ALBUQUERQUE - An international group of radiologic science educators from educational institutions and radiologic science organizations met for the American Society of Radiologic Technologists' fifth annual Leadership Academy for Educators, July 12-14. The Academy was held at the ASRT office in Albuquerque, N.M. Program participants came from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

"This year's academy was unique in that we had three former academy graduates making key contributions to the program," said ASRT's Director of Education and one of the Academy's instructors, Kevin Powers, Ed.S., R.T.(R)(M). They were Elizabeth Greer, M.Ed., R.T.(R); Myke Kudlas, R.T.(R)(QM); and Chad N. Hensley, M.Ed., R.T.(R)(MR).

Currently the director and an advisor in the radiologic sciences program at the University of New Mexico, Ms. Greer was a guest presenter. She discussed the use of personal digital assistants to track students in the clinical site. She explained each student carries a PDA and records all of their experiences and turns them into a classroom computer once a week. This allows Ms. Greer to gather their attendance, daily clinical experiences, clinical competencies and evaluations throughout the course of each semester. The data is used to generate reports for the program, each student and herself, saving many hours of sorting, recording and evaluating the students' clinical activities.

Mr. Kudlas, who is the radiography program director at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine's Mayo School of Health Sciences, Jacksonville, Fla., said the mobile video content revolution is upon us and future students will expect to be engaged by mobile video content. He discussed using portable, on-demand videos as a teaching tool for students. By using their iPods to view the teaching videos, Mr. Kudlas explained, students can watch them anywhere at anytime. He said it "extends the learning day; promotes independent learning outside the classroom and higher order thinking in the classroom; and is more engaging." Academy participants were also taught how to turn PowerPoint presentations into video by using Microsoft's Photo Story 3 for Windows software.

Mr. Hensley, who currently serves as vice president of the Association of Collegiate Educators in Radiologic Technology, made a presentation about the organization. He explained ACERT is focused on improving radiology education. "I wanted to emphasize how important it is for educators to get involved and active in an organization," Mr. Hensley said. Mr. Hensley is currently an instructor in the radiography program at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.