Podcasting

Podcasting is becoming quite the rage. For those of you unfamiliar with this web based trend, podcasting is basically the creation and distribution of amateur radio. It's the distribution that as an educator is so fascinating. With podcasting you can listen to real people talking about real topics. Below is a link to a podcast I found where several sleep experts are discussing a very controversial issue in sleep medicine. Unattended home sleep studies has the sleep community buzzing right now. Being able to have my students listen to round table conversations between medical professionals is a great way for me to review material, discuss evidence based medicine, and allow my students to begin to develop their own professional judgments. It also allows me to keep current on the latest and greatest trends in healthcare. Medicine is forever changing, with podcasts I can change right along with it. Podcasts will be added to my curriculum this fall in both my lectures, as well as students homework assignments.

http://www.sleepreviewmag.com/podcast.asp

Say What?

Have you ever been in the middle of doing some research and come across a word that you’ve never heard of before, or can’t remember the definition of ? Understand key vocabulary can make a huge difference in understanding content. Check out the link to the site VoyCabulary. This site makes the words on any webpage into links so you can look them up in a dictionary or other word-reference-site. It’s as easy as a simply clicking on the word.

Last week I introduced two global cooperation websites and discussed how useful these types of resources can be. The type of communication generated through these resources can only be valuable if you understand each others vocabulary. Talk the same talk if you will. Take a minute and few this site. I think you'll agree that a site like VoyCabulary can be a huge benefit.

http://www.voycabulary.com/

Global Collaboration

Several global cooperation websites have been designed as common working programs to sustain collective learning and support mutual understanding. The aim of these sites is to bring educators and students from across the globe together to collectively promote consciousness of ideas and foster creative learning.
For this mod assignment I reviewed several global collaboration websites. All the sites I toured were very well designed and offered multiple levels of both student and teacher support however, I especially liked the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) Collaboration Center and the International Education and Resource Network sites. Both of these resources I felt had features that I thought encouraged collaboration and allowed for the type of networking between teachers and students that I desire.

iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is the world's largest non-profit global network. This site enables teachers and youth to use the Internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world. The projects feature allows students to participate by writing, drawing or sending pictures about population, geography, culture, agriculture, industry, economy, and environment. By sharing information, students learn more about one another, and also improve their own communication skills and awareness of their country and culture. I found the forum element of this site to be of particular interest. The teacher forum can be utilized by teachers as a place to meet, talk, and make announcements. It is also a place to share initial project ideas, obtain feedback, as well as potential project partners. This would be a great way for me to reach out to other Respiratory Care professor to determine how Therapists in other parts of the county are trained in sleep technology.

The CILC Collaboration Center is a venue for educators to meet, create a collaborative environment, and share their reflections. This site allows teachers to post their own collaborative idea or need as well as respond to posts ideas and questions. As I toured this site I thought this too would be a great way for me to join forces with other respiratory professors in other parts of the country. Collaboration would allow me to learn how other countries view current American medical policies, best practice, and current protocols. I also thought this might be a way for students to post their ideas for lab sessions, and teaching exercises.

Although it seems like global collaboration may have originated as a way to support universal issues such as world peace, the environment, and healthcare I believe this concept has it’s place in education as well.

Connie

http://www.iearn.org/
http://www.cilc.org/c/community/collaboration_center.aspx

Videos

To the right of this post you'll notice I've created a new category on my sidebar titled Videos. I have posted links to a couple of my favorite videos. Being the visual learner that I am I find the use of videos an excellant way to reinforce the content that I've just covered. I can talk till I'm blue about what sleep apnea is, and how the back of the throat collapses causing cessation of air flow. However, most students don't really get it until they actually see the animated video Sleep Apnea and CPAP.

Tweets

For the past week or so my grad class assignment was to twitter. The concept I think is very cool, and while I was hoping to gain a larger following I feel I made a significant connection with one person in particular. "Tabs" is a guy who is like many of the OSA people I work with every day. His weight has crept up on him, and his health is not that of the twenty something he'd like it to be. He's recently been diagnosised with OSA and is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his CPAP therapy. Twitter has allowed me to step outside of the shoes of the medical professional and into the ones of a patient. Through his tweets as well as his newly created blot I'm hoping to be able to follow his progress as well as offer some advice, and assistance where needed. I would have never been able to follow Tab's journey if it wasn't for Twitter. Great assignment.

I've twitter, do you?

For those of you that haven’t heard of this you’re not alone. Until I was asked to complete this mod in my grad class I had no idea what twitter was either. According to Wikipedia Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates or tweets. Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The best part these text-based posts are limited to 140 characters in length. Short, quick and to the point.

