Category: Uncategorized

Growth of Distance Learning Systems

Online education and learning is growing, but there is always, especially in the federal government, a need to have live class room teachers,” said Merc. “The company structure has changed with distance learning systems. The students have to buy the computer and pay for the internet access.” Ironically, NASA’s Jet Space Lab (JPL) in Pasadena is a federal government enterprise that has turned from satellites to accept distance learning systems. JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology, which selected LifeSize to help connect its 5,000 workers spread out in more than 100 structures. In addition, JPL’s workers, companies and partners are situated in remote offices around the world. JPL was looking for face-to-face over video capabilities allowing more frequent conferences between slightly situated employees and more appropriate transactions of ideas. The result is increased cooperation and contribution.

“Traditionally in the government and education space, applying interactive videos has been difficult to set up and making video calls has been a complicated process,” said Cindy Joffrion, LifeSize’s program manager for government, education and medical services. “I remember sitting in a college class room that had interactive videos and the video conferencing unit took up half the class room.” Joffrion recognizes the coming of WiFi and cellular phones having brought in an adjusting stage in distance learning systems.

“There is a drive for cellular, cloud and virtualization and this is essentially changing how video interaction and online learning works,” said Joffrion. “Distance learning is starting to become more adaptable to technology and to meet the needs of the customer. It is actually integrating and changing to advancement.” Another aspect of the progress of on the internet studying is shown by simple controls and performance. “WiFi enables smart video that places cooperation in the hands of the customer in a simpler user-interface method,” said Joffrion. “The smart-video concept is built on that concept of generality, allowing users to make video calls with a simple push of a button.”

Anatomy & Physiology in the Virtual World

Virtual educational institutions are not home schools (although home-schoolers can and do participate); they are online learning educational institutions run by the public school system, following state program specifications and accomplishment specifications. Training is web-based and given by qualified instructors. Learners complete projects at house on their computer.

We modify technology to fulfill our needs. Teaching in the exclusive class room has had its difficulties. The application has to have programs that provide sound, as well as movie elements. The technological innovation needed many economical improvements for the school districts. The class room classes almost have to be choreographed. The first teachers teaching this way during their first year used the “trial and error” technique. They had no one else’s experience to draw from. But, they were successful.

A common day for Anatomy & Physiology class usually starts at around 8:00 AM PST. This interval allows learners to take the class without disrupting their plans for the day. Some of these learners take the class from home. High school learners get college credits. Communication in this class is both synchronous and asynchronous. In the virtual class room, teachers connect with theirs learners vocally as well as with written text chat. They can share to the class, too. They can have team conversations that will allow several to share and do demonstrations. With the synchronous web browser, they are able to take the class to any web page that helps the Anatomy & Physiology class. This also allows the class to easily analyze new healthcare developments that are found. Consequently, they are able to make this new information their own.

A power board, which is a virtual blackboard, is beneficial with the physiology part of the course. Teachers can give the floor to the learners and they can take the class to a web page that they feel describes the subject they are studying. In other words, the technological innovation keeps the learners involved during the whole class.

Advanced Placement Courses Restriction

The Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and North America designed by the College Board, providing college-level courses and exams to kids. United States universities often allow placement and course credit to learners who acquire high grades above a certain number on the exams. The AP program for the various topics is designed for the College Board by a panel of professionals and college-level teachers in each topic. For a secondary school course to have the AP status, the course must be audited by the College Board to determine it meets the AP program. If the course is accepted, the university may use the AP status and the course will be openly listed on the AP Ledger.

Walter Fields and his spouse are extremely pleased of their little girl, a sophomore at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, an excellent mathematics student, scoring proficiency on state assessments and making an A in 8th grade geometry. However, she was not recommended for 9th grade geometry, a course that would keep her on track for Advanced Placement calculus on her senior year. With a heavy sports schedule, she did not do as well in Algebra the next year and her instructor recommended she choose sports or math, informing her mother and father, she does not “get it.”

The Fields, well-educated African Americans, believe the college has restricted their little girl’s improvement because of competition and, with other parents, are planning a court action. Fifty six percent of Columbia’s learners are black, yet only 14.4% took Advanced Placement Courses in Calculus. The Washington Post reviews that some educational institutions limit Advanced Placement courses access to show a high rate of success, while some good students in math, science and engineering are losing out.

Patient Care and Retail Based Clinics

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently released a strongly worded policy declaration re-enforcing its place that retail-based treatment centers (RBCs) are unsuitable locations for pediatric patient care. Many workers in pediatrics are also up-in-arms over the increase of RBCs as many practices feel they are taking valuable sufferers. The fact is that RBCs are an excellent supplement to the micro practice design that our practice is depending on. For us, the advantage of RBCs is that they do what we do not want to do. Namely, they open on evenings, Saturdays, Sundays and vacations. But one major adverse is that they cannot staff as many hours as the bigger, multi-provider practice.

