Week 14: Chapter 31/Favorite Tool

Emerging Instructional Technologies: The Near Future


WHY NOT? When I read about how researchers in neuroimaging are attempting to archive brain scan images from selected resources into a centralized database to answer questions related to brain function........I thought what great timing!! With all the soldiers coming back from the war with brain injuries and behavioral changes--this database of brain scan images could really help doctors determine how best to treat the injured soldiers brain. As the brain heals and cognitive processing becomes more prevalent, researchers can rely on visual, factual data to best treat those with brain injuries.

An intelligent tutoring system (ITS) would work very effectively with individuals with varying degrees of brain damage. An intelligent interface would provide suggestions on how to improve learning, taking into account each individual needs and varying functionality of the brain.

Another noteworthy vision for me is that ITS applications can determine the learner's current performance level. Back to the example of our soldiers with brain injuries--no brain injury is the same. Each individual will heal at their own rate and to have an application that will determine each learners individual performance at any given time is awesome.

An advanced performance tracking and feedback system could greatly benefit those in rehab with brain stem damage and can't remember certain muscle movement. I know of one particular person that loved to bowl, but after his brain injury he couldn't remember the motions. If a program such as this could help with muscle movement memory it would help out a tremendous amount of people.

It makes me so sad when I see and hear about soldiers (young people!!) who return after war with varying degrees of brain damage. What excited me most from this chapter is some of the emerging technologies that are going to greatly benefit so many individuals.

After pondering what activity was my favorite, I came to the conclusion that creating the website was my favorite. I believe part of why that was my favorite is because I was doing something for someone that I knew had wanted a website for a very long time. It was also great to see their response to the site and how excited they became when I showed them how easy it is to maintain. I must add that I really enjoyed all the activities so this was a really hard question.