Digital natives in education and work (Part 2)

We'll continue discussion of hardware since there are a lot of gadgets in the market worldwide today. The world today is a mobile world, so gadgets are made for people on the move (roving, if you please). Some of the interesting gadgets available at the time of this writing include the following:

Apple products: iPhone, iPad, iPod, MacBook Air
BlackBerry products: BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
Sony products: VAIO laptops, Sony tablet, digital cameras, camcorders, TV, home theatres
Acer products: notebooks, tablet 
Hewlett-Packard products: laptop-tablet

If you own or use any of the above, then you must be IT-savvy and a digital native/migrant.

Lately, I have seen the tablets made their in-roads into academia and the health care. The light-weight laptops (notebooks) now compete with the thin wafer-like tablets. The tablet is preferred by new students who are starting out in studying medicine. The tablet is preferred by IT-savvy doctors in the hospital setting especially in the orthopedic and neuro wards. The tablet is preferred by medical specialists who are also lecturing, especially on radio-imaging techniques in Radiology. It therefore looks like the tablet is here to stay for quite some time. What is the tablet good for? Please write in if you are using your tablet for something or something else. Let's share that knowledge about using the tablet.

Are other gadgets useful for education? Yes, definitely - the digital camera. What is the digital camera good for? Depends on what the objects of photography are. Photographic objects can be patients or their body parts, normal or diseased. Remember, there is an ethical code that guides us in taking photographs of patients and their body parts. Then what can we do about this restriction? Can we simply take photos of patients and their body parts? Certainly no! But there's a leeway if you are working in the photography department, still the photographs have a purpose - for teaching, research or archive. Patients' rights and privacy are guarded at each hospital. In fact, cameras (camera-fitted phones or smartphones) may not be brought into hospitals, clinics and treatment centres. Even if they are brought to hospital, they must be switched off. As such the digital camera (and camcorder, camera-fitted phones or smartphones) are useless in the true setting where everything must remain private (ideally). What's the point of learning then? The restrictions should mean that one needs prior permission in order to photograph a patient or a patient's body parts. Students are reminded that they need permission from their lecturers/superiors before they can photograph patients/body parts while in the clinics and wards. Violation of the ethical code and hospital rules is common as our students and society do not know that it is wrong to take photographs of patients/body parts and worse still, to make them public - to post them on the Internet and elsewhere. Even though rules and regulations are in place, they are broken more often than not. It's human to err.

Digital natives in modern education and work (Part 1)

Since the digital revolution began some time in the early 1980s, we have broadly and arbitrarily categorised users as "digital natives" (those born after 1982) and "digital migrants" (those born before 1982). I was born in 1958; that makes me a digital migrant. I am therefore not a good user of digital technology (not IT savvy). The focus of digital technology worldwide today is to cater for the wants and needs of digital natives (they would be less than 30 years old today). If you are less than 30 years old, you are considered a digital native. That also means you are an able and good user of digital technology; you are highly receptive to almost all technology that comes on the market today and in the future. You are IT savvy (more often than not). Now that digital technology is here to stay, how does that affect our education - the way we learn, and the way we work, now and in the future?

Let's discuss hardware first. Well, all I can envision is the laptop is here to stay and everyone wants to own one. If you have not got your own laptop, then it is high time to save for one. In Kota Bharu, there in KB Mall and a shop called Monaliza that sells reasonably priced new laptops which come with pre-installed bundled software. Nowadays one can get a new laptop for RM1,200 (which translates to saving RM200/mo for 6 months). Acer brand has been dependable and reliable so far for me. I wouldn't buy other brands. For SONY brand sold in Malaysia, these laptops cost ~RM1,4000 and are made in China and often develop some problems later on. The last SONY laptop I had went for repairs at a SONY repair centre in Jalan Gajah Mati. If you really need a SONY laptop, then buy ones that are priced above RM7,000 each - these are assembled in Japan and are genuine machines (check the packaging) - buy them from Queensbay Mall, Penang. The external hard disk (HD) is a necessity to store a lot of multimedia files and high-resolution (hi-res) digital images in the form of digital albums. Today, an external HD (298GB) costs ~RM300. Toshiba and Imation are reliable brands (I use a Toshiba) - buy external HD from Monaliza. A pen drive of 16GB is good to have to store some big files and presentations for a meeting or workshop. A good place to bargain for pen drives is a small shop in First Avenue, Penang (on the third floor) - it is called Asus Shop (smthg like that) - here the pen drives come in attractive shapes and will make you crazy - the store assistants are helpful too, in case you don't recognise pen drives. Harvey Norman in Queensbay Mall, Penang used to sell 16GB Toshiba pen drives. Buy lots of pen drives as you will them at odd times when there are no shops around. A digital camera, either built-into a mobile phone or separately. The digital cameras have jumped from being 8 megapixels a few years ago to 10 megapixels now (which means each file captured occupies a larger footprint and needs a larger storage space). I keep 2 digital cameras for my hectic work (8 megapix and 10 megapix). In Kota Bharu, digital cameras can be bought at a small outlet on the ground floor in Billion Shopping Centre; the parent store is on the second floor - it also does digital camera repairs for a postal fee of RM25 if the camera is still covered by warranty - it ships the defective camera to KL - you pay for to-and-fro postal charges). Beware though, these digital cameras are made in China and tend to become faulty for no reason. That's what you get for cheap technology.

