Happy Holidays 2010

Wishing you a very Happy Holidays and hope that 2010 was good to you. If not, we've got 2011 to give it another go!

Here's a little diddy to help you get geared for a quiet workweek between Christmas and New Year's.

May your 2011 be filled with continued opportunities to live, learn, and pass on your knowledge!

Google's Tech Quick Tip Videos

I don't know if you're like me, but if anyone in your family thinks that you have some level of tech savvy, you end up being the go-to person for tech troubleshooting for all things large and small.

For example, 20% of the time when my dad comes over to visit and is checking his email on my computer, he'll exclaim, "What happened to my bookmarks?!" Then I'll take a deep breath and remind him that his bookmarks are on HIS computer at home, and the ones on mine are specific to my computer alone.

Well, help is on the horizon now that the young techies at Google have created a fun and useful series of videos at TeachParentsTech.org. The website's name pretty much says it all.

These incredibly short and to the point videos all run under one minute. One of my favorite features is at the end of every video there is a childhood photo of the presenter with their parents.

Tips range from very basic (ie, how to copy and paste, or how to increase text size) to skills that everyone, not just parents, can appreciate (ie, how to take a screenshot (see below)). A lot of the tips are geared towards Mac users, but some do cover tips for PCs.




Feel free to navigate the TeachParentsTech.org website for more videos, or simply browse the related videos in the YouTube right menu after viewing one of their videos.

Share this news with your parents and other frequent tech-frantic but loving family member or friends. They'll thank you for it, and you can thank the folks at Google for making our lives easier.

UCSF's New Teaching & Learning Center opening in January

The brand new state of the art Teaching & Learning Center will be opening its doors in January 2011. The TLC, housed on the second floor of the UCSF Library, will foster interprofessional health education.

This new facility is where students will practice their clinical skills, ranging from working with standardized (actor) patients, to working with simulation models for clinical procedures, and to telemedicine training. The TLC will be the new home as well for the Kanbar Center for Simulation, Clinical Skills and Telemedicine Education.

The project is state funded by Telemedicine and PRIME-US Education Facilities initiative as a result of California State Proposition 1D. PRIME-US is a UCSF specific Program In Medical Education for the Urban Underserved.

In addition to clinical skills learning spaces, there are also seminar rooms, a computer lab, media development center, and community spaces for group discussions and collaborative work. Seminar and classrooms are equipped with multiple large flat panel screens, and high definition video recorders for telecasting with remote learners and for recording class content. Teaching spaces have retractable walls to expand to accomodate different class sizes and equipped with modular furniture to allow for easier collaborative learning.

The TLC will open the first week of January. Come take part in the open house activities the week of January 18th. More info at http://tlc.library.ucsf.edu/ . You will not be disappointed, plus, enjoy views of the cityscape and Golden Gate Bridge.