iStethoscope Pro: mLearning in Healthcare

"Experts are saying the software is a major advance in medical technology and enables doctors in remote areas to access specialist advice." Read more 

I read this with careful contemplation. I try to think how this device can be used to supplement other means to improve healthcare. It would be interesting to find out more about how it is used in practice.

I don't have an iPhone, yet, maybe, because I'm a poor doctoral student. This doesn't stop me from being curious about the possibilities of what mobile, and any other, technology can do to level the playing field. My friend is investigating the use of mobile technology in her home country (unpublished PhD in progress) because there is a higher adoption of and affordability for cellphones than computers. I recognize a social divide there that causes the digital divide. My question is, will this help them learn better? It will probably facilitate more access to learning content, so is this more about literacy/equity than the quality and effectiveness of learning and instructional design?

5 Questions ...

from Dr. Jackie Orr's course last night. We were warned that her instructional goal may make us uncomfortable -- cognitive dissonance brings about change/growth.

 1. What happens to theory/thinking (the practice of thought; something we "do") when the body is taken seriously or as central animate space?

2. How has a focus on "difference"/multiplicity troubled everything in contemporary theory? (how has decentralization of western civilization affected contemp theory, from philosophy to feminist theory...)

3. Where does the renewed attention to marginalized histories and popular memories lead us when trying to think of the present (What's the name of this decade)?

4. How/Why do theorists begin to experiment seriously with language forms of representation, style, poetics, politics, playings with language as a necessary practice of theory?

5. What are the effects of all these theoretical perceptions with difference, what do these effects have on how people analyze and experience power as a political, social, linguistic force, a force of the practice of knowledge itself?

Dissertation chair suggested I take her course which might provide insight to the framing of my dissertation. Ponder. Learn. Not so sure if I have the time to do all the readings, write papers and write my proposal at the same time.

Update 1/22/10: Regrettably dropped class as I want to really focus on completing readings for my dissertation. Not enough time on my hands as it is.

Modern Cuneiform

[Image source: fact-o-tron.com]

i stare

oblivious to the glare

paper mountains

scaled, as yet in vain

there is no respite

thoughts they desist

word strings, one and then a few

in caprice, halts and spews

solitude incubates

this industry of zeal and rage

~ author, ywk, jan 17, 2010

Theater and Twitter

(Image source: http://to.pbs.org/dPjzea)

I had a taste tonight of what it was like to watch theater on TV and tweet. Verdict: I couldn't do it -- very well, that is. I had my laptop  and Downton Abbey in full view before me on HDTV. I tweeted, maybe only twice during the show. The action was unfolding much too furiously on TV for moi to tweet and watch the episode together. No, multitasking was not possible and an undeserved injustice to a fine program like Downton Abbey, a Masterpiece (literally!) where the witty dialogue has to be savored. I tried to read and see what I could learn from the #DowntonPBS tweets; checking on people's comments via Visible Tweets (pretty tweet viewer at visibletweets.com) and Tweet Grid (tweetgrid.com). Nope, I couldn't follow them AND enjoy Downton. Sorry, Twitter technology and theater is simply not quite such a match for period dramas where I have to hang on to every word to derive pleasure. Maybe a less cerebral pairing might work -- reality TV and Twitter?

It's nice to go back and read the Twitter conversation now that the show is over. There's a sense of this shared experience knowing that people appreciate the show as much as I do. They relish  the wit and catch the nuances of the repartee. Learning occurred asynchronously for me through others who created the conversation synchronously and asynchronously (after the show was over). Thanks PBS and tweeps of #DowntonPBS.

Automatic Captioning & Automatic Timing from Google

I had a pleasant surprise today as I was researching how social media technology supported d/D participation. As of November 2009, Google offers automatic captioning (uses the same voice recognition algorithms in Google Voice to automatically generate captions for video) and automatic timing service (attach a script without time codes and Google will do the rest for you!) in YouTube. So, if I watch a Spanish video on YouTube, I can simply click on the cc button and have Google transcribe it into English or any of the 51 language options that are offered on the menu. Here's the Google Announcement in 2009:

For Google's blogpost and announcement on this: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/automatic-captions-in-youtube.html

Google Software engineer Ken Harrenstien also talks about it here.

Note: Automatic captioning is NOT available for all uploaded videos yet because they are still perfecting the technology. As posted on their blog:

"It is available for now to educational partners for the initial launch: UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Yale, UCLA, Duke, UCTV, Columbia, PBS, National Geographic, Demand Media, UNSW and most Google & YouTube channels."

Definitely check it out!

Just keep writing

I'm beginning to understand what dissertation-writing is about. As students reach this "terminal" stage in academic pursuit, the challenge is for students to identify/find their own problems, or set their own assignment topic (as opposed to instructors giving you a topic; although sometimes, it may not happen that way, :)). Write a gigantic long essay. Once it is approved and graded by a committee of experts, it passes for defense. The student then gets her PhD. As in creative pursuits, the greatest challenge is in problem-finding. Once a student gets past that and is able to articulate that in clear writing, problem-solving is much easier. I've spoken to three persons so far who have told me that the journey is worth it. So don't yield to temporary blues, my peers. Doing a PhD requires perseverance, discipline and focused attention. One must not have only cognitive potential, but the mental and emotional strength to finish the journey.

