HEDIR Tech Week

The HEDIR Technology week is being held this week.  It’s intent is to provide an overview on some timely technologies but also how they can be used effectively within health education (and any other related profession as well).

Monday will include Drs. Don and Beth Chaney from the University of Florida.  The profession is indeed fortunate to have these two young individuals leading the way.  As I indicated in my AAHE Scholar talk last year in Tampa (April 1, 2009) if we rely on my generation to lead us into the technology world we’ll be waiting a long time.  The generation under 40 is the group that will transform our profession into one that uses technology in an effective manner.

Beth and Don will be talking about the use of podcasting and RSS.  Having some experience at podcasting, it is not that difficult.   I now require my graduate students to create a 5-7 minute podcast on some issue associated with evaluation.  The recording capabilities that we have on computers nowadays are better than what professional studios had just a few years ago.  What is also important is having RSS set up so that people know when such podcasts are now available.

To listen ‘live’ for Don and Beth’s presentation (in other words to register), click here.  After February 22 click here to view the archived presentation.

On Tuesday, Joan Cowdery will be discussing the most interesting scenario that has come to us.  Joan will be talking about Second Life, a virtual world, in which people can create an avatar and move around in a virtual world.  It has incredible potential for health education and other related professions.  Joan will walk us through.  Again, to register and view it ‘live’, click here.  To view the archived, click here.

On Wednesday, Dr. Jody Early, a professor in public health at Walden University, will discuss the impact and professional application of social networks (i.e., Facebook).  Jody is this year’s HEDIR Technology Award Recipient and has been heavily involved in technology issues for years.  To register and view it live, click here.  To view the archive click here.

On Thursday, Michaela Conley will discuss blogging and its impact on the health education/health promotion world.  Michaela is the brains behind HPCareer.net and also the person who is hosting the various webinars that the HEDIR runs.  Blogging has become critically more important over the years and Michaela will be providing us the basics of this process and ways that it can enhance our professional lives.  You can register to view Michaela’s talk here, or you can view it in its archived matter by clicking here.

On Friday, I’ll be hosting the webinar on the use of Twitter.  Probably the fastest growing and most noted technology over the past 18 months, Twitter has so much potential.   It’ll include the basics as well as discussion on ways that we can use Twitter to enhance both our professional lives and also how it can be used to enhance health education initiatives.  Click here to register or here to view the archives.

All of these webinars are free.  All begin at Noon CST and will last 30 minutes.  For those interested, CHES hours will be available.  More details on what it will take to complete these hours can be found by clicking here. Finally, running concurrently with the Webinars will be a discussion on Tweetchat.  Go to http://tweetchat.com/room/hedirtech and you can observe.  If you have a Twitter account you can log in and contribute to the discussion.

Tags: Health Education, strategies, technology
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Using PollEverywhere.com

Many of us who are in higher education have seen the use of ‘clickers’.  Some of the available commercial products include:

1. H-ITT:  http://www.h-itt.com/index.html
2. Know: http://www.renlearn.com/lp/2Know/default.asp?c=15939
3. Clickers for Training: http://store.clickertraining.com/newiclick.html?=google&gclid=CMedoZGk8p8CFQsMDQodsCWwYA

These clickers are part of a system in which you can get the group (class) involved in the lecture.  By possessing these clickers, and having special software on your computer, you can ask  a series of questions and have the students respond.  For example, if you wanted to get an idea on a topic (i.e., alcohol), you could ask a question like:

What is the official classification of alcohol?

1. Stimulant
2. Hallucinogen
3. Depressant
4. Narcotic

You then direct your students to press buttons corresponding to the options (a,b,c,d).  Within a few seconds you can see the results of ‘voting’.

They can be used to garner group participation in a number of issues.  The fact that health education often deals with sensitive issues can also support the idea to gather group opinions privately.

The drawback is that such a set up can be costly and cumbersome to operate.

Let me share with you a more recent web-based program that can do the same thing, but instead of requiring clickers, one can just use their cell phone.

