Review (of sorts) #6

I am not finished with this review yet.  It's nearly 1:00 AM and I have to get up and go to work in less than 6 hours.  So... I just read this blog post and though it's a blog post, I really like what it's making me think about.  It's really more of a navel-gazing ramble, so I'll write a real review of something else.  But just for fun, here's the link to the blog.

Design Your Dream Teaching Job

I actually wrote a long rambling... you can read it over on Cheatham County Rock Star's Wife (my personal blog).

Review #5 - March 14

Coughing Mannequins Shed Light On Flu Transmission

Citation:   Lipson, P. (2013). Coughing mannequins shed light on flu transmission. Forbes, 2013 (March 2). Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlipson/2013/03/02/coughing-manequins-shed-light-on-flu-transmission/.

Review:  This article actually references another article, High Humidity Leads to Loss of Infectious Influenza Virus from Simulated Coughs, from the online journal Plos One.  The referenced article describes the data used in the study itself; the writer of the Forbes article gives the impression that he wishes to inform the public about some interesting findings that the reader can connect to their own lives and those around them.  The article(s) focus on the finding that viruses change throughout the winter (generally, the prime of flu season).  They found that the spread of influenza was related to the humidity of the room.  As the humidity increased, the rate of spread dropped rapidly.  This finding could become acceptable practice within the last few weeks of this year's flu season.

    

Reflection:  I chose this article because I am very interested in mannequins (or manikins, which is the way it is spelled in most health care uses) that are programmable.  It is rare enough to have examples of persons with abnormalities they can hear on a stethoscope and rarer still to find a high school student with a medical condition who is willing to be used as a "demo."  Programmable manikins are ideal for teaching high school students who cannot get to a healthcare facility to job shadow.  Teenagers are often expected to behave like heathens (when 90 percent of them do not) and the hospitals don't want to take chances on them bringing in a lot of germs anyway.  I put the programmable manikin on my "wish list" every year.  So far, I'm still wishing.  I do have a humidistat in my room.  Yes, such a thing exists!  It's like a thermostat, only it adjusts the humidity.  Reading this article also makes me think I'll set the humidity a little higher in my classroom.  That was certainly an unexpected use of classroom technology that this article illuminated for me.

March 11 - Article Review #4

The Doctor’s New Black Bag:Instructional Technology and the Tools of the 21st Century Physician

 

Citation: Mostaghimi, A., Levison, J., Leffert, R., Ham, W., Nathoo, A., Halamka, J., Prout, C., Arky, R., Tosteson, D., & Quattrochi, J. (2006). The doctor’s new black bag: instructional technology and the tools of the 21st century physician. Medical Education Online, 11. Retrieved from http://www.med-ed-online.org/pdf/L0000012.pdf

 

Review: Physicians will have to work and communicate with colleagues from various disciplines. Future physicians can expect even more collaboration than in the past. Currently there is more of a focus on collaboration because of developments in academic medicine and biomedical research. However, this has not transferred over to medical education. The writers of this paper have taken this opportunity as a challenge, to change medical school curricula to include leadership and collaboration skills as well as professional and ethical education. Even the focus on problem-based learning has not led to the forging of interdisciplinary relationships. What does this have to do with technology? New technologies are being used to simulate situations that enable students to develop interdisciplinary thought processes. The researchers developed a user-defined, interactive case-based online network with the hope of improving the teamwork skills of medical students. Cases in this network progress in real-time just as real patients' cases would. This facilitates discussion and links it with content so that students must work together in an interdisciplinary group to "treat" the patient. Students and faculty interact through online modules and instant messaging. Faculty have roles much like actors in a murder mystery. Students must guide the patient's care, coordinating the physicians' activities, requesting consulting physician visits and determining the course of action. This use of instructional technology increased the urgency of learning with real-time case progression, much like real-life patient situations, increased each student's accountability to the team, and establishing relationships between students, faculty. and specialists. This study revealed that using the technology is conducive to equal contribution among participants and led to a patient-centered, interdisciplinary learning environment integrating case discussion with content. The researchers found that integrating this technology early in medical school lays a foundation for interdisciplinary professional collaboration.

 

Reflection: As a health science teacher with a love of technology, I am always looking for ways I can use technology to teach my students. Unlike students of my generation, current high school students have been playing with cell phones, laptops, and Gameboys since they were toddlers. I'm thinking that well-placed technology lessons will engage my students, thereby making teaching, and my life, easier. This article interested me because I have a lot of students who are considering becoming physicians, and I wanted to see how medical schools are using technology. I like the idea of using real-time case progression, because cases don't solve themselves in an hour a la "House M.D." In a medical school environment, this sort of training would work. It would be hard to implement in a high school, but the online case bank would be a good resource for teaching teenagers, even if they come in for an hour a day to see what's changed with their patient since the day before. (That's actually way more time than most patients in the hospital SEE a doctor.) I was really hoping the article would have information about case-simulating manikins - yes, that's the medical spelling of the word - but that's all right, because this article was from 2006 and also, because I found a lot of good articles on medical education and technology on this journal's website.

March 9 - Article Review #3

The Teenage Brain and Technology

Citation:  Feinstein, S. (2011). The teenage brain and technology. LEARNing Landscapes, 5(1), 14-25. Retrieved from http://www.learninglandscapes.ca/images/documents/ll-no9-final-lr.pdf#page=71.

Summary:  This article examines the ways that technology interfaces with the teenage brain, specifically attempting to answer three questions:  what is happening in the teenage brain, how technology is impacting the changes in the teenage brain, and which technology-based instructional technologies are compatible with the teenage brain.  The teenage brain is changing and transitioning as the child becomes an adult.  Teenage brains depend on the amygdala to process emotions and feelings.  Adults process their feelings in their frontal lobes, which are associated with higher order thinking.  Brain cells, or neurons, grow hair-like structures called dendrites as information is learned.  Each neuron has an axon which transmits information between neurons.  When dendrites, neurons, and axons communicate with each other, the resulting electrical connection is called a synaptic connection.  These connections aid in information transmission.  During the teenage years, an over-production of these connections occurs, creating a wonderful opportunity for learning.  As the brain matures, the process of pruning occurs.  Sometimes this is called the "use it or lose it" principle.

Computer-based instruction comes in many forms.  Students and teachers have the Internet, tutorials, games, and social networking, just to name a few.  Studies have shown that students are engaged and motivated by technology, and are drawn to e-learning.  Games and tutorials can be used for reinforcing basic skills.  Higher order thinking can encourage higher order thinking.  However, as with any educational tool, computer-based instruction has its limitations.  Students are developing shorter attention spans.  Gaming addictions can be affected.  Educators should use caution but continue to use such tools as tutorials, games, and graphic organizers to help the students' brains develop and learn.

Reflection:  For some reason I have always been fascinated by the study of the human brain.  I remember thinking as a teenager that it would really be cool to see my own brain, but I knew that would likely never happen.  Since then, it has happened in a way, because I have seen a CT of my head.  While I didn't see it in action, I've seen pictures of it and that was pretty fascinating.  What we see anatomically is only scratching the surface of the human brain.  On a cellular level, we can see learning almost as it happens.  Recent studies have shown that brains can keep learning and developing new neuronal pathways even into old age.  Still, it is important that educators know how students' brains develop, so that they can take advantage of peak learning times such as that of a teenager, when there is an over-abundance of synaptic connections.  This review also shows us that teachers need to use caution and not over-rely on technology, but utilize it for each student's best education.