Unaffiliated Sites

Last night, I locked up my blog for security.The downside of social media.

http://movie-ozone.com.- This site on movie review claims I'm a fellow blogger along with medical doctors researching dementia and fishing enthusiasts. I would not mind someone following my blog if I know who they are. However, there is no name or contact information on their site. Any writer on the blogosphere with the intent to share knowledge does not go about nameless, without even a pseudonym. There is a blogger's code of conduct.

http://pingywebedition.somee.com/ - This site has been linked to my blog for some time. I'm listed among antique Greece, gods and goddesses and blogwriters award. Again, I'm not fond of being linked to some unknown author site.

Please note that I'm NOT in any way affiliated with these two sites.

Edson's W;t

I came across the Pulitzer-Prize-winning play enough in my readings to decide that it's definitely on my readlist and maybe, watchlist. After some scouting around my vicinity, it was ferreted out. The book/play and DVD were both located within a five-mile radius. I started by watching the movie, egged on by Bob. My preference would be to read the play first. But time is of the essence with my research.

The movie with Emma Thompson in the lead as Dr. Vivian Bearing was pretty intense. Bob says it was "riveting". Suffice to say, it held our attention because we could relate to moments in the movie where as patients, we were at the mercy of doctors. I want to believe that live theater would do it even greater justice. Also, I think some familiarity with John Donne's metaphysical poetry would help.

Vivian is a professor of 17th century poetry who was told at age 50, that she had contracted stage 4 ovarian cancer. Harsh experimental chemotherapy treatment was used on her as a "research" patient, with her consent. Predictably, the movie shows her going through the humiliating process of losing her hair, getting nauseous, losing appetite, the intense pain from the ravages of cancer spreading in her body, to be alleviated somewhat only by morphine.

The movie focused on the doctor-patient relationship and depicts medicine as an institution of social control. Using a highly-educated English literature professor heightened the impersonal dehumanizing role medicine plays in stripping a person of her dignity, regardless of one's intellect, saved at the last battle. When her heart stopped beating, the oncologist fellow, once her student, tried to resuscitate her with the tools of science. But advised in advance by her caring nurse, Vivian had opted for DNR, not to be resuscitated. The medical fellow realizes his mistake and Vivian is left to die, with her dignity intact, alas.

Published in 1999, it was probably an eye-opener then of how invasive and paternalistic medicine and medical providers can be, beginning in the mid-60s, when power abuse in medicine began to come under strong public criticism. However, Schei (2006) argues in his article, Doctoring as Leadership, that this need not be so. Power may be abused but it is this power that a patient relies on, more so during severe illnesses. Schei advocates a model where doctors wield leadership instead of authority. Doctoral leadership is "an improvised adaptation to the transforming processes of the situation" (p. 399).  Improvisation implies potential for creativity. This concept is worth exploring for my study.  

Schei, D. (2006). Doctoring as leadership. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 49(3), p. 393-406.

Image source: http://bit.ly/hjiUrK

Bruno Mars Performs 'Grenade'

Not many pop singers-songwriters today capture my attention. To me, they are either not "singing" (but talking gibberish) or their voices are drowned by all the digitization. Not to mention some who absolutely have zero talent but think their lives are worth beaming to the world as entertainment. Ouch, sarcastic much, ;-P. I am sure some doctoral student must be studying these media trends right now, LOL. But this Bruno Mars, methinks he is talented. Thanks Ellen! (Yes, The Ellen Show). "I'd catch a grenade for love", anyone else thought of this line before? OK, Taio Cruz wrote Dynamite, Katy Perry wrote Firework... those songs just didn't do anything for me. Another song, "Just the way you are" was performed on Glee Season 2 Episode 8 Furt. When Glee covers your song, you know you've arrived. Here's wishing him success and that he will use his talent to help make a positive difference in the world.

Update: Jan 12, 2011 - I thought I'd elaborate on my criteria for labeling BM as creative/talented. It is based primarily on his creative output since I don't know this chap -- his songs, his vocal quality/delivery, my subjective experience of his performance, and probably that of others too (Glee) added up to my overall Gestaltian perception of and reception to his performances - "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts".

Resilience

Source: Amazon.com

In an interview with Elizabeth Edwards, Matt Lauer read the last paragraph in Edwards’ book aloud:

“I have said before that I do not know what the most important lesson is that I will ever teach my children, Cate and Emma Claire and Jack. I do know that when they are older and telling their own children about their grandmother, they will be able to say that she stood in the storm, and when the wind did not go her way — and surely it has not — she adjusted her sails.”

He asked her if that’s still the message she hopes people come away with.

“It is,” she said. “I hope that it is when bad things happen, you have the strength to face them.”

Beautiful. Edwards' Book is entitled: Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities.