Answers questions

 

KirstenJones

 

Technology: How it has Affected those with Disabilities

 

Growing up all I can remember is how much my uncle struggled. Everywhere he went getting around was such a hassle for him and always  had to rely on the support of others. On holidays he could hardly maneuver around my house since it isn’t wheelchair friendly and I could always see the look of embarrassment on his face whenever another man had to help him. As I got older he began using a prosthetic and it  has changed his life tremendously. He was a little shaky at first, but after getting the hang of it he was back to his feet in no time. Not only did prosthetics change my uncles life, but technology has allowed prosthetics to have change the life of so many others.

Prosthetics have been created thousands of years ago by the Egyptians. Doing their research, scientists have recently found a functionable prosthetic toe on a mummy from centuries ago. Although prosthetics were simple back then, they still helped people who weren’t fortunate to have their own limbs. Eventually Italy moved on to adopt this tactic and started to create more durable limbs out of bronze and iron around the core which was wooden. As the dark ages approached, prosthetics were made to help the men who battled in war hold their shield or sword. The hooks and peg legs were only given to the wealthy, who had enough money to get fitted for one and to have it specially made for them. During this time prosthetics were beginning to be designed to help the person function in a more efficient way. As the Renaissance movement came along, it was a rebirth for everything including prosthetics. Prosthetics flourished during this period, they were being made of iron, steel, copper, and wood. Skipping through history until the civil war, it gave a jump start to the new prosthetics of the age we’re in now. With the lost of so many limbs during this war, they decided to make something more practical and durable. At this time they were starting to make prosthetics out of materials that wasn’t as heavy, such as plastic, aluminum, and composite materials.

Although prosthetics have made a way for those who lost a limb, mobile wheelchairs have made a way for those who physically can’t walk. The very first wheelchair was made for King Phillip II of Spain, by an unknown inventor who had no idea he started something great. In the late 1700s, John Dawson, from Bath England created the “Bath” wheelchair. This wheelchair consisted of 2 large wheels and one small wheel and outsold all of the other popular wheelchairs of this time, it wasn’t until the 1800s when the “Bath” wheelchair was no longer enough.

Not only does prosthetics help people walk and gives him access to use their arms, but it gives them the abilities to do the things they never thought they could do. People are now able to participate in the olympics and do a well job in it, they can climb, swim and run races. Prosthetics have given people hope, though they’ve lost their limb and felt like they wouldn’t able to live life the same way as they were previously. Prosthetics have given the people hope to not let the lost of the limb be a setback, but a new look forward. Not just prosthetics but the new high technology wheelchairs allow people with diseases that don’t have the ability to walk to live well as well. The highly upgraded wheelchairs has given the people who don’t have to the ability to walk, an opportunity to get around easily and won’t have to rely on the support of others. When people think of technology they think of cell phones and computers, but they don’t think of all the lives technology has changed  for the better.

Joe Albert

Essay 1 Rough Draft

I was passing the time not too long ago on one of my work shifts when my coworker sparked up a conversation with me. It was the normal workplace small talk like talking about the boss, how the company should pay us more. Somehow, we got went off a tangent, like most workplace small talk conversations, and she told me something very interesting about her husband. She told me that her husband has his lower spine fused together and a spinal cord stimulator implanted in his lower back. Now I work in the medical field, so I found this very interesting. For those of you that don’t know, the spinal cord is vital in your everyday life. It controls body movement and sense of touch though the Peripheral Nervous System and it also sends important messages to and from the brain. Now my coworker’s husband, let’s just call him Jack, he had damage to his spinal cord where it doesn’t work like it should. It blew my mind when she first told me that it was implanted, however; what further amazed me is that fact that this lifesaving device must be charged, just like our phones that we use every day. Now how does someone supposed to charge their spine? I wondered. The exact same way that I charge my phone. I have one of those wireless mats that charges my phone. Jack, charges his back essentially the same way, he wears a belt that wirelessly charges his Spinal Core Stimulator. And just like that he is good to go, and no one would be able to tell the Jack has that device planted inside him.

I was blown away to this crazy reality of what medical technology. Jack can live a perfectly healthy life with no disabilities that would otherwise some with the Spinal Cord damage. Such as paralysis or chronic numbness, tingling or pain. The more thought about this incredible device It made me question the enormous advances in medical technology. Yes, the advances worked wonders with procedures allowing people with catastrophic injuries and even the new and better medications. So do the advances in medical technology cross a moral or ethical boundary?

Recently, scientists have created an artificial womb, in which they successfully gave birth to a live goat. That’s scary. Not all parents have their children the natural way. Some adapt and some use surrogates if there they are having trouble with infertility. Either way, the child was born in a human being. Homo Sapien. If this new scientific breakthrough got out do the public, woman unable to have their own baby could potentially go out and create one in and artificial womb somewhere in a lab.

