Mike Qaissaunee, a Professor of Engineering and Technology at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, New Jersey, shares his experiences and perspectives on integrating new technologies in and approaches to teaching and learning. ~ Subscribe to this Blog
We don't use our smartphones for talking as much as we once did, but we are and will increasingly be using them to detect and monitor health risks, from irregular heart rhythms to E. coli bacteria in drinking water, industry experts say.
Health app developers initially focused on consumer diet and exercise, said Brian Dolan, editor of Boston-based MobiHealthNews.com, which tracks advances in mobile health and medical technology. "Now we're seeing them look into more serious health conditions where there's a real need for innovation.
On Friday, Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced bill HR 6358 to Congress, which could spawn a new national research program to study cell phones and force the FCC and EPA to update the Specific Absorption Rate methodology for determining the potential damage that radio frequency emissions can cause. The bill, should it be passed, will "examine, label, and communicate adverse human biological effects associated with exposure to electromagnetic fields from cell phones and other wireless devices, and for other purposes."
The general rule for pulling off a bandage is to rip it right off in one instant. But what if it the adhesive melted all over the place or it was applied it to an extremely hairy leg? Ouchies always seem to ensue.
Penn State food researchers Lingyan Kong and Greg Ziegler want to get past the whole sticky ordeal of plastic-based bandages and make ones out of starch. A starch-based bandage could simply melt over time into nutritious glucose that’s absorbed though your skin.
As the weather continues to change cold and flu season will upon us again. In fact, we've already had one mild cold get passed around my school. So how is a cold or flu passed from person to person and what exactly is it doing to your body? NPR answers those questions in the following animated video.
In the winter, a mountainous region of California that the locals call the Grapevine is plagued by severe weather. The highway that winds through it is coated with snow and ice, making travel between central and southern parts of the state difficult and, sometimes, nearly impossible.
During these stormy outbursts, Dr. Gregory Smith, who specializes in treating chronic pain and prescription drug abuse, can't make it from his office in Los Angeles to his Fresno clinic. Two years ago, his only options were to reschedule appointments or cancel altogether.
But now, Smith uses his computer webcam to "see" his patients. He estimates the video technology enabled him to save 350 to 500 appointments this year.
"It's almost as good as being there," said Smith, whose two clinics have more than 1,300 patients.
Web-camera doctor appointments have their benefits and their drawbacks. Free online video-chat services let doctors check in quickly with patients, which can be more convenient for both. They let sick patients keep their germs at home, rather than bring them to an office. And doctors in some specialties, such as plastic surgery, use the technology to extend the reach of their practices by having e-consultations with patients in far-away cities.
River Glow is a network of lights floating on the East River that provides quick visual feedback regarding the environmental health of the river. A pH sensor, powered by solar panels, monitors the acidity of the water, causing the lights to glow green when the river is healthy (low acidity) and red when the water is unhealthy (high acidity).
When mobile phones first came on the scene, there were concerns regarding potential health risks. Most agree that modern cell phones have done much to mitigate these concerns. Unfortunately, the rapid proliferation of cell phones, wireless laptops and pdas, bluetooth headsets and ubiquitous wireless networks has seemingly out-paced our ability to understand the effect of all these wireless signals.
According to a January 21st John Timmer story in ars technica, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - to determine if wireless technology poses a health risk to consumers -
commissioned the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science to determine what areas need further study in order to better assess safety.
At Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds discusses two videos from our old friend Hans Rosling. As always, Rosling is dynamic and engaging - with a difficult topic: health and poverty. I'm not sure if they've used some sort of green screen or blue screen technology to create these videos, but having the presenter as part of the presentation - especially for someone as dynamic as Rosling - really brings the material to life. Many faculty are experimenting with screencasting - using tools like Camtasia Studio or Profcast. What most of these presentations lack is the urgency and connectedness of a live presentation.
Learn more about Garr Reynolds approach to presentation in his new book. It's a really great read with a ton of useful information that you'll be able to use almost immediatey. Also a great read is Guy Kawasaki's 10 Questions with Garr Reynolds. Here some great points from the interview:
If people want to learn how to make better slides they should study good books on graphic design and visual communication to improve their visual literacy.
When it comes to designing appropriate visuals, there is a hole in our education. Concerning quantitative displays, for example, very few people have had proper training in how to design graphs and charts, etc.
In the end it is about knowing your material deeply and designing visuals that augment and amplify your spoken message.
As far as text goes, I say as little as possible on slides, but when text does appear it should be large and serve to complement your words. People did not come to read; they came to hear. Any speaker can read bullet points. The audience wants to hear your story not read it.
Audiences should not notice the effects we employ between slides[sic].
The problem with most presentations is that people try to include too much. You can go deep or you can go wide, but you can’t really do both. What is the core message?
In a previous post - Gapminder: Re-Thinking How We Visualize Data, we detail the work of Hans Rosling, a professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. Here is his follow up presentation at TED 2007 (March '07). Tryout the Gapminder tool yourself, but I don't suggest you try the show stopper he ends with.
From TED 2006, here is Hans Rosling, a professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. This presentation is interesting for a number of reasons. First is Rosling's dynamic and enthusiastic presentation style. You can tell when someone loves what they teach - it's infectious. Second is the focus of his work - global health and poverty trends and common misconceptions regarding differences between developing countries and the so-called western world. The third reason to enjoy this 20-minute presentation is how the data is presented. Rosling makes his case using statistics drawn from United Nations data and illustrated by visualization software he developed through his nonprofit Gapminder. I marvel at how this software takes flat data and brings it to life. It's a great example of how technology - at it's best - can help to elucidate rather than obfuscate.
So whether you like to watch great presenters in action, are interested global issues, or just want to see new technologies for teaching and learning, give this video a watch - I think you'll be hooked!
The software from Gapmider is free and can be loaded with any data. To take it for a spin, visit Gapminder World 2006. You can vary the data for both the x and y axes and animate the results over time. Not surprisingly, Gapminder was purchased by Google in March 2007 - here's an excerpt from the announcement:
Gapminder and Google share an enthusiasm for technology that makes data easily accessible and understandable to the world. Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations. ... Google intends to improve and scale up Trendalyzer, and make it freely available to those who seek access to statistics.
The goal is to promote a fact-based worldview by bringing statistical story-telling to new levels.
