Learning Entry Blog 5 - Blogging

This is my first blog so the whole idea of blogging is pretty new to me but I know it has been around for quite a while. A lot of my friends have had Live Journals and various other blogs but it has never really been my thing. After doing this though, I do see where the appeal lies. It is a convenient way to communicate to all your friends or to people who happen to stumble upon your blog. Whether you are just blogging about your day or about something important to you like politics blogs are a convenient way to get your voice heard by many people.

I don't see too much application of blogs in the medical field. The only case that I could see blogging being useful in medicine is in research. If a researcher is doing important work and wants to keep the public informed of what is going on, blogging can be a very useful tool.

Here is an article form BusinessWeek.com about how blogs can be used in the businesses. While blogs are mostly thought of as a communication tool for high school kids this article shows that it has an actual application in the real world as well.

Learning Entry Blog 4 - Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling is a relatively new concept. It allows an "author" to make a story without having to write one which has been the way it has been done traditionally in the past. And while written stories will always have a special place in my heart, kids today spend more and more time on the computer and less time reading books. Also kids attention spans now days can be so short that trying to get them to read some Shakespeare or another classical piece of literature can be almost impossible. Instead digital storytelling can be used to make a short movie that conveys the same message or may even be a direct adaptation of an actual story that will better catch students attention.

I don't see much use of digital storytelling in the medical field but it is never the less a useful tool in education. Here is a short video from Youtube by Austory about the value of digital storytelling and how it can be used in education or just for fun.

Learning Entry Blog 3 - Photoshop

For those of you who don't know what Adobe Photoshop is, it is a photo editing software that is absolutely amazing. It has a lot of very cool functions, such as ones that allow you to clone images, crop pictures according to pixel color, remove blemishes, or pretty much anything else you can think of. For beginners it is a lot of fun to play around with and just make cool pictures but in the hands of an expert it can be used to make very intricate and detailed pictures that look absolutely real.

I don't see much application for Photoshop in the medical field besides maybe using it to label pictures that are going to be used a presentation. It does, however, have a huge application in advertising.

Here's a video from Youtube showing how a regular bottle of coke can be made to look like it has water droplets all over it. It is this kind of application that can be used in advertising to make products look more desirable.

Learning Entry Blog 2 - Copyright and Plagiarism

Copyright law and plagiarism have always been very big issues but many people don't know the actual laws about copyrights. A copyright gives the creator of a work control over how it may be used. A copyright protects the creator's work and any work done by an employee under the creator. A copyright will only protect work that has been made in to a tangible form and will not protect any public knowledge or information that is common property. A copyright lasts for 70 years and can be transferred through inheritance. Certain institutions fall under the Fair Use Act which allows them to use copyrighted material without having to pay for it. There is also a special form of copyright called creative commons which allows people to use a creators work as long as that creator is given the credit.

In the medical field copyrights are very important. If I was to do research and used someone else's information without giving them credit not only would my work be disregarded but I could be subject to punishment under the law. Copyright is also very important in the pharmaceutical industry. If someone creates a new drug to treat a certain disease that person would want a copyright on the drug to insure that they get the money for it and that someone does not take their credit. Regardless of what industry you work in or what you are using information for if you do not give someone credit on copyrighted information there are serious repercussions.

Here's a link from Benedict.com. It has a bunch of info on copyrights including history, how long it lasts for, and special copyrights like Fairuse. It has a lot good stuff so check it out.