qtJuOFbs4

Breaking Gamechanger: Printable Gun Magazines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKAaO26FAvA

Printing a Full new 3D Jawbone for Belgian Patient – Worlds First (Europe Innovation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsEtyhy81nA

3D printer and living “ink” create cartilage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RgI_bcETkM

Anthony Atala: Printing a human kidney: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RMx31GnNXY

What’s next? What’s here?

Can we print a human body? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJrTrIMbk9A

Well, and it isn’t like this doesn’t already happen on campus. In many places, most notably the 3D Lab and the Fab Lab. And has for many years. That last video right above is from UM. Here are some more. And look at the dates. Several of these are from within the past few weeks, but others go back years. We do this.

3D Printing: An Additive Solution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5ef7stKMe0

expoSItion: 3D printing in the developing world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThH6x09vZVE

And you know the Cube? As in the sculpture of the cube on Regent’s Plaza, in front of the Fleming Building, the one that spins around? Want one?

Endover Sculpture Puzzle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM5E__LAK4E

And the newest answer to what 3D printer is in the University Libraries? Right now they are praising the Dimension Elite. I’ve seen several different 3D printers there over the years, from MakerBots on up. I still want something accessible beyond the 3D lab, in a regular campus library, on the main campus, and preferably on the Medical Campus.

Want more videos about 3D printing?

Rapid Prototyping (playlist from UMich): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL222722191CF566C5

Bad Brad’s Bad Channel: 3d Printing Videos: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7B951A6FDF7D81B9

Moving My Posterous Blog(s)

This is another post that I’ve been asked for quite a bit, especially recently. If you want the very short take-home how-to, skip to the end. But, there are some goodies and options discussed along the way that might help inform some of the choices you might make as part of moving your blog.

Posterous is a service that I started out using just as one of my routine explorations of new online services. I was impressed with how incredibly easy it was to use, and started recommending it to friends who wanted to blog but were not terribly comfortable with computers, as well as others who just wanted a truly EASY blogging platform. It was flexible, simple, powerful, robust, and all you needed to know how to do was write an email, maybe attach an image file. It didn’t provide a good backup or export function, which made me nervous, but it made up for it with the ease of use. And if you post by email, you always have your original emails, if you don’t delete them. That’s it, email was really all you needed to know. And then, all the beauty of Posterous went south.

The sadness started when Posterous was bought by Twitter. Twitter said:

Welcoming the Posterous team to the flock http://blog.twitter.com/2012/03/welcoming-posterous-team-to-flock.html

in which Twitter included the statement, “Posterous Spaces will remain up and running without disruption,” immediately followed by this statement, “We’ll give users ample notice if we make any changes to the service.”

What people heard was:

Twitter has acquired shortform blogging company Posterous, Spaces will remain up and running FOR NOW (my emphasis) http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/03/12/twitter-has-acquired-shortform-blogging-company-posterous/

Let’s face it, Twitter, while much beloved for its functionality and the relationships and communities that have grown there, has also not built a lot of trust in the stability of platform, its management, or its relationships with 3rd party tools that support the Twitter ecosystem.

PHASE ONE

Many people reacted by taking their content out of Posterous as fast as they could. Basically, they didn’t trust Twitter to take good care of the Posterous service and communities. I was more moderate. I chose to get my content into new spaces, but to do that as duplicating the original content and then adding new content to both the original and new location in tandem. I did this for all the Posterous blogs for which I was the sole author, but did nothing with the shared blogs or those for which I had merely helped folk get started.

Here are some of the tools people were using a year ago to move Posterous content to new locations.

How to Back Up and Migrate Your Posterous Spaces to Tumblr, Blogger, or WordPress: http://lifehacker.com/5892776/how-to-back-up-and-migrate-your-posterous-spaces-to-tumblr-blogger-or-wordpress

Cheerio Posterous? http://interactivecultures.org/2012/03/cheerio-posterous/

WordPress: Posterous Importer: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/posterous-importer/

PHASE TWO

While many hoped it wouldn’t happen, it did. Twitter’s Valentine to the world this year was to take away Posterous. Very generous of them.

Posterous will turn off on April 30 (February 15, 2013): http://blog.posterous.com/thanks-from-posterous

Jolly. People were not happy, either.

