T6, Wk5, Day 355, Tuesday - INTERNET

Since the school doesn't provide internet in the classrooms, I took matter into my own hands and got myself a Virgin Mobile Hotspot! So far, it's been working fantastic! Now those words that would otherwise pass me by I'm able to grab hold of and learn something about them.

Here are the 6 extra things I was able to get from Pediatrics class today.

1. plagiocephaly - a malformation of the head marked by an oblique slant to the main axis of the skull.
2. preeclampsia - a rapidly progressive condition characterized by high blood pressure and the presence of protein in the urine.
3. Craniosynostosis is a congenital (present at birth) defect that causes one or more sutures on a baby's head to close earlier than normal.
4. KISS Syndrome - Kinematic imbalances due to suboccipital strain.
5. Opisthotonus - a state of severe hyperextension and spasticity in which an individual's head, neck and spinal column enter into a complete "bridging" or "arching" position.
6. Macrosomia - a newborn with an excessive birth weight.

With the internet, I'm able to write these words down as best as I can spell them, pop them into Google, the viola!, I get the correct spelling and all the links I can handle to learn more about these topics.

I doubt if any of those six things are going to be on any test but, that's besides the point, I'm there to learn and that's what I'm doing.

Today's picture is a depiction of opisthotonus by Sir Charles Bell from 1809. I also have access to a couple dozen class books which are available online. It was really nice, I even got to download any and all powerpoints I needed to follow along in class.

Another big plus - NO RESTRICTIONS on what I look at and where I go on the internet. We has some great Google Groups we made up back in ASP and for all the Trimesters but, after Tri-1, they got blocked and nobody could access them in the library anymore ...at home, yes but, not at school. Then, for some reason, there was a block on Google documents ...why in the world would anybody block that? A classmate and I had spent quite a bit of time simultaneously working on a spreadsheet last trimester which listed every day of class and every assignment we had due for each class but, when we went to the library to bring it up to print, we couldn't access that portion of Google.

You Tube seems to have some limitations as well. Where do these people in charge come from? YouTube is one of the best learning aids out there. We've got students trying to help other students. And, as I never get tired of pointing out, MY OWN You Tube video on the brachial plexus was used by an Anesthesiologist working at a hospital in Munich, Germany to help train other doctors at the hospital.

As long as I'm on a roll here, I guess not having my internet access turned OFF, as has been the case during three different trimesters DURING FINALS will be a MAJOR plus!

It's kind of ironic for a school that professes to be so big on technology to not have fast, unfettered and ubiquitous internet service at the school.