Let's talk about software in another post.

Online Learning

Physical universities are a thing of the past, before the digital revolution and computers began, some time before 1980s. Nowadays, students can register online and also take course offered online without ever coming to class - there's no classroom anyway. There are no teachers too except for facilitators or mentors and study guides. It is a new way of learning now and in the near future. Why did it ever become this way? It turned out to be this way as learning is a personal interest, some more interested than others. Some are fast learners and others otherwise. Some want to learn for a true educational reason; others just need a degree for a job application. How one gets a degree doesn't matter anymore. Alarming as it may sound but it's true. This is the real educational world today. Of course we tend to be apprehensive about things virtual but we can always do our own research to see for ourselves. I would caution degree-go-getters to be sincere in obtaining their degrees, now that the traditional way also has virtual means. Unscrupulous people dare sell paper degrees and parents as well as their university students may not be aware of possible degree scams. Paper degrees are sold in little coffee shops, in back lanes, in all possible place just like illegal documents are (passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc). The whole educational world has resorted to virtual degrees as a cheaper means to procure students (and thus easy money) but we should exercise much caution in deciding where to actually bank in on even a virtual program, never mind a full degree course. Just be careful what you are paying for and where things are really coming from. Check and double check.
Further reading on online learning

Islamic Medicine

International Institute of Islamic Medicine (IIIM)

Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA) 

Islamic Medical Association of South Africa (IMASA) 

Islamic Organisation for Medical Science (IOMS) 

IslamiCity.com

OSCE Checklists

OSCE (Objective-Centred Clinical Examination) is usually hosted in the second year onward when clinicals have been introduced and can therefore been asked in exams. Most OSCEs use checklists in order to be fair to students and to avoid examiner-bias.

OSCE Checklists for the different organ-systems can be found on Scribd

Examples of OSCE checklist are on Scribd by Michael Smith. They can serve as a learning aid as well as training guides. Checklists on real OSCEs are fine-tuned and then vetted for use in exams.

KLE University (Part 1)

STUDY IN INDIA: BANGALORE VS BELGAUM

There are two universities in India which take Malaysian students for the medicine degree program. One is operated by the Management Science University (MSU) with HQ in Shah Alam, and the other by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) with HQ in Penang.

The preparatory course for prospective MSU students is done at the Shah Alam campus. MSU is running the prep course for the 5th time this year (2011). The course content is very good and has a lot of resources. However, student housing is a bit crammed at the Shah Alam shop-house hostels.

It is not known where USM conducts its preparatory course for its prospective students or whether there is one. I don't have much info of the USM prep course and program at Belgaum. 

MSU operates the MSU-IMS (International Medical School) medical program in Bangalore and uses the Ramaiah Hospital.

USM operates the USM-KLE (Karnataka Lingayat Education) University medical program in Belgaum. It is not known which hospital is used at the time of this writing. Belgaum is approx. 8 hours drive from Bangalore airport or 1 hour flight.

https://www.facebook.com/USM-KLE-International-Medical-Programme-Belgaum-394434213979967/timeline

Both programs are ok. The Academic Session begins at the beginning of October each year. Students have a 1-month break at the end of first year before they continue into second year.

Both programs have applied for MQA approval. MSU-IMS applied for MQA approval last year, October 2010. USM-KLE applied for MQA approval just recently, in June 2011. Once approved, medical graduates are acknowledged by JPA (Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam, Malaysia) and students can work as doctors. Check and re-check with JPA that these overseas programs comply with MQA set standards. Do your own homework too.

If there is no MQA approval for the overseas medical program, the downside is graduates will not be recognised after they graduate and have to fall back on their highest academic achievement, either SPM or STPM. This will be a waste after all the 5 years spent overseas. Better to be safe than sorry.

Parents must scrutinise medical programs and ask a lot of questions. Never take anything for granted. Don't be misled. Read the fine print too before signing any document. Don't sign if you don't understand.

Prof Faridah

Skin cysts, lumps and bumps

The article is copyrighted. Please access directly from the link provided below.

Cysts Symptoms, Types, Signs, Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment Information by MedicineNet.com can be accessed at http://www.medicinenet.com/cysts/article.htm

The above link provides useful information of the different types of cancerous & non cancerous skin cysts/lumps/bumps and cysts found inside organs (liver, kidney, pancreas, eye, bone, etc).

Cysts found just under the skin (subcutaneous) are easily detectable and can be felt (palpable). The nature and size of a cyst is important. The exact nature and size of a cyst can be determined or approximated by imaging techniques.

Cysts found inside organs will need imaging techniques to view them. Imaging techniques are x-ray, ultrasound (US), magnetic resonance imaging and (MRI). All imaging techniques are expensive and involve expensive equipment. Patient preparation will be required for imaging using US and MRI. X-ray generally does not require prior patient preparation.

Please note: In another blog managed by us, Dr Mohamed Tahir had written about cysts due to pork tapeworms.

Prof Faridah