“On April 30, all mobile applications and Posterous.com will become completely unavailable to users. Basically, Posterous Spaces will disappear from the Web. Businesses like Airbnb, Mailchimp and Tweetdeck will be forced to shift all blog content to a new platform since those Spaces pages will be closed down.”
Twitter will shut down Posterous at the end of April. http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/twitter-shutting-down-posterous/

“What BS – why can’t Twitter keep Posterous sites open?” Jonathan Eisen

“Twitter Destroys Something Really Great” Dustin Stout

“Boooo! Twitter bought Posterous just to kill it. Antitrust! Antitrust! … And that is how you beat the competition. You buy them and kill them.” Mike Elgan

“Must #Twitter kill everything they acquire? #TweetDeck is being slowly drawn and quartered while #Posterous will be summarily executed on April 30.” Bill Perrin

And suddenly it struck me that I had never moved my daughter’s blog for her business. OOPS! Immediately I went to move her blog, and discovered that the old tools for importing to WordPress weren’t working the way they used to. As part of closing down, Posterous had AT LAST created a tool to export your content, and now WordPress wanted you to use that.

WordPress: Import from Posterous: http://en.support.wordpress.com/import/import-from-posterous/

Export from Posterous:

“Here are the steps:
Go to http://posterous.com/#backup.
Click to request a backup of your Space by clicking “Request Backup” next to your Space name.
When your backup is ready, you’ll receive an email.
Return to http://posterous.com/#backup to download a .zip file.”

OK, that doesn’t sound so hard. So I tried the export. Looked good. Said I’d get an email when the export was ready. I checked my email for the message from them every day for ten days. Other friends were trying the same thing. We started all checking with each other to see if anyone had gotten the email saying our export was ready to download. Nope. Nothing. Nada. AARGHH!

Then one of the crew found this.

LifeHacker: JustMigrate Moves Your Posterous Spaces to Tumblr in a Few Clicks: http://lifehacker.com/5985265/justmigrate-moves-your-posterous-spaces-to-tumblr-in-a-few-clicks

JustMigrate: http://justmigrate.com/

Awesome! Except, well, I really wanted the blog to go to WordPress. It looked like I would have to first export my daughter’s Posterous blog to Tumblr, and then import the Tumblog into WordPress.

WordPress: Import from Tumblr in 3 Easy Steps: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/import-from-tumblr-in-3-easy-steps/

Definitely not something I’d ask my daughter to manage, but I could handle it. I didn’t like it, didn’t want to, but … I could do it. If I had to.

PHASE THREE

So what happened? I got lucky. My computer crashed. It doesn’t sound lucky, but, hey, it worked out that way. After the crash I was busily checking all the tabs and windows I’d had open beforehand, to see which ones might have created a problem or if I was done needing them. As part of that process, the Posterous Backup page changed status on all the blogs for which I’d requested export. I still never received the promised email announcing they were ready to download, BUT, upon reloading that page, I discovered that the download option was now available. Lovely! This is what it looks like when it’s ready.

They all downloaded as zip files that contained a complete XML import, with files, directories, images, etc. The least active blog had a ZIP filesize of 9K; the longest standing blog was almost half a gig and took an hour to download on a wired connection. The file names looked like this: space-3229880-blogname-5ddaff750f55b309c01139f6add04d45.zip assuming that the numbers are different for each blog. You have to remember that Posterous called their editing and blog management area “Spaces”, then the names sort of make sense.

The bad part was that ONE of the blogs had a zip file sized in bytes. Bytes, not kilobytes, not megabytes, not gigabytes, just bytes. That download file was defective, and I had to request a new backup for that blog. It was one of my oldest blogs, and I knew it had more content than that! When I finally got the new export file it was not a half-gig in size but almost a full gigabyte. Wow! Talking almost two hours download time. Given how long it takes to get the export files, you might want to do this sooner rather than later. Hint, hint. Really.

So I was able to eventually get my daughter’s blog moved. I had to do a lot of tweaking, and finessing, but I think it’s actually better than before. But she hasn’t seen it yet, and I haven’t been able to get a hold of her recently, so I am hoping this is ok. Just to give you the idea (and to PROVE that it worked), here are the before and after pictures.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Tadah!

PHASE FOUR: OTHER PLATFORMS, OTHER TOOLS

Remember all the problems I had getting my Posterous export? And that I was nervous about there being no export option to begin with? Turns out “there’s an app for that.”

Posterous Backup (Macintosh app): http://pfapps.com/apps/PosterousBackup.html

While some people are talking about some creative options, the names I’ve heard most are WordPress and Tumblr. Here’s a post from earlier today about why.

