Thank you so much for starting this discussion! I loved the round table session at the recent meeting in San Diego - for me, it was the most productive session for brainstorming and networking with colleagues with similar interests - Kudos to the organizers!
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a seat at a histology table so I mingled at an embryology table (which is fine, since I also teach embryology and we had some great discussions). I suggested in the post-conference survey that a roundtable session be done again but to give each subject a separate and smaller room. Perhaps because the session was so well attended and due to passionate and productive discussions at every table, it got pretty loud and we had a hard time hearing each other. A separate room for each subject might alleviate this while providing just such an opportunity for educators/researchers interested in certain topic (like us with histology) to get together and have a productive round table session. Not sure about logistics behind making this happen though.
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Lisa Lee
Associate Professor
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Aurora CO
303-724-7460
Original Message:
Sent: 04-21-2016 12:09
From: James Rhodes
Subject: DHIG Round-table next year
The "call for proposals" for next year's meeting which appeared today's AAA newsletter (April 2016) reminded me that I had promised Lisa Lee that i would start a discussion regarding the possibility of submitting a proposal for a DHIG roundtable session at next year's EB meeting.
The platform sessions, such as the one that Raj Ettarh led at this year's EB meeting, are useful. However, I think that our group would benefit from the interactions that occur in a more informal setting such as a round table session. My evidence for this is solely anecdotal ... probably most of us have commented on the utility for networking (i.e., generating ideas and finding solutions) of the annual "Education Roundtable" sessions (but these are focused on topics other than digital histology) and the DHIG luncheon that Lisa organizes. Twice in recent years (for EB2014 & EB2015), Matt Velkey, Jenny Eastwood, and I proposed to the Educational Affairs committee that we have a "Digital Histology Roundtable" session, but the proposal failed to get enough traction to be included in those meetings. The idea was to get "the group" together around a bunch of tables with food & coffee:
Because one of our goals is to encourage networking, we would like to the session to be fairly informal and to allow plenty of time for small-group discussion. A round-table session, similar to the Educational Round-Table sessions which usually are included in the AAA EB program (e.g., session #80 at EB2014 or session #200 at EB2012), probably would be the best format for this session. We envision that the session being proposed would be in addition to the usual Educational Round-Table since the proposed session and the very successful Anatomy Education Round-Table session are intended for somewhat different audiences. Ideally, this session would be scheduled to begin at 8:00am with the room open (and food available) before 8:00 to allow for "mixing & meeting" before the session starts. (from the EB2015 proposal)
At that time we identified three topics that we thought were particularly pertinent: "Technology" ("this would be a discussion of evolving trends in server/viewer software and image formats"), "Pedagogy" ("this would be a discussion of how different groups are utilizing virtual microscopy in their histology and/or pathology courses"), and "Database sharing" (this proposal predates the VMD project that Lisa, Michael Hortsch and Haviva Goldman are leading). There is no magic to these topics and a lot has happened in the last couple of years ... so a new proposal probably would need to modify and refine the topics that would be discussed. The idea was to get "the group" discussing what we are doing with regards to using virtual microscopy in teaching:
For each of these topics, we envision having one invited speaker talk on some aspect of the topic for approximately 20 minutes, followed by a moderator-led general discussion for about 20 minutes. For the discussion, the moderator would offer several discussion points for the group at each table to work on for about 10 minutes followed by about 10 minutes during which each table reported a summary of their discussion to the entire group. For instance, for "technology", the group at each table might discuss the software/image formats they are using, what they like/dislike about the software they are using, and what improvements they would like to see. For "pedagogy", the group at each table might discuss how they are implementing virtual microscopy in their courses, what works/doesn't work, and how they hope to improve their implementation. For "database sharing", each group might discuss what databases (private, shared but hosted on local servers, shared via internet) they currently are using and whether they have any resources that they could/would be willing to share. (from the EB2015 proposal)
We suggested that there be about 10 minutes of unstructured time for mixing, table-hopping, and general discussion (possibly with posters?) between each of these 'sub-sessions', and that it might be possible to get some of the virtual-microscopy vendors (Aperio? MBF?, Digital SlideBox?) to underwrite the cost in return for being able to display their products during the session.
I'm not much of an organizer, and having failed (twice) to get the Educational Affairs Committee to 'buy into' the idea, I'm not really interested in being the lead-person for organizing a roundtable session for EB2017. However, I think it would be great to have a DHIG roundtable session, so I'm running the idea up-the-flag-pole to see if someone with more organizing ability/stamina is interested in taking on the challenge of organizing the session.
Just an idea.
James Rhodes
Associate Professor
Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences
Yakima WA
509-249-7738
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