Plethora of Cell Phones

First, it’s no secret that cell phones are everywhere.  Almost everybody has one.   Most adults and high school students possess cell phones, and it’s becoming more frequent for younger children to have one.  Despite personal opinions on whether such groups should have cell phones, the fact is that almost all have that cells phones and all cells phones have the capability of texting.

Polleverywhere.com is a web-based program that is free (with certain restrictions).  One can register and start creating ‘polls’.  These polls can be answered with one’s cell phone via texting.  Of course, if the person pays for sending texting this will cost them a few pennies.  However, most people have some amount of free texting on their phones, and many have unlimited texting.

You can poll people through a variety of ways:  1)  on-line (pull the poll up on-line);  2)  through a Power Point slide.  With the power point slide you do not need to be logged into the Polleverywhere.com site.  You will, however, need to have that Power Point program running in a system that has internet access.

Let me walk through the following…I’ll include a few snapshots of the strategies.  In addition, I will include a PPT presentation (with just one question) that you can actually respond to.  If you activate this Power Point slide show and vote, you’ll see your vote become tabulated to the results.

First, go to Polleverywhere.com and register.  Image 1 shows the web page. Note at the upper right you can ‘login’ or ‘register.’

Image 2 shows the page after you’ve logged in.  You’ll see a list of all of my polls.  Click ‘Create New Poll’ and you’ll get the page shown in Image 3.  There are three options…most often I use the ‘Multiple Choice’ poll.  Move your mouse over it and click.

Image 4 shows the skeleton framework of the multiple choice poll.  Image 5 shows the new poll I’m creating.  Note that by default there are three options…note that there is the button to add a response.  So my poll will have 5 options.   Click to save.

Image 6 is the screen after you’ve saved.  Note the number 99503…that is a code specific to my account.  That is the ‘address/number’ you will text your response.  Each of the five options will have a 5 digit code.  So, if you what you like most of the HEDIR is ‘Ease of Use’, you would text the number 11497 to my special 5 digit code (99503).

Also note on the right that you can identify ways for the people to respond.  By default I have it via ‘Text Messaging’.  However, you can also have people vote on-line, via their Smartphone (web) or through Twitter.

I like to download this poll into a Power Point slide.  On the right slide you click whether you want 2007 or 2003 PPT.  When you click it, you’ll have an opportunity to open/save the Power Point presentation with the poll embedded Image 7).

The Power Point presentation will actually consist of 6 slides, with the first five showing how to ‘vote’.  Image 8 and 9 show all of the slides (in the slide preview).  Slide 6 is the actual survey that you can’t see until you put it into a slide show (Image 10).

Ok, once you are ready to talk to your class (or whatever group), open up the Power Point and put into the slide show format.  It’ll take a second to load the Flashwave plug-in.  So click the PPT here and it’ll open up into a slide show on your computer.  Text your answer and you should see the results.  To see the results one must be connected to the internet (but chances are you are already on the internet reading this blog).

Potential Use:

I’ve alluded to a few ideas earlier.  Just to highlight, here are a few options I see:

In classrooms you could use this to get the class involved in the discussion:

Which of the following items are important for you to be able to do as a health educator?
i.     Plan Programs
ii.     Conduct Needs Assessment
iii.     Effectively Teach Materials
iv.     Use technology effectively
v.     Other

In an office (i.e., physician, health department) you could pose questions:

Which is the best way to prevent the flu?
i.     Get flu shot
ii.     Wash hands
iii.     Cover your mouth/nose when sneezing
iv.     Eat right/Exercise Regularly

At a professional meeting one could ask participants to identify an area of interest.

What has been your favorite activity at this professional conference?
i.     Meetings
ii.     Socials
iii.     Seeing old friends
iv.     Presentations

As of now, Pollsverywhere.com is free for educators.  Polls are restricted to approximately 30 responses.  For those who do not qualify, there is a series of prices that one can pay.  It’s an exciting program that with one’s imagination can be used for a variety of activities.

