Bionic Eye for Blind Man!

I just saw on BBC.com that there is man who has been blind for 30 years and now is able to see because of a bionic eye. He wears a pair of glasses that have a small camera on the lens and that camera sends a wireless signal to the outside of the eyeball which is connected to an implanted piece in his retina and allows him to see.

Obviously, this story reminded me of Clark and talking about cyborgs. To be completely honest, it was very hard for me to see Clark's side of things and understand why. But, I do understand how this wonderful technology can be used to help people with some type of dissability. I think it is amazing how far our world has come. We are now helping the blind be able to see! It's very cool, if you think about it.

What are your thoughts?

Texting has a possitive outcome????

We have discussed many times in class how texting and the new technologies in our world could be negatively affecting our writing and communication skills. I found an article that states otherwise. This article states that texting can actually improve children's writing and reading capabilities. There was a study done at Coventry University by researchers as they studied 88 children between the ages of 10 and 12. Their studies show that texting is helping children in writing and reading skills and that children are able to distiguish between the appropriate times to use "textisms".

What do you think?

I think that it is very possible that texting could help the upcoming generations. Not to say that there aren't limits. There are! But as I mentioned in class once, I learned how to type fast and type correctly using instant messenger. These new technologies force our brains and writing skills to work quickly and appropriately. So maybe texting is to these kids what instant messaging was to me. One lady states in the article also that "we tend to get better at things that we do for fun." I agree....learning to type in class was horrible and I hated it, but instant messaging with my friends was fun and I wanted to do it.

I think learning and basic skills should sometimes be approached as if there is a product to be sold.....we need to appeal to the audience. Most children love to learn, but it needs to be a way of learning that appeals to them and their generation's way of life.

What do you all think? Is it easier for children to learn writing/reading skills if it is fun? Or do we need to maintain the structured way of teaching things that most of us went through.

Healthcare System and Technology continued....

I just found this other YouTube video that continues the one on my post below. Hope these help give a visual to the technologies that are advancing in medical care centers.

Healthcare System and Technology

As most of us know, the technology in the medical/healthcare system is growing widely and fast. Most of the time when we think about this though, we think more in the technologies that are used "on" patients rather than the "behind the scenes" technologies.

I worked for a psychiatric clinic as an administrative aide and saw first hand how important technology in writing is in these jobs. Each patients record is not only store on paper and filed, but all dictations, medications, refferal information, and much more is being kept electronically using the Epic system. Epic is only one of the program systems changing healthcare everyday with its new technologies. Not only medical records are being recorded electronically, but blood pressure, pulse, and many other statistics are being taken by machines instead of nurses, and being recorded technologically.



As seen in this YouTube video (which is a great example of this technological transition) technology in writing has made everyone's jobs easier and faster. Personally, I think this is quite amazing. Imagine how many more lives can be saved by those extra minutes we gain by not having to look through papers and dig through charts just to find out where to put the patient.

I think that these technologies will be great advancements in our medical system and can only create benefits for everyone. Yes, many trainings and teaching will go into this transition, but the outcome will be amazing.

Creative Writing or Stupidity?

I am a person who likes to go off on tangents about random things as they come to me. I have been trying to think of something interesting all week to update my blog with, but my mind has been blank.....until tonight at dinner! This might seem off topic, but at the same time it is related to writing!

Alcohol + writing = ?????

So tonight at dinner, my boyfriend was enjoying an alcoholic beverage and I looked at him and thought....I wonder how many people do homework, write papers, presentations, or any other form of writing under the influence of alcohol.

As we all know, college campuses consume LARGE amounts of alcohol every week. (Madison= one of the biggest party schools in the country) My point about this is not whether it is right or wrong, but more or less how it affects our writing. What is the product?

I think that many students have the impression that alcohol is a stress reliever; therefore, large amounts are consumed. (Or even just a glass of wine while studying.) I would love to conduct a study or find one that has been done relating to this. I want to know if it actually helps students versus the grades and outcomes. Some of the best authors have been alcoholics or had some kind of addiction. For example: Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen Crane, Theodore Roethke, Herman Melville, Delmore Schwartz, Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner.

What do you think? Good or Bad? Or does it matter?

Is Texting a Problem?

My answer is YES! I will be the first to admit that I text a lot more than I ever thought I would, but for some young people it is getting out of hand. Unfortunately texting happens to be our “latest and greatest” (of course, along with email) mode of communication and writing to our friends and even our parents. I don’t know about all of you, but my parents go crazy when they see people texting. My mom usually says, “Why don’t you just call the person?”. Well mom, to be completely honest, I don’t know why we don’t. My belief is that it has to do with instant gratification and our society. If we call someone, there is a chance that they will not answer due to being busy with work, school, etc. But, with texting, it seems that no matter what we are doing, we seem to find a way to respond to someone…even if that means while we are DRIVING! Texting while driving has become a very dangerous factor in our society, especially with teens. I have linked a YouTube video that you might all find interesting about texting while driving and the high percentages of people who do it. I think the real question that we need to ask is , “Can we blame this on technology?”. Certainly technology has played the largest role in helping us communicate via texts, but this is out of control. There was a story last month where a teenage girl had over 35,000 texts in one month; that means over 1,000 a day! Personally, I can’t even imagine even having the time to complete this insane number of texts, much less, what could be THAT important to talk about via text?!?!?!?!? There are enough car accidents everyday without texting, why would we ever intentionally put people in danger? Another role that needs to be considered in this latest technology of writing is the parenting. I think that any child whose parents let him or her text that much, need to take a second look at their parenting skills and figure out a way to teach your child differently. As we discussed in class, our grammar, spelling, and probably our speech skills are also suffering due to this technology. Overall, I think that texting, email, and other technologies have greatly advanced our society and world, but we need to figure out a way to keep them under control!

Introduction

Hello,

My name is Kate. I am a student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I have created this blog for an English class and will be posting weekly on various topics related to technologies and writing. Please feel free to comment on anything, I am always open to discussion new ideas!