Inviting Others to the Technology Buffet Table

The issues surrounding global equity are daunting, in scope and number. As a technology specialist, I don’t think it would be possible to plan or devise a single program that could address all the issues. Instead I think it is important as a technology specialist to be aware of projects that are designed to identify and address equity issues surrounding access to technology.

It is important to keep in mind that many do not have the price of admission to the technology dinner table. Being aware of what equity issues that are found in your own community is a start. The only way to do this is to be involved in the community, to be part of community outreach to the underprivileged. It would be important to also work a network of individuals as well as organizations, including businesses, who want to be involved in addressing local equity issues. Familiarity with the local culture and resources would promote success in addressing equity issues. Leading by example is an important way of promoting social change. I am a strong believer in community service. Offering technical skills to a service organization or helping underprivileged children learn how to use a computer are just a couple ways of promoting equity at the local level.

Maintaining active membership of a professional organization such as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is one of the ways the individual technology specialist can work with others on a global level to promote equity. ISTE has numerous advocacy programs at local, state, national, and international levels. Supporting an organization like this is important on a professional as well as personal level.

The key to making sure all have a seat at the technology table is personal involvement. Doing something is much better than doing nothing. Personal involvement in helping others is not only good professionally, but it also feeds the soul.

VOD or DVD? Which will it be?

Finding a DVD to use for the assignment for Module $ was as easy as going to the entertainment center and pulling “Total Recall” from the shelf. I had purchased the DVD some time back when it was on sale at one of the local video rental stores. I’ve thought of watching some videos using VOD, but my internet service provider has yet to provide enough speed and bandwidth to make the experience of watching a video at home enjoyable. This is not the case at the university where I watch. (I guess I must confess that I’ve spend a few lunch breaks in my office watching some a couple “Flash Forward” episodes I’ve missed on ABC.)

I think the DVD and VOD competition is an example of Red Queens trying to keep ahead in the game. According to Thornburg, a Red Queen situation involves huge competition between two technologies. Both the DVD and VOD technologies are competing to provide higher and higher quality video and audio to the consumers, the same way there was competition between the HDDVD and Blue Ray technology. It seems that Blue Ray won the battle. I suspect that eventually VOD will win the competition with DVD. Video on demand will allow the consumer to have greater flexibility in choosing what to purchase. For example, rather than purchasing or renting an entire season of TV programming in order to catch up on a couple episodes, the consumer will be able to order up just the shows they want to watch. The DVD and VOD technologies are in much the same competition.

When Thomas Hawk wrote in his blog about “The Staying Power of DVD vs. VOD” in 2005, he concluded that DVDs will be around for a while. It is true that DVDs are very portable and easy to obtain. I agree with him that it would be good if all electronic entertainment were available on demand. But from my own personal experiences I am glad to still have the DVD available to me. I think that until the bandwidth and speed of data transfer is universally up to the requirements for a good VOD experience, the DVD or Blue Ray DVD will be the media of choice. Even though my internet speed is not what I’d like it to be, homes two blocks down from my home have even slower speeds to contend with. How long this will take to make VOD universally viable is up to the economics of the situation. Right now, it is not economically feasible for my ISP to cross the street with their fiber optics.

Reference:
Hawk, T. (April 23, 2005). The staying power of the dvd vs. vod. Message posted to http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/2005/04/23/the-staying-power-of-the-dvd-vs-vod/ .

Thornburg, D. (2009). Red Queens [Podcast]. In Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer) Emerging and future technology.

Second Life: A New Way of Looking at Things

According to Thornburg, a disruptive technology is a technology that has the same functionality of an existing technology, but functions so much more effectively it replaces the other technology. Philip Rosedale , one of the founders of Second Life, describes some of the differences between the virtual world of Second Life and the internet. As Rosedale describes it, the internet is links information by text to text. The virtual world of Second Life uses symbols that are easily understood by all. Rosedale uses the example of the work “chair” which is expressed differently in different languages which can lead to confusion or loss of meaning. However when you see a three dimensional chair it is evident to anyone what the object is. (Unless, I suppose, the individual viewing it is from another planet and has no idea what the function of a chair is.) In this sense Second Life surpasses the internet in terms of communicating concepts and ideas. Having said this, I don’t think that Second Life fully fits the definition of a disruptive technology. The internet is still a strong force in today’s society, but Second Life has the potential to displace the internet as a means of communicating ideas and promoting social interactions. At the present time I don’t believe the internet is in danger of being totally replaced by a virtual world such as Second Life.