Tags: health education strategies, surveys, technology
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Texting to Enhance Health Education

Think of the cell phone revolution that we have experienced.  In less than 15 years we have seen phones that have gone from ‘bag phones’ that we had in our cars, to powerful mini-computers that we can now carry in our pockets.  Yes, I realize that cells phones have been around for several decades, but we’ve seen some incredible changes (both technologically and behaviorally) in the past 8-10 years.  Basically EVERYBODY has a cell phone;  MOST teens have cell phones;  MANY pre-teens now have their own cell phones.

For many, talking is the least focused activity that we do with our cell phones.  We can now access the internet, download videos, watch TV (live), as well as sending text messages.  What was once a side-event for cell users, ‘texting’ has now become a major activity.  We have seen a generation becomes ‘texters’ within just a few years.  The fact that ALMOST ALL cell phones now receive/send texts, and that many, many people are using texting as a form of communication is undeniable.  Those in the their 70s (and probably older) are now texting.

This blog isn’t to debate the value of whether it is appropriate, whether it is impacting other forms of communication, the etiquette of texting or using the cell phone inappropriately (i.e., classrooms, meetings) whether texting leads to an increase of accidents on the roads, or whether people are misusing texting.  The focus of this talk is simple:  cell phones and texting are here to stay;  most people have cell phones and almost all of those will do some form of texting.

So does texting have any professional value?  I think it does.  As an educator, I can use texting to update my students to bring particular items to class (i.e., calculator, laptop, textbook);  I can text people remind them of their appointment;  I can text groups that I am working with to schedule meetings;  and heaven forbid, I can use texting to organize emergency personnel (like they’re doing in Haiti).  It has GREAT value and each of us can only think of ways that we can use this to enhance our jobs.

The problem lies in that if you are texting you need to work with small buttons on your phones or you may be limited to sending the text to just one person.  I’ve figured out a way to avoid both of these items.  In fact, I’ve created a way that one can send a text from one’s email account (i.e., Gmail, Hotmail, POP mail such as Outlook).  It’s free, LEGAL, and EASY to do.

Let me give you the reasons:

1)  It’s easier for me to type on my computer than trying to text from a cell phone

2)  I can create a ‘nickname’ group with multiple cell numbers, so with just one email I can send to hundreds of cell phones.

3)  It’s fast.  I can send a text from my email and within seconds the person can receive it (it’s at least as fast as texting from one’s phone).

So how can one do this?

Besides needing the cell number (both the area code and the actual number) you need to know the provider that they are using.  There are dozens of users, but some of the major providers include the following:

1. Sprint
2. Verizon
3. Alltel
4. T-Mobile
5. AT&T

Each of these companies have special codes to send a text from one’s email.  Let me explain further.  My email is kittleson@hedir.org.  The ‘kittleson’ is my individual identifier and the ‘@hedir.org’ is the code that the email system knows where to send this message to ‘kittleson’.  The 1o digit phone number (area code and number), without dashes, is analogous to the ‘kittleson’.  The special code will depend on which provider the person is using.  Here are the codes for the above:

1. Sprint:  @messaging.sprintpcs.com
2. Verizon:  @vtext.com
3. Alltel:  @message.alltel.com
4. T-Mobile: @tmomail.net or @tmail.com or @tmomail.net (I’ve don’t know anybody who has T-Mobile, so I don’t know if all three or if only one works–if you have T-Mobile, contact me and I’ll test it out and make corrections)
   
5. AT&T:  @txt.att.net

If you have a different cell provider, check these two websites to find what that code is:

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/939/sms_email_cingular_nextel_sprint_tmobile_verizon_virgin/

OR http://www.topbits.com/how-to-send-text-messages-free.html

OK, so how do you do this.  First, if you have a cell phone test it out on yourself.

