Monday, 16 February 2004
Implant course
Surgical training in oral implantology and grafting very intresting
peter moy maurice avayoue jose morrogsson and vctor from boston university
blog/dipeshkpatel in H806 e-learning course DK blogging!!! at 8:29 AM GMT
Friday, 6 February 2004
Tuesday, 2 December 2003
check if everything is OK
and when do we get our results
blog/dipeshkpatel in H806 e-learning course DK blogging!!! at 1:51 PM GMT
Sunday, 28 September 2003
A truth emerges after 50 years?
An article in today?s Observer contains further revelations about how Ronnie Maddison allegedly met his death fifty years ago at the Government?s top chemical weapons research establishment at Porton Down. (Earlier articles about this story can be found here and here.)
It is alleged that Maddison suffered a horrific death shortly after 200mg of the nerve agent Sarin was dropped on to his arm as part of an experiment to determine the lethal dose of this substance.
Alfred Thornhill was a young ambulance driver at Porton Down at the time of the incident. He claims that he witnessed the truly horrific way in which Maddison died but was told immediately after the event that if he ever spoke a word about what he saw he would be sent to prison.
As children we are taught not to tell lies, but as adults we learn that it is telling the truth rather than telling lies that gets us into trouble (This was made clear to Thornhill in no uncertain terms with the threat of gaol.)
This story is just one illustration of how untruth is the raw material of power. Those in power will, I suggest, stop at nothing in their attempts to make sure that inconvenient truths are not heard.
blog/tloane in Here and Now at 9:15 PM BST
Wednesday, 24 September 2003
Ambulances stay off the road
Two recent articles (here and here) in The Guardian told a disturbing story about how the target culture is actually stopping ambulance crews from dealing with emergencies like car crashes and heart attack victims. Apparently hospitals are reluctant to accept incoming patients immediately from ambulances because this would make it harder for them to meet their targets for reducing the waiting time within accident and emergency departments! So the patients have to wait in the ambulances (sometimes for up to six hours) and the ambulances have to wait in the hospital car parks rather than be available to deal with other emergencies.
One of the most bizarre aspects of this story is told in the final sentence of the second article:
The ambulance and hospital trusts were locked in arguments about whose responsibility the patients waiting for formal admission were, said the inspectors, and were even resorting to seeking advice from lawyers.
Is the public aware that senior health service staff are, apparently, devoting their energies to legal fights between different branches of the health service? Would the public not prefer that health service staff concentrated instead on working co-operatively to ensure the best possible care for patients from the time they enter an ambulance to the time they are discharged from hospital?
This story is just one of many examples of how centrally imposed targets reduce the quality of public services. I believe that only by removing such targets altogether can we begin to move towards excellence in public service.
blog/tloane in Here and Now at 9:36 AM BST
Tuesday, 23 September 2003
First Here and Now entry
Here and Now will be a blog devoted to my thoughts and, I hope, the thoughts of others on what it is like to live in the world, specifically the UK, here and now.
Some of the issues I will be airing in Here and Now are:
# The ?target culture? - how it is destroying public services.
# ?Big is ugly? ? the increasing inability of large organisations (commercial or political) to have a positive impact on the lives of individuals and communities.
# ?Untruth? ? call it spin, call it hypocrisy, or call it lies. I will seek to address the role of untruth in the here and now.
This may sound very negative but I will also try to identify some positive means of addressing these issues:
read more
blog/tloane in Here and Now at 10:03 PM BST
Saturday, 20 September 2003
Getting ready for the Next Round ......
1. Read 12 Advertising Mistakes to get smarter. Common sense but good reminders on some pitfalls to avoid. E.g. Are we confusing response with results?
2. Entrepreneur.com is a great online magazine tipping on everything from TV ad to online campaigning and result tracking.
3. Marketing Issues, a great site with links to design, copywriting, freelancing, media, research, creativity, PR and tradeshows. Not only information but also contacts of experts and service professionals who can help for free or on hire.
4. Free Online Self-learned Development Module teaches everything about Marketing, Image Building PR and Customer Service. A must read resource for every practitioner.
5. Add Pro offers free URL submissions to 20 search engines to promote your product/organisation on the web.
read more
blog/axwong in PAU in action at 6:54 PM BST
Friday, 19 September 2003
Ruth Johnstones comments
The types of learning enabled have fundamentally changed through connectivity facilitating organisational and informal learning through utilities such as instant messaging. The very nature of informal learning makes it difficult to plan for and structure often taking place around water coolers, in corridors etc in one physical location. How much more informal learning do those not collocated have access to with technologies such as IM (Nardi et al 2002). Use of these technologies has developed essential skills for tomorrow?s economy. They have enabled dialogue on a many to many basis and enabled continued dialogue over time.(Herbsleb et al 2001 )
The changes do not necessarily have to be positive simply fundamental however the social isolation held to evolve from increased connectivity is queried by Castell(2002) who cites Uslahers survey showing Internet users tend to have larger social networks than non users. Indeed Internet use strengthened both social relationships at a distance and at a local level for sharing. While technology will encourage dependency it can be a dependency on others to evaluate and filter the vast resources that connectivity gives us access to.
blog/dipeshkpatel in H806 e-learning course DK blogging!!! at 6:27 AM BST
defintions
Learning = The acquisition of knowledge or skill; as, the learning of languages;The knowledge or skill received by instruction or study; acquired knowledge or ideas in any branch of science or literature; erudition; literature; science; as, he is a person of great learning.
Fundamental = Forming or serving as an essential component of a system or structure; central
Change = To cause to be different
The term "connectivity" in this context is used to describe the integration of different resources, necessary to reach an educational objective. These resources may include text and hypertext, graphics and animation and multimedia (audio and video).
And finally All aspects = every perpective both physical ,mental conceptual.
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blog/dipeshkpatel in H806 e-learning course DK blogging!!! at 6:27 AM BST
individual learning
First, however, it is important to remember that all learning is brain-based. Through the process of education, we are trying literally to change the brain ? not the pancreas, spleen, or lungs. Indeed, education is practical neuroscience. That does not mean that every teacher needs to become a neuroscientist or memorize 100 neurotransmitters and 50 brain areas responsible for cognition. But it does mean that teachers can become more effective with some knowledge of how the brain senses, processes, stores, and retrieves information.
Human beings are storytelling primates. We are curious, and we love to learn. The challenge for each teacher is to find ways to engage the child and take advantage of the novelty-seeking property of the human brain to facilitate learning.
Information is easiest to digest when there is emotional "seasoning" ? humor, empathy, sadness, and fear all make "dry" facts easier to swallow. Give a fact or two; link these facts into related concepts. Move back to the narrative to help them make the connection between this concept and the story. Go back to another fact. Reinforce the concepts. Reconnect with the original story. In and out, bob and weave, among facts, concept, and narrative.
Learning requires attention. And attention is mediated by specific parts of the brain. Yet, neural systems fatigue quickly, actually within minutes. With three to five minutes of sustained activity, neurons become "less responsive"; they need a rest (not unlike your muscles when you lift weights). They can recover within minutes too, but when they are stimulated in a sustained way, they just are not as efficient
The young brain handles concrete concepts better than abstracts.
The brain perceives patterns and generates rules about them.
read more
blog/dipeshkpatel in H806 e-learning course DK blogging!!! at 6:25 AM BST