Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

17Education TribuneSeptember 3-9, 2012United Kingdom Edition Discover MeToo, a totally new range of Professional whitening products, both comprehensive and wide-ranging to cover all your patients requirements. MeToo provides you with fast, effective and gentle strategies of treatment for chairside as well as for take-home whitening to give your patients the smile they deserve. W e t o c r e a t e For further information: 01480 477307 info@acteongroup.co.uk | sales@acteongroup.co.uk | www.acteongroup.com EVERYBODY DESERVES A BEAUTIFUL SMILE Take-home Whitening To enhance the whitening results, patients can treat themselves at home, at their chosen time using MeToo Day or MeToo Night (as per their dentist’s recommendation). MeToo Calm is also available for the relief of any teeth sensitivity issues. The patented NeoDam gel changes colour whilst curing MeToo Deluxe MeToo Compact Powerful whitening lamps, complete whitening kits, innovative disposable retractors with integrated suction system, new colour-changing gingival dam – everything is clearly presented and easy-to-use to make your work simple and your patients happy. Chairside Whitening Kit The cost efficiency to both the student and the course pro- vider can be hugely increased by the use of e-learning. This is where the situation becomes very interesting. Ever since the first European university, the University of Bologna 1088, universities have been ac- cepted as the societal hub for knowledge and learning. For a millennium the ways in which universities have offered learn- ing, knowledge and student as- sessment has to a large extent gone unchanged through the huge societal changes created by technology. Today however things seem to be changing with a move from the “Bricks” of the university campus to the “Clicks” of mobile learning. How can the business of higher education possibly avoid the in- fluence of technology that has transformed other information- centric industries such as news media, magazines, music and television? Change in universities to embrace the technology that can enhance learning and re- duce the cost of education tends to come at a snail’s pace - Richard Holeton, director of academic computing services at Stanford University Librar- ies, has said “Change in higher education, as they say, is like turning an aircraft carrier. In eight or nine years we will continue to see incremental changes, but not the more radi- cal transformations described.” From the point of view of the GDP looking for a cost ef- ficient and cost effective course e-learning cannot be ignored. A course on which the delivery of the knowledge component is through an e-learning platform means that the practitioner will not need to take expensive time out of practice to attend lectures. Furthermore, a well structured e-learning course can enhance the learning ex- perience through the use of interactive presentations that you can return to time and time again as opposed to the one off lecture with a pretty pointless pdf handout. The structure of the e-learning content is of par- amount importance. Web based learning should be exactly that and not just a means of dissem- inating lifeless information. Combine e-learning with “hy- brid” or “blended” delivery and we are suddenly now well on our way to meeting the criteria set earlier for the ideal implant programme. With the use of regular live Webinars, an online discussion forum, on-line assessment, mock examinations geared to- wards the Diploma in Implant Dentistry at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the provision of patients to treat under supervision we have now perhaps arrived at the ideal im- plant training programme. The distillation of years of teaching and clinical experi- ence combined with a knowl- edge and enthusiasm for IT in education has allowed Dr Ken Nicholson the director of Profi- Vision Ltd. to produce such a course hosted on the e-learning platform at http://www.Smi- leTube.tv DT About the author Dr Ken Nicholson BDS, MSc. Dr Nicholson graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 1982 winning the Ash prize in restorative dentistry. After several years in general practice he joined the Royal Army Dental Corps where he remained until 1988 when he returned to N. Ireland to establish a successful general practice. After a decade in general practice he opened a dedicated implant referral centre, purpose designed for the delivery of implant treatment and teaching. In 2010 he was employed by the Post- graduate Medical and Dental School at the University of Central Lanca- shire to restructure the MSc pro- gramme in Implant Dentistry, prior to this he was instrumental in the devel- opment of the MSc course in Implant Dentistry at the University of Warwick where, until April 2012, he was an As- sociate Fellow in the Institute of Clini- cal Education. He is the founder of the British Society of Oral Implantology, the co-founder of the European Jour- nal of Oral Implantology, a Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Im- plantologists, a member of the Faculty of Examiners at RCS Edinburgh and sits on the editorial board of the Eu- ropean Journal of Implant Dentistry, The International Journal of Implant Dentistry and Related Research, Im- plant Dentistry Today and The Irish Dentist. He currently is studying for his Doctorate in Education, looking at the role of e-learning in postgraduate dental education and devotes the ma- jority of his time to SmileTube.tv and clinical implant practice. ‘Today however things seem to be changing with a move from the “Bricks” of the uni- versity campus to the “Clicks” of mo- bile learning’