1. Compose a new email;  in the To:  line, type YOURPHONENUMBER@PHONECODE.  Let’s say you use Verizon and your phone number is 618-555-1212, the email (or I call it the ‘textmail’) address is:
   6185551212@vtext.com (note that this is a fake number)
2. Type something BRIEF in subject line
3. In the message box type your message.  Note that you need to keep it short (texts are restricted to 160 characters, including spaces) AND remove any ’signatures’, ‘backgrounds’ that your email may have.  For example, at the bottom of my email I have my name, title, address, websites and other things.  Those should be removed.
4. Click ’send’

Within a few seconds (minutes if your connections are weak) you will get your message.

Now, you could repeat this but instead of one ‘email’, you could put two.  Thus, your ‘To:” line looks like:  6185551212@vtext.com,6185551234@message.alltel.com   Separate each ‘email’ by a comma.

OKAY, now let’s imagine you want to create a series of ‘Nickname’ groups.  For example, I teach a course with the prefix HED 526–it’s our evaluation course for our MPH and PhD students in health education.  I want to include all students’  ‘textmails’.  I have their numbers and providers and have them typed up.  To create a ‘Group’ varies among various email programs.

Let me explain how to do it with Outlook.

1. Open your contacts list,  right click and highlight ‘Create New Distribution List’ (Click Here to see an example)
2. Name the list (Click Here to see an example)
3. Click Add members (Click Here to see an example) and Copy (from your list of numbers) and paste in the members line
4. Click Save

Now, go back to your Inbox of your email, and click ‘compose’ message

1. Click the ‘To’ button;  when you do you’ll get a list of names in your contact list. (Click Here to see an example)
2. Find the name of the new distribution list, click it
3. Put something in the subject line
4. Type your message (Click Here to see an example)

Click Submit/Send

Ways to use this:

I’ve already provided you some ideas above.  You could create such lists to remind students to bring their textbook to class;  you could direct people to a particular location for a meeting.  Imagine if you oversaw the Emergency Preparedness Unit in your county…you could put the entire list of all members of that group and send textmails to them using your email.

Imagine a physician’s office.  Instead of calling people the day before an appointment you could send them a text from your receptionists email system.  A three minute effort at 4:30 to remind folks of their appointment the next day could be a great time-saver for your staff and patients.  All you would need to do is to request from your patient their cell number and their provider.  One could even tailor mass textmails to inform the person of the specific time, date, and other instructions.  This would take a little more work, but it is relatively easy to do.  If you’re interested in this, you can contact me to set up a time to consult.

Now, I realize that some people will say the following:

1. It’s not necessary to do this;
2. Not everybody has a cell phone or receive texts
3. My clients are very old and couldn’t do this

My answers to all of these is relatively simple.  For number 1, no, it’s not necessary…neither is it necessary for you to call your patients the day before;  nor is it necessary to remind students to bring their books, calculator, laptops, etc.  But it does have save time, frustration, and makes things more efficient.  For number 2, you need to relook at society.  Almost EVERYBODY has a cell phone.  Are you not doing something because a small percentage may not benefit?  If that is the case, then let’s not use the internet for anything because we know that .5% of Americans don’t have access to it.  For point 3, you are not giving credit to your patients, clients, or students.  If in doubt, ask them.  You don’t need to have everybody buy into it…but most will.

Tags: communication, Health Education, technology
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The HEDIR Update

Folks,

We’re starting the 17th year of the HEDIR. Since then the world has seen some incredible technologies take place. It can be quite overwhelming. I would like to think that I’m serious about technology and when I see everything that’s out there I almost become paralyzed.

Probably as when the HEDIR first started, people will ask “why?” Why get involved with it? You hear the same now about things like MySpace/Facebook, or the other social networks; you hear about it with Blogs, Twitter, Second Life, Wiki, etc.

I guess as busy professionals it’s probably best to focus on one or two areas. Besides the HEDIR listserv (you can sign up for it at www.hedir.org/directory) the two that seem to be the center of my attention for now is this … the HEDIR Blog, and Twitter.