RIP Posterous. Here’s 3 Alternatives + Backup Options: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/03/07/rip-posterous-heres-3-alternatives-backup-options/

Last but not least, the folks who originally built Posterous are, shall we say, less than thrilled that it is going POOF. That wasn’t exactly the idea. So they have come up with their own solution. Since they actually are the ones who built Posterous in the first place, they know how to make it super easy to get content in and out.

Posthaven: https://posthaven.com/

In their words:
“Websites come and go.
This one is made to last forever.
Our pledge to you…
We’ll never be acquired.
We’ll always keep your URLs online.
We’ll always keep it the best place to post.”

What is stopping me from going there? It costs money. Only $5 a month, but that still adds up to $60 bucks a year, and I’m having enough trouble paying the bills I already have. If it was a payment plan like Flickr’s, I’d be there in a hop, but it’s just a little pricey for my blood. Also, even though they say your content will persist forever, I’m still worried about what happens if I miss a payment, and I don’t see an explanation of that up front and obvious. I want that crystal clear before I start paying money.

CONCLUSIONS: HOW TO

MOVE FROM POSTEROUS TO WORDPRESS

1. Go to http://posterous.com/#backup.

2. Click to request a backup of your Space by clicking “Request Backup” next to your Space name.

3. Return to http://posterous.com/#backup to download a .zip file. Check daily until the file is available.

4. Create your new blog name and URL in WordPress.

https://signup.wordpress.com/signup/?new=blogname

5. Go to your Dashboard.

6. Along the left side, almost at the bottom, choose TOOLS.

7. Under TOOLS, choose IMPORT.

8. Follow the instructions provided by WordPress.

9. Please note, you will almost certainly need to play with the style, appearance, theme, and so forth. You’ll need to set things up and play with it to get it right. It isn’t as easy as Posterous. But you’ve been blogging for a while now, right? Who knows, you might like WordPress!

Credits: Many of the tools and ideas expressed in this post came through conversations with my colleagues and friends Deborah Edwards-Onoro (@redcrew), Chase Masters (@billchaseedu), Matthew Adams (@mtthw_j_dms), and Shawn Sieg (@ssieg).

At the Movies: Friends and Neighbors

Pain, awards, traveling autism, morphing metadata, potentially poisoned chocolate, technology use and drug abuse … It doesn’t sound like today’s videos have anything in common, but what they share is that all of them are either by people I know personally or are from places I’ve been and loved.

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Empowering People for Community Health in Manistique, Michigan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-rajjRA9ds

Did you see that Manistique, Michigan is one of the winners of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation Roadmaps to Health Prize? How awesome is that?! Completely aside from my loving the place, and aside from my mentor Maurita Holland having a long standing relationship collaborating with the tribe mentioned in the video, it’s just a great and inspiring story. I love the line, “Teach kids skills for a lifetime,” in the context of building healthy lives. I’m excited. You can see more videos about RWJF awardees in their grantee playlist. More info about the Manistique project here at the award announcement.

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The United States of Autism Official Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td1pxNXNjjU

While this isn’t exactly new as a Youtube video (originally uploaded in 2011) it is new in the sense that the movie the trailer was made for is finally actually OUT! The premiere in NYC is set for April. I found out through a Twitter friend of mine (TannersDadTim) who’s been working in support of this project for three years.

The United States of Autism: http://usofautism.com/ Arrange a screening: http://www.tugg.com/titles/the-united-states-of-autism

“Follow one man’s 11,000 mile, 40 day journey across the American landscape to visit twenty families and individuals affected by autism while searching for answers for his own son. With interviews from around the nation that include the widest spectrum of backgrounds – each conducted in the participants’ original language – the film weaves a broad and compelling tapestry across the spectrum of American life in all its faiths, disparities, colors, and cultures. What he learns along the way will change not only his life, but the lives of those he meets, forever. It’s a story about the best days that still lie ahead for our nation, the families, and the people who give America its heart.”

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Cataloging Unchained http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQRHNdw2_yw

This one is for the librarians and metadata geeks in the crowd, and anyone with a sense of humor. My favorite line? “Metadata is inherently lazy. It just sits there unless you make it work. [sound effect: whip cracking]” Roy Tennant and I have known each other virtually, through email lists (mostly Web4Lib) and Twitter and professional publications, but have never met in person. I am delighted to see the library geeks talking about exploding library systems out into public and collaborative spaces.

“Created by Roy Tennant to introduce his talk “Leveraging WorldCat: Data Mining the Largest Library Database in the World” at the OCLC EMEA Regional Council Meeting 26 February 2013.”