I could totally see this technology being used as a communication tool with all of the college classes I teach. Imagine the possibilities.....one mass text to all your students at once; I could let my students know of a change in homework assignment, room assignments, that I was stuck in traffic or that class was canceled with a few strokes of my keyboard. This tool could really help keep the lines of communication open.

Bloglines - The newest tool for teachers

I’m not feeling the “love” for this RSS feed tool yet, but I’m keeping an open mind. I found a very interesting article in one the sleep blogs I follow. The post is titled Less REM sleep linked to children and teens being overweight you can find it at http://sleep.scoop0901.net/ According to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry teens who get less sleep may be more likely to be overweight. The obesity rate has more than tripled among children six-to-11 years in the past 30 years, and approximately 17 percent of U.S. adolescents are now overweight or obese. In a nut shell the study compared children at a normal weight, with those that were overweight, after adjusting for other misc. related factors, the study concluded that one hour less of total sleep was associated with two-fold increased odds of being overweight and one hour less of REM sleep was associated with three-fold increased odds. I'm hoping to use this article as an example to mys students on how sleep disorders can be avoided if proper education is given to parents, and teens regarding the need for good sleep hygiene.

Learners are like Ants

In George Siemens article Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age he states “Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual.” If I were to restate this proclamation in an analogy; I could say today’s learner is like an ant. In that an ants travels from here to there in hopes of gathering scraps of food. Today's learners hop from resource to resource hoping to gain pieces of information. Ants take the food back to the nest to feed the community, today’s learner processes information in hopes of turning it into knowledge. The work of one ant helps feed the community, the network of many learners feeds the individual learner.

People are social beings, we like to communicate. Siemens in his video The Impact of Social Media on Learning states “our language gives birth to thoughts, and content is the conduit toward conversation” (The link below will allow you to watch the video if you'd like). The way in which we learn today is hugely different for the way our parents and grandparents learned. Knowledge in the 21st century is all about networking.

I joined the social network school20.ning. partially because it was a homework assignment but mostly because it looks like a great way to interact, gain information, and have conversation with fellow teachers. School 2.0 goes beyond the practical discussion of applying the read/write and collaborative Web technologies in the classroom. It is, instead, a larger discussions of how education, learning, and our physical school spaces can (or should) change because of the changing nature of our social and economic lives brought on by these technologies.

If your not sure what social networking is all about check out this video created by Chris Pirillo it does a great job explaining how we can use the experiences and wisdom of others to help us gain knowledge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp4UfBK5Zw8&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grI_h88vs3g&feature=PlayList&p=3E43054A8703F57A&index=3

Students Welcome

This blog is being developed as part of a masters class assignement. My hopes are that this blog will grow into a tool that can be used by general consumers as well as Respiratory Care practitioners and students. Students will be asked to check the blog for assignments, respond to class questions, and assist me in compiling an informational resources for persons suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Sleep deprivation is rampant

A large proportion of the American population is sleep deprived. Partially due to the high paced lifestyle we live but also because of a variety of sleep disorders. Many people are unaware that they may have a medical condition causing their sleep deprivation. Think you might be sleep deprived?

The EPWORTH SLEEPINESS SCALE is a great evaluation tool.
In contrast to just feeling tired, how likely are you to doze off or fall asleep in the following situations? Use the following scale to choose the most appropriate number for each situation.

0 = Would never doze
1 = Slight chance of dozing
2 = Moderate chance of dozing
3 = High chance of dozing


Situation Chance of Dozing


Sitting and Reading _________

Watching TV _________

Sitting inactive in a public place (i.e. theatre) _________

As a car passenger for an hour without a break _________

Lying down to rest in the afternoon _________

Sitting and talking to someone _________

Sitting quietly after lunch without alcohol _________

In a car, while stopping for a few minutes in traffic _________

A score of greater than 10 is a definite cause for concern as it indicates significant excessive daytime sleepiness. *

* These results should be reviewed with your primary Doctor.

For more information regarding sleep deprivation go to http://www.sleepnet.com/disorder.htm

Sleep Disorder Categories

Did you know there are more than 70 different sleep disorders. Most of these conditions can be generally classified into one of three categories:

lack of sleep (e.g., insomnia),
disturbed sleep (e.g., obstructive sleep apnea), and
excessive sleep (e.g., narcolepsy)

In most cases, sleep disorders can be easily managed once they are properly diagnosed. Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. It occurs more often in women and in the elderly. The amount of sleep that a person needs to function normally depends on several factors (e.g., age). Infants sleep most of the day (about 16 hours); teenagers usually need about 9 hours a day; and adults need an average of 7 to 8 hours a day.

For the purposes of this blog my intent is to concentrate on disturbed sleep and the treatments available for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) check out the following reference sites:

http://www.neurologychannel.com/sleepdisorders/index.shtml

http://www.sleepeducation.com/

Sleepy Time

A collection of suggestions for achieving a good nights sleep.