Second Life is a very interesting and fascinating technology that allows the user to move about in a three dimensional world that can seem very real. It is so real that a friend of mine uses it to show undergraduate psychology students the unreal world of schizophrenic dissociation from reality. It would take something even more powerful and realistic to replace it. I believe the technology that could replace it is a truly three dimensional world that engages all the senses, much like the holodeck of the Star Trek movies and shows. I don’t believe this will happen anytime soon, so for now I think Second Life is secure in its place as the leader in virtual worlds.

Second Life has implications that can be of great benefit to society. It bypasses the need to use the symbolisms carried by words to explain concepts. It is much easier to look at an object and see what it is than it is to read about it and build your own image of it in your mind, that might not necessarily be the same construct in another person’s mind. Second Life has the potential to improve understanding among people of various backgrounds. As Rosedale describes, Second Life also opens up many ways of exploring the universe around us. Computer analogs of real-life events or objects could be used to create tangible objects that can be explored up close and in person. I guess that if it can be imagined, it can be created in a virtual world.


References

Rosedale, P. (2008). Second Life [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html.

Thornburg, D. (2009). Disruptive technologies [Podcast]. In Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer) Emerging and future technology.

Re-"Kindling" The Private Library: A Rhyme of History

Many public libraries as we know them today arose from the private libraries of wealthy individuals. Only the wealthy could afford to amass any number of books. It was the establishment of free public libraries that made books available to the common man. In a way the advent of electronic books have taken us back into time, only with the difference that you do not need to be wealthy to afford a good library. The electronic reader has evened the playing field. Now it is possible for the average person to afford the same kind of collection that only the wealthy of times past could afford.

The Kindle reader is an example of such an electronic reader. If you go to the Official Kindle Website you can see the wide variety of books that are available. One advantage of an electronic reader is that there are no late fees. Once a book is downloaded, it is yours to keep. An electronic reader is also portable. The user can take the entire collection with them where ever they are going. There are some disadvantages to using an electronic book reader to store your private library. It might not be possible to find the book you want available in an eBook format. And on occasion there can other bumps in the road, such as the recent controversy when Amazon deleted a book because of copyright problems from the Kindles of readers who had already paid for it. One personal disadvantage is that an electronic reader library does not provide the same sensory stimulus you get when you enter a library as well as the feel of holding a book in your hand and turning the pages.

Smart Objects Tetrad

The term “Smart Object” refers to a physical object that carries a means of identifying the object and information about the object electronically. One example of a smart object is my passport which has a small chip embedded in it that carries information about my identity. This makes it much easier to validate my citizenship when involved in international travel. Retailers use similar chips to track inventory or register purchases. There are many more examples.


The following is my tetrad for smart objects:


Enhances: Smart objects make it easier to keep track of where objects are located. Not only can objects be found easily, it is also possible to know how the relative positions of numerous objects.

Obsoletes: Smart objects greatly reduce or eliminate the need to manually enter information in order to manage an inventory or keep track of where things are.

Rekindles: Smart objects can rekindle a sense of knowing what you own as well as where everything you own is located as well. In ages past it was easy to keep track of personal belongings. Most people did not have as many possessions so it was easy to know where everything is. Smart objects could rekindle this sense of knowing where everything you own is located as well as what you own.

Reverses: Smart objects could reverse personal privacy. Smart chips make it possible to track where an individual is at any given time. Smart chips also make it possible to track an individual’s purchase patterns. Retailers could use this information to tailor advertisements.



Follow this link to the 2009 Horizon Report on smart objects for additional information and resources.

How is the patient? High-fidelity patient simulators in health care education.