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RiskBites: Chocolate, Lead and the Measurement Conundrum http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ6FvTU2rqk

I’m a HUGE fan of RiskBites, partly because I’m a fan of Andrew Maynard, and try to hang out over at his department on campus as much as possible. I have blogged about them here before. They just keep getting more and more interesting, and more and more intricate. This particular one is on such a great topic (chocolate!) and has really rich information resources in the video notes.

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[Project] PainTrek – Mobile Pain Tracking and Analysis (Beta – v0.9) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8tvz2nmpY

I’ll be blogging more about this one later. Earlier this week (last week?) I livetweeted an event where this marvelous app was presented. PainTrek was the brainchild of Dr. Alex DaSilva in the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. I might add I worked in the School of Dentistry for over ten years, and have a deep and abiding love for the place and the people. Hearing Dr. DaSilva present on this and express so clearly his powerful desire to aid migraine patients didn’t do a thing to diminish that.

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TEDxDesMoines – Peter Komendowski – Media Literacy: Mind Versus Mindful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FwCUCquFsE

Last but not least, a video from TEDxDesMoines on media literacy. I grew up about a half hour from where this was recorded. The speaker, Peter Komendowski, isn’t someone I know, but he is an activist for Drug Free Iowa and talks here about the ways in which technology can be as addictive as drugs. This seemed especially timely, given that the National Day of Unplugging was just yesterday. Here are a couple of lines I really liked from his talk. “Tightness allows for a lot of efficiencies, but is it really humane?” “Do we really understand the difference between real and virtual?”

At the Movies: Games for Autism

Gaming is of special interest with the ASD community. Here, ASD stands for Autism Spectrum Disorders, a range of conditions with some common elements but for which the names keep changing, thanks to the folks in charge of the DSM who recently removed Asperger Syndrome as a diagnosis. Personally, I happen to disagree with them, but that isn’t necessarily why I’ll continue to use both terms in this post (Autism and Asperger). Of necessity, most of these videos predate the name change, so it’s easier to use the common lingo from when the videos were made.

Gaming is big in ASD for a few different reasons. (1) Many kids and adults on the ASD spectrum show a strong affinity for games and gaming. One hypothesis is because it is easier to understand social expectations within the structure of games, or that the representations of social interaction in videogames are easier to understand than those with real people and all their complexity of body language and expression. (2) Gaming is being used for education, health behavior change, social change, and more. The combination of so many ASD folk connecting with gaming makes it a good match to reaching out to them to build needed skills and behaviors.

“Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have an affinity for video and computer games. CAR’s FaceStation project is designed to capitalize on this interest and use computerized games as a therapy.”
Center for Autism Research: Computerized Gaming. http://www.centerforautismresearch.com/trial_interventions/computerized_gaming/

Last year, University of Michigan engineering students were in the news for having developed some games for the Kinect for kids on the autism spectrum.

Toppo, Greg. Video games help autistic students in classrooms. USA Today 6/1/2012 3:10 AM,
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-05-31/video-games-autism-students/55319452/1

Since I couldn’t figure out how to get the video from that article to embed on WordPress.com, I went hunting for other videos showing ASD kids using the Kinect. Here’s one of the University of Michigan project.

EECSatUM: Software engineering class hacks autism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUT-Chcffqc

And one from the Lakeside Center for Autism, not developing tools so much as using existing ones.

Lakeside Center for Autism uses Kinect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZEo7vLwgf8

And other gesture-based computing.

Severely nonverbal autistic teen uses Wii UDraw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMkDIhS7sSM

Now, thinking games and play as a window into social skills, here are a few other examples. MyFriendQuest teaches recognition of emotions in facial expressions.

Asperger’s Games: MyFriendQuest, the Trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXe86w8tJDI

So does this Secret Agent game for older kids.

Secret Agent Society Computer Game for Autism + Asperger’s Syndrome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEJuvqMgbI0

Facial recognition is pretty common for autism games. There is a substantial series of face training games from the Center for Autism Research. This is just one.

Facestation Games:TrexTrample http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXvqQezcVAM
And other FaceStation games: Face Puzzle Fighter | Face Invaders | The Adventures of Pennsylvania Jones | TrainZoom | EmbedFaces | Dr. Face’s Potion Shop

There is actually evidence behind the idea of using videogames and role play for teaching and learning social skills.