Both are to provide updated information, and allows people to use these forums to let others know what is happening. I’m getting a little comfortable using the HEDIR Blog, and I think I’ll be adding more to this on a regular basis. I encourage people to comments on these issues (of course that would require you to register).

For the Twitter I’m still not sure what is expected. I get Twitter messages from CDC, CNN Health and others. It’s good information, but I’m just not sure how the Twitter is used for an individual. I have had a few people ‘follow’ me on Twitter (twitter.com/kittleson) but I’m not sure what they’re following.

Is this a form of cyber stalking? I don’t think so (at least I hope not). Do people who are ‘following’ me need to know that I’m having my ham sandwich at lunch? If so, these people need to get a life.

So, why Twitter? Help me out. What do you want to receive from me (or what we want from others). In one of my classes I give them ‘words of wisdom’ on how to become a better health educator. But these are usually humorous stories (like my Dave Barry is a Health Educator post a couple of weeks ago). Is this what you want?

Please, I’m learning this like the rest of you. I see potential value…especially from organizations and agencies, but how does an individual use it. Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Starting this week (if time permits) I am also going to post some of the more ‘popular’ issues on the HEDIR. I’m not going to post requests for syllabi or books, but rather those issues that have some overall relevance to the profession of health education. For example, there’s an initial discussion on the role of theory in health education.
We’ll see how this goes.

As usual, have a great day. I hope to see all of you at AAHE this spring.

Tags: technology, The HEDIR, Thoughts
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What’s your community health priority?

the Northwest Health Foundation, a regional health foundation that I respect and admire greatly, created a website to begin a conversation about health priorities in Oregon. The site, Community Health Priorities is exciting on many levels that could be fodder for other posts. For example, it echos back to my previous post about community voice, advocacy, and engagement that is made possible by new technologies but that is another post.

Today I wanted to focus on one poll question posted to the website that asked: “What’s your community health priority?” The introduction to the poll led with the statement “We know it’s hard, but if you had to choose just one issue to get additional funding, which would it be?” and the possible responses listed included the usual disease of the day suspects like: Improving air quality, More alcohol and drug treatment programs, Prevention of obesity, Adolescent and teen health awareness programs, and Affordable, quality housing.

I answered the poll question and then added a comment to the 14 other comments posted so far.  My concern was that the question blurs “health care delivery priorities,” with “community health priorities.  The two are very different concepts and need to be understood as distinct.  Anyway, here is what I posted as a response to the poll:

I think what is interesting about this list of health priorities is that it is all about deconstructing health into tidy discrete boxes. This process of deconstruction may be good for health care redesign but it should not be confused with community health priorities.  Deconstruction means that we can “value” some diseases more or less relative to cost savings on the system or which diseased evokes more fear among the public. Strokes cost the medical system a whole bunch more money (and is scarier) than childhood asthma so if that was the priority choice we should be allocating limited resources to prevent strokes and let vulnerable kids struggle to manage asthma.

Our true community health priorities should be wrapped around the concepts of social capital and connectedness.  If we truly had a sense of community and were connected to each other it would radically change the shape and nature of our social fabric.  In a connected community our priorities would be about promoting such things as living wages; investing in the commons (eg., public transportation, open spaces and libraries);  promoting community gardens and other access to local foods;  teaching community members conflict resolution, parenting and primary health prevention.  Learning, daycare, food cooperatives would become the norm and not the exception. If we were truly connected as a community, it would not be an option for children to arrive at school hungry or be without health care.

So I would suggest that prioritizing the disease of the day list can be useful but engaging in a deeper conversation about root causes might be even more fruitful.

Okay, some of you might be thinking “semantics shemantics.”  But I would argue that semantics matter.  If your box is as narrow as to force-choice the disease of the day priority, then I would argue that you box in your imagination about the solutions. As health educators, we talk about root causes but unfortunately, we rarely work at the root cause level and instead get bogged down in discussions about what disease we should be focusing on today.

Tags: advocacy, community, community health priorities, social capital, social network, technology
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