A recent cover story at The Harvard Business Review said to forget about work-life balance and it described that life is about hard choices; this is a fact. Employees want to be home for supper with their family and invest their time in their children’s days off from school having fun. We like knowing that the RBCs are there to fill in for the bigger practices when they are closed. It should be said that RBCs offer a convenience; medically, there is usually no reason why someone with symptoms cannot get some over-the-phone patient care from the health professional or physician on call and then wait for their office to open at 9 a.m. the next morning. But for those who choose not to wait and in some situations are willing to pay a premium for the comfort, why should not they go see an experienced and certified health professional specialist at an RBC? Whether the strep test is run by bigger practices or RBCs, provided that there is interaction, there shouldn’t be an issue with RBCs offering mid-level triage for us.

They key is, as with most issues affecting personal and community health, has to do with RBC rules. How much can a patient really value the guidance of a company who works for an organization that makes money when you buy over-priced over-the-counter snake oil? Government departments have a responsibility to make sure that RBCs are not favoring client care over quality clinical judgment. Think about it: Patients looking for needless medications are more likely to buy over-priced products when they have gladly obtained the medication they desired but probably did not need. As a primary patient care provider, one of the greatest values of RBCs is the ability to diagnose illness as early as possible in order to treat the patient for the best possible outcome.

Hospital Dependent Patients

Hospital-dependent sufferers are those who, a generation ago, were doomed to die. Now they are being saved. But they are not like the so-called hot spotters, a number of sufferers more generally associated with regular re-admissions who come back to the hospital because of insufficient follow-up care, failing to take medications properly or difficult socioeconomic conditions. Instead, hospital-dependent sufferers come back because they are so delicate, their grasp on health so weak, that they easily “decompensate,” or decline under stress, when not in the medical center. Medical developments can grab them from the grip of death, but not actually free them from dependency on near-constant high-tech monitoring and therapies.

“They are like a house of cards,” said Dr. David B. Reuben, lead writer of the article and chief of the department of geriatrics at the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. “When one thing goes wrong, they collapse.” Not surprisingly, hospital-dependent sufferers feel more protected and are happier in the hospital than at home. While physicians and even close relatives may assess theirs a diminished lifestyle, these sufferers find their total well being appropriate, enjoying their time with loved ones or involved in inactive interests like viewing sports or reading the paper, simultaneously in the hospital.

Over time, however, their recurring readmission can result in conflicted emotions among those who were accountable for saving them in the first place. Some physicians even begin to dislike their responsibility to continue providing resource-intensive care. “Physicians are socialized to treat sufferers and then move on,” Dr. Reuben noticed. “They want to treat sufferers, not adopt them.” Dr. Reuben and his co-author provide prospective alternatives, such as specific wards or facilities that would be more intense than experienced assisted living features, yet more affordable than a medical center. But they are fast to add that more analysis must also be done. Their idea of “hospital-dependency” is a new one, so no analysis is available to help recognize sufferers at risk of becoming hospital-dependent, estimate the amount of early re-admissions they are accountable for or determine the expenses they have.

The Science of Psychology

First and foremost, there are no “facts” in science. The scientific method is developed in such a way that one can ever confirm anything, they can only disprove something. That is what allows us to keep looking, never avoiding at their understanding of the way the world works. That is why it’s the concept of severity and the concept of progress. A technically sound concept is falsifiable. So no, it is not the case that “hard” science has “facts” and psychology has theories; they all only have concepts. In every way, psychological science sticks to the scientific method as much as any other science. They stick to the same guidelines and strategies. They even evaluate psychological phenomena to the best of their capability.

They use calculations and analysis and even design individual actions in past analysis just like any other science. They test their concepts for reliability and credibility and they test the factors of their concepts. There is however 2 variations between their science and other sciences that have nothing to do with how they practice science, but rather what they study: They are a much more recent science and what they analysis is more complex. The first psychological lab was established by Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 and you can think about how basic the devices would have been back then. While this might seem like several decades ago, keep in mind that Galileo developed his first telescope in 1609. Imagine how much larger a leg up astronomy has had on psychology. Cognitive psychology was not a study subject until at the early 1950’s during the cognitive trend, but not formally until Ulric Neisser’s Intellectual Psychology guide was already released in 1967.

They have had approximately 50 years of studying individual cognition. The study of individual knowledge contains procedures relevant to: feeling, interest, knowing, studying and memory, language, intellect, problem-solving, decision-making. Imagine the scope of phenomena and actions all that contains. Can you appreciate what a short amount of time that is for such a complex study of topic? And that is just cognitive psychology. Psychology as a whole studies every part of the individual experience, such as social, child, character, neuro and abnormal psychology.