Video Games and Social Skills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJm8B4cwaeQ
Citations: http://www.ckolson.com/cites/
Pubmed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=(Autism+OR+Asperger)+AND+(Game+OR+Games+OR+Gaming)

And there are other kinds of games, not just computer games or video games.

Autism & Board Games at Autistically Inclined https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhqB-E3hgxk

One of the most phenomenal local resources for kids on spectrum is the Wild Swan Theater social skills theater summer camp. My son participated in it for a couple years, and it changed his life. Currently, he is majoring in theater in college. There aren’t any videos of Wild Swan doing their thing, but here is another video about the benefits of theatrical thinking and improv types of thought for people with autism.

TEDxBloomington — Stephen Volan — “Approaching Autism Theatrically”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN1bKV5nxy0

Games are also used to teach life skills, like this street crossing game.

DigitalSpace: Street Crossing Safety Game for Autistic Children, for DoToLearn.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiZuUyso4-0

MORE RESOURCES

Autism Games: https://sites.google.com/site/autismgames/

Learn by example from other parents how to play with your young autistic child to help them build needed skills. Includes social skills games, attention, and adventures. Check out their Game Collections https://sites.google.com/site/autismgames/home/games-pages

Autism Games (AU): http://www.autismgames.com.au/

A group from Australia provides free online games for children with autism. “The games are a free resource that aim to help autistic children to develop independent living skills. Please contribute to our forums and help us to develop more games.”

Whiz Kid Games: http://www.whizkidgames.com/

A more child-friendly interface to the games from Autism Games (AU).

Glass! Glass! #IfIHadGlass

How It Feels (through Glass): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1uyQZNg2vE

When I saw this video it had officially 303 views and almost 7 thousand likes. Not quite sure how they managed that. I do suspect that the views are going to skyrocket at some point.

My stream in Google Plus this morning is almost nothing but buzz about Google Glasses. Since I am inexplicably unable to see my Facebook and Twitter streams, I don’t know what’s going on there, but I suspect it is similar.

The buzz is because the mythic Google Glasses are about to get out where REGULAR folk can see them. They are asking for folk to apply to get a pair (in 50 words or less) via social media. (Please note, this is NOT my application.)

What would you do if you had Glass? Answer with #ifihadglass. http://www.google.com/glass/start/how-to-get-one/

I don’t expect that I will get one, since I don’t have a good track record for getting “freebies” of any sort, but I bet some of you will, and I want you to have the chance. Oh, do please read the fine print, this is NOT a freebie. You have to pay $1,500, live in the USA, and be able to fly to San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York to pick it up. Me, single mom of special needs kid, not gonna happen. So I have nothing to lose by pushing the info out to all of you, and hoping one of my friends gets one and will tell me ALL about it!

As I scan the stream for creative ideas being listed, I am seeing an enormous number of folk talking about capturing moments with family and loved ones (especially births!), and memory aid & notetaking, as well as travel of all sorts and mapping. Also mentioned often, of course, were sales, marketing, and porn. Here are some of the less common ideas I’ve seen and which have impressed me.

EDUCATION: In the classroom, for kids, language learning, journalism in context, and more (Alexandria Mooney and Chase Masters and Francine Hardaway)

PEOPLE: Street photography (and anthropology type investigations) (JJ Bentley and Renat Zarbailov)

FOOD: Cooking instruction & management (Rebecca Otis, Lauren Atkins, and
Jake Croston)

#AR/GAMES FOR LEARNING: Augmented reality role-playing game for learning in the forest (Luka Leduc-Boutin)

WORK: Integration with job functions for construction & architecture, hazardous waste management training (Kevin Reedy and Mark Dunton)

HEALTH: Life as a patient with an invisible disability or a child with special needs
(Frank Garufi Jr. and
Lori Friedrich)

(This is what I would want to do – show folks what city life is like with no car, with a kid with special needs, helping folk find/use/understand health information and work with their healthcare teams. I’d also LOVE to see some scientists get one for a day-in-the-life 365 type of project. And I can’t wait to see what real artists do with creating new unexpected kinds of artwork and storytelling. Perhaps relive re-enact historical events? And the so obvious extension of the Virtual Photowalks project, expanding the lives of the homebound. And please give one to an astronaut, ok? And a hospice worker. And an inner city kid, if you can keep them alive long enough to use it without it getting stolen or broken. Lives that are going unseen, stories that are going untold and unwitnessed.)

And possibly the least inspirational and most amusing:

HUMOR: “i would never have a problem with bad customers because i would replace their heads with rubber chicken masks so i could retain my customer service smile.”
Matthew Stone