High-fidelity human patient simulators are becoming new partners in health care education. In the traditional classroom format a faculty member would begin to prepare students for the world of clinical care by explaining the physiology and assessments necessary to assess the patient’s physiological status, usually starting with the normal and moving on to the pathophysiologies. After this the faculty could provide the explanation of the care needed to prevent complications or what the treatments needed for the identified problems. Hopefully there would be opportunities for the student to care for a patient with the identified problem in the clinical setting. Of course there would also be some form of assessment, such as a written exam or assessment of the student’s performance in the clinical setting. This is beginning to change.

For many years patient models or mannequins have been available for faculty to use to demonstrate what has been presented in the classroom. Practicing patient care using these types of models is akin to working with department store mannequins. In the last 15 years or so high-fidelity human patient simulators have begun to replace a lot of the more static mannequins.

High-fidelity human patient simulators or mannequins are designed to duplicate many of the physiologic responses found in living human beings, such as a heartbeat, pulses and respirations. Students can take a blood pressure or insert a urinary catheter and get a flow of urine, or insert an IV needle and draw blood. A simulator that has been programmed to simulate respiratory distress can be intubated and placed on a ventilator. A pulse oximeter can be placed on one of the simulator’s fingers and an oxygen saturation level in the blood can be measured. Newborn Hal, one of the high-fidelity simulators pictured here can become cyanotic or blue.

The simulators can also respond to spoken questions or voice personal statements via canned pre-recorded responses (in English or Spanish) or via the faculty speaking for the simulator via streaming audio.

(Image from http://www.gaumard.com/index.html )

These simulators make it possible for students from multiple health-care disciplines to gain practice in more life-like patient care situations or scenarios. Faculty can write scenarios that present the students with a variety of situations. As the students respond to the simulated physiologic responses the computer

program will cause the simulator to respond in accordance to what the students have done, such as administering oxygen or repositioning the patient. The simulators respond according to what interventions the students have implemented, or not implemented. Lack of appropriate interventions can result in a worsening of the simulator’s physiologic condition to the point the simulator could possibly expire.

High-fidelity simulators are bringing out a revolution in health care education. Students can be afforded the opportunity for skills practice prior to caring for actual patients. It is possible to students to work in multi-disciplinary teams in response to simulated medical emergencies. Students can not only practice skills, they also gain experience working as a member of a health-care team, which is important in today’s health-care environment.

There are some disadvantages to high-fidelity simulators. The first is the cost. High-fidelity simulators can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. Also to be considered is the cost of the computer hardware and the physical location of the simulator. In order to supply good simulation the physical setting, such as a hospital room or the back of an ambulance, needs to be realistic in appearance and function. There are also maintenance costs and the salary of support, such as administrative support, IT support, and physical plant maintenance. Faculty need training in creating scenarios as well as in operating the simulators. It takes more than one person to successfully run a scenario. This necessitates either the assistance of another faculty member or other support person. One faculty member needs to be involved with the students during the scenario and a second person is necessary to operate the computers running the scenario. After a scenario has been completed it is of utmost importance to provide a debriefing session for discussion of what happened during the simulation as well as what the students learned from their participation. It takes time for all this to happen. It also takes time for faculty to become comfortable in using the simulators. There needs to be curricular changes that integrate the new technology. Faculty development monies and time is needed to provide adequate faculty training and support.

Health care in today’s society can be very complex and involve a multitude of health care providers who need to work together for the benefit of the patients. Practicing in a safe environment can increase student self-confidence and enable them to feel more at ease caring for actual patients. Experiential learning provided by simulation increases knowledge retention. There is also the matter of patient safety. A simulator will not feel the discomfort caused by an improperly placed IV catheter.

There are several possible ways for health care education programs to overcome the disadvantages of costs and time. A cooperative model in which several educational agencies share the costs and work together in creating a simulator center for education can is one possible solution. Not only the costs, but also the personnel can be shared among the agencies. It is also possible to seek out financial assistance in the form of grants or endowments to support the creating of a simulation center.

Human patient simulation is the wave of the future in health-care education. We are seeing more and more schools add simulation to the curriculum. In the future students might not only take online computer adaptive exams for licensure, but it is possible that candidates for licensure may also need to successfully pass a simulation exercise to demonstrate their proficiency in patient care.