10-Rep Learning ~ Teague's Tech Treks

Learning Technology & Tech Observations by Dr. Helen Teague

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Sidewalk QR Codes

Sidewalk Bar Codes to Educate Tourists Technology is meeting tradition in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, where two-dimensional bar codes—or, to be more precise, QR codes—are being embedded in the black-and-white mosaic sidewalks that are hallmarks of the city. By downloading an app to their smartphones or tablets and photographing the QR codes, tourists can go to a website that will provide them with information about the city in Portuguese, Spanish, or English. The city plans to install the QR codes in such popular locales as beaches and historic sites so that the 2 million foreign tourists who visit Rio de Janeiro each year can easily learn about the city as they walk its picturesque streets.

sidewalk QR Codes

~Source: M a r c h 2 0 1 3  C i v i l E n g i n e e r i n g

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What is Palliative Care?

This post is part of course requirements for Dr. Farzin Madjidi, EDLT724.20, Ethics and Personal Leadership.

Palliative Care is a healthcare option that specializes in the relief of pain, symptoms, and stress of a serious and extended illness. Palliative care recognizes the important role of caregivers and  offers  physical, emotional and spiritual support for improved quality of life to patients and their families facing serious or chronic illnesses. Palliative care may be helpful for those patients suffering with pain and symptoms associated with serious illness, difficult medical decisions or nutritional problems caused by progressive illness problems related to emotional and spiritual suffering.

“Palliative care is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness. It can be provided together with curative and disease-directed treatments,” said Dr. Victor Hirsch, medical director of Pathways, a palliative care center in Abilene, Texas.

What is Palliative Care?

Patient- and family-centered palliative care optimizes quality of life through anticipatory, preventative, and treatment options such as pain management.  Palliative care is different from hospice care; anyone with a serious, life-limiting or chronic illness can benefit from palliative care, which can extend from a few hours to several years.

“Many people confuse palliative care with hospice care,” said Hirsch, former medical director of a cancer center. “Palliative care is different from hospice in that palliative care is given at the same time as life-sustaining or curative treatments; whereas hospice is only for patients who have chosen to forego life-sustaining treatments. Palliative care is for patients who are at any point in their illness trajectory, while hospice is for patients who have six months or less to live if the disease runs its usual course.”

angel ribbonsIn the palliative care continuum, physicians refer their patients, preferably at an early stage of treatment. An interdisciplinary team including the patient, their family, caregivers, doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains and other specialists work with a patient’s primary physician to provide an added layer of support for symptom management and support.

 

For more information, visit these online resources:

What is Palliative Care? http://www.cfah.org/prepared-patient/plan-for-your-end-of-life-care/what-is-palliative-care
GeriPal: a geriatrics and palliative care blog http://www.geripal.org/
Palliative
in Practice: http://palliativeinpractice.org
The John A. Hartford Foundation: http://www.jhartfound.org
The American Federation for Aging Research: http://www.afar.org

Palliative Care Picture Source

 

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Teachers Are Heroes Infographic

Teachers-Are-Heroes-Infographic
Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

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Participating in an online community~Week 6 Post 2

Disclaimer: This post is part of course requirements following this assignment: Extend your identity in the direction of your career path and participate in a new online community. Interact online using your projected identity for at least six weeks. Think deeply about identity and learning and blog twice a week about your experience. Take time to analyze the meaning, power, and constraints of the community on your learning. ~~~~

Week 6, Post 2

My online group chose The Long Earth as its December book choice. Its authors are Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter and it received the Goodreads’ Choice Award in the category Science Fiction in 2012. I found out about the book choice from the weekly emails and discussion forums composed by our Science Fiction and Fantasy Book group’s moderator. Included in the picture below is a sample of our discussion forum, the moderator’s post to seed the discussion, and my response. Within a few minutes of my post, other posts also appeared.

science fiction groups' post

Science fiction book group’s posting with personalized data redacted.

I began this assignment on September 2, 2013. Although uncertain as to the actual path my future work life will take, I knew that it would involve new ideas and that I would somehow help people integrate the change which accompanies new things. On Sunday, August 25, 2013, I made a big change and joined the Science Fiction Writer’s Group. I was warmly received, invited to participate, encouraged in my posts, given book recommendations and even a few plot spoilers. Along the path of this assignments, applications from authors McLuhan, Adams, Carr, Jenkins, Shirkey, and Dijick stood out like freshly dressed soldiers ready for inspection. (a complete list of authors is included below.)

Change is scary. Just watch how the performer Bjork describes her encounter with television:

Bjork explaining TV

 

Change is scary for me too. I discovered that since change is scary for many of us, these gently encouragements served as a cushion to my new experience. Also, the quick replies to my questions and posts from the moderators and group members helped me to move from outsider to peripheral to occasional and almost to active status, as Etienne Wenger predicted in Communities of Practice.

CofPLevelsofParticipation

And it all began with Etienne Wenger. Hearing him speak along with his wife was a highlight of this semester. Communities can be achieved in face-to-face settings and online protocols as long as the people within each of them continue to participate.

Thank you for reading these posts! And thank you, Dr. Paul Sparks for these invitations to explore and change!

~~~

Comprehensive Source List:

Adams, D. (1995). The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Del Rey. Link

Carr, N. (2008). Is google making us stupid? The Atlantic, Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/

Couros, George. The Principal of Change Blog. Retrieved September 15, 2013 Link

Dijck, José van (2013). The culture of connectivity: a critical history of social media. Oxford University Press. Link

Gerstandt, Joe. (2012). Social Gravity: Harnessing the Natural Laws of Relationships [Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com. Link

Gray, D. E. (2009). Doing research in the real world (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. Link keywords=Doing+research+in+the+real+world

Jenkins, Henry (2008-09-01). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (Kindle Locations 3040-3041). NYU Press. Kindle Edition. Link

McLuhan, Marshall (1967). The Medium is the Message. Gingko Press Inc. Link

Pratchett, T and Baxter, S. (2012). The Long Earth. Harper Collins. Link

Shirkey, Clay. (2010). Cognitive Surplus How Technology Makes Consumers Into Collaborators. Penguin Books. Link

Shirkey, Clay (2010). How cognitive surplus will change the world | Video on TED.com. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cognitive_surplus_will_change_the_world.html

Simmons, A. (2013). Facebook has transformed my students’ writing—for the better. The Atlantic, Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/facebook-has-transformed-my-students-writing-for-the-better/281563/

Sullivan, D. (2013, September 26). [Lurkers And Superfans: Why You Need Both In Your Facebook Communities]. Retrieved from http://allfacebook.com/crowdly-dan-sullivan-superfans-lurkers_b125468

Turkle, Sherry (2012). Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Basic Books; First Trade Paper Edition edition. Link

Wasko, Molly McLure and Faraj, Samur (2000).  It is what one does: why people participate and help others in electronic communities of practice. The Journal of Strategic Information SystemsVolume 9, Issues 2–3, September 2000, Pages 155–173.

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice, learning, meaning, and identity. (1st ed. ed.). Cambridge University Press. Link

 

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