Assisted Living Centers Reform Bill

AB 1554 would force Community Care Licensing to begin investigation of problems including abuse, neglect, or serious harm to assisted living centers residents within 24 hours and to complete this most important investigation within 30 days. Assembly member Nancy Skinner’s regulation to change the state’s defective program used to examine problems of neglect and abuse within California’s 7,500 mature care homes was approved this week by the Set up Human Services Panel on a single, bipartisan elect.

Responding to the scandal at Valley Springs Manor in Castro Valley, where 19 senior citizens were abandoned by the home care owner and reports stating problems in management and administration regarding California’s residential care features for the seniors, Skinner introduced AB 1554 to enhance the investigation and complaint procedure. The bill is part of a package of changes subsidized by the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.  “No longer will problems of abuse and neglect be taken under the rug. The terrible occurrence at the Castro Valley care service was avoidable,” Skinner, of Berkeley, said. “We know now that more powerful measures are needed to ensure the safety of our most vulnerable.”

Media reviews have exposed problems in the Community Care Licensing (CCL) issue investigation program exposing a design of superficial investigation, poor interaction with complainants and weak administration. At the hearing, Eric Boice, of Colfax, recounted how the issue and investigation procedure failed his mom, a former primary school instructor clinically identified as having Alzheimer’s. Boice said his mom passed away in 2009 as a result of the abuse and neglect she received while at an assisted living service in Auburn, California. “The investigation procedure was a joke,” Boice said. “We had proof and content information supporting our claims of abuse, yet the state organization did not demand any more information nor did they get in touch with our lawyer. My family’s experience is a sad commentary on our region’s capability to secure residents in assisted living centers.”

Healthcare Reform in America

Healthcare in the United States before and after Obama has been structured for the advantage of Big Pharma and Walls Street. People in America paid $3.8 billion last year for healthcare but they get less than any developing country. The United States has 31% of the people in this country of the 34 most developing countries. The US has 38% of live births, but 60% of all the babies in the 34 developing world who are created and die in their first 24 hours do so in the USA. We do have skilled physicians and nursing staff who are prepared to save lives but the cost is excessively great and the overall results are small.

Of course to provide impressive therapies to enhance wellness and to bring down expenses, we will have to know what works and what does not. We will need a reliable regulating body to analyze all medical methods. At what stages should hypertension and cholesterol levels medicines be administered? Go to Australia and to European countries and to Asia. If their physicians get better results by not providing blood pressure medicines at ‘abnormal’ amounts than their United States alternatives, then insurance providers should not cover medication at those stages. I would let the individual take the medication if he is willing to pay for it himself out of his wallet after being cautioned there is no confirmed advantage, but there are serious adverse reactions. Go down the list of over recommended medicines. Removing 50 percent or more of prescribed medications will significantly enhance wellness and reduce costs.

Of course all these activities should be happening at the same time immediately. It hasn’t been said before, but we need what we would call a Council of Smart Guys who would be intelligent men and women able to think outside the box. The Smart Guys need to be motivated to go through the paperwork making changes. Though we should more formally call them Presidential advisers. The United States has more than 30 thousand government, local and state employees who will avoid extreme change especially when some of the things they do like spying on the community and groping our genital area at air-ports will no longer be permitted. We will need to rearrange government employees to provide better services at reduced expenses.

Distance Education and Industrialization

Industrialization has been a feature of distance education for many years. Otto Peters, a pioneering theorist, described when technology is used to reach learners in mass, education assumes commercial features, such as, standardization of services and huge manufacturing of academic products (Keegan 1994). To the level that letters knowledge trusted huge production of academic materials (e.g. books) it was a commercial business. Another sign of industrialization in distance education is division of labor. The course team as initially designed by Charles Wedemeyer and applied by the British Open University is an example of division of labor in online learning. The contemporary university is also gifted with a bureaucracy, by definition is a commercial operation, although the educating methods both in the class room and at a distance, mostly, remain pre-commercial (pre-modern) and craft focused.

Industrialization to train and learn is particularly suitable when the need of many learners for access is at stake. Daniel (1996) focusing the failure of “campus” education to meet such a need, particularly in developing nations, compared the function of “mega-universities,” or those serving the needs of at least 100,000 learners, with that of “campus” colleges. He said: “The mega-universities vary from campus universities in their manufacturing procedures. The operations of the mega-universities owe much to commercial methods, whereas academic procedures on campus are similar to a cottage industry.”

It is worth noting here that Daniel’s idea of a “cottage industry” is different than that of Toffler, who imagined a “cottage industry” as a “third wave phenomenon.” Daniel’s referrals to a “cottage industry” here is a pre-industrial operation with employees who work alone and perform their projects without the benefit of a supporting staff providing them the advantages of industrial division of labor. Introduction of the Internet with its potential for a post-industrial form to train and learn has led to a review of industrialization. Daniel (1996) making referrals to the disadvantages of the pre-commercial, and commercial operations, said “It is likely that neither strategy will be particularly well designed for the third generation of online learning technologies: the knowledge media.”