The other technological advance in the medication is the development of better medications. I currently am working in the health care field and routinely see patients with long lists of their medications. Each medication seems to be piggy backing off the pervious until the patients is forced into being enslaved by their meds. The pharmaceutical companies invest a lot of money into research and technology to develop all these medications to feed their clients’ (patients) chronic disease. The pharmaceutical companies are making millions of dollars a year off these people who suffer from diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiac and respiratory issues. They are even persuading doctors to prescribe medications to patients that may not even need it All of these issues can be linked together causing the patients to rely on the medications, therefor keeping the pharmaceutical companies profitable. The pharmaceutical companies are crossing an ethical and moral line when they could be investing the technology and money into how to prevent these diseases.

People who suffer from these diseases can control it though an ideally simple change, changing their lifestyle. Most of the chronic diseases people suffer from are not genetic. They obtain these medical conditions through unhealthy life choices such as smoking, poor nutrition and the biggest factor, ignorance. All of these factors, and more, contribute to the development of preventable chronic disease. If you think about it, someone who has a poor diet is likely so develop some type of cardiac (heart) disease. It could be hypertension, high blood pressure, or something more serious such as Coronary Heart Disease which can lead to a heart attack or Congestive Heart Failure will lead for subsequent heart failure. A person is also likely to develop diabetes which effects the way they metabolize food if they consume a poor diet. Most of the time these people also life a relatively sedentary lifestyle with little physical activity.

The technology in the medical field has worked wonders to develop all these medications that help the patient cope with these chronic diseases. It is the same technology that has also taken away the patients’ responsibility of their own life. For most patients, once they are put on these medications, their lifestyle habits hardly change. The medical field has a whole need to look at a more holistic approach to the treatment of these people. Doctors need to utilize resources outside of their practice, such has dieticians and personal trainers. The root cause of these chronic diseases is the combination of a poor diet and lack of physical activity. If the health care system incorporated a system where the registered dieticians and personal trainers worked in conjunction with the doctor to come up with a treatment for these patients, the patients could untimely reduce if not completely get off all of their medications.

The medical field has put a lot of energy and money into the technology of medications that it has relied on prescribing those medications to its patients to maintain their chronic diseases. These advances in medical technology has lead to health care providers lose focus on a more natural approach to patient treatment. By implementing a healthier diet and prescribing some physical activity, health care providers are attacking the root cause of most of these chronic diseases as opposed to just medicating the signs and symptoms.

By incorporating registered dieticians and personal trainers into a patients’ treatment plan, it will hopefully eliminate some of the ignorance that come with living a healthy life. It will lower patients’ doses of medications of not be completely free of all their medications. It will allow these people to take responsibility of their lives and escape the tyranny of their medications and regain full control, so they can live a longer, happier and healthier life. The health care system should have a more holistic approach to patient care, by incorporating resources outside of the typical doctors office rather than trying to profit from these patients conditions.

Name of Writer or Essay

Does the Introduction grab your attention? Does it give you a good idea of what the essay will be about? Is it too long or too short?

What’s the main idea being explored? Does it ever drift off topic? What would make it a more unified essay?

Which body paragraph is using the best specific information to help support the main idea? Which is the weakest? How could it be improved?

Check the conclusion. Is it satisfying? Does it wrap up the ideas discussed in the essay? How would you improve it?

What other issues need to be addressed?

Ben Legere

Technology and Growing up: Has it changed the way we grow up?

Growing up in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s gave me some of the fondest memories I have. We did not have a phone calling us home. My friends and I stayed out until the street lights came on and found out where each other were by what bikes were on the front lawn. This time also gave me some of the hobbies I still enjoy today such as football. One night, the street lights came on, and we had one final play. I was going to go out for a pass and hopefully come down with the ball. So, there I was running to the back of the end zone chasing after this ball, and lo and behold I dove and caught it we won! As I grow older however I notice less and less kids playing outside and more kids in the house playing video games. Does this mean the end of how kids traditionally grow up?

The sentimentalist in me says no, when I have kids they’ll be just as reckless and apt to playing outside as I was when I was younger. Even though I grew up in the weird in between where technology started to become utilized commonly in schools. However, I have siblings that are 6-10 years younger than I am and I can already see the changes happening right now. When my brother has friends over they usually stay indoors and play video games or watch television. To me, this is mind-boggling, my family lives in Portland, Maine. The state is one of the premier places for outdoorsmen/women to go and is one of the safest states to raise kids. So why not enjoy the setting, and appreciate what it has to offer?

This is where the realist in me comes in. As I get older I realize that things will always evolve and be different from the time I was brought up in. For my siblings, technology is not just a computer lab that they have once or twice a week. Such things as Ipads and computers are used widely in school as an everyday tool now. Phones are no longer just kept at home, they are taken with you and have a variety of functions. There is no need to read an encyclopedia if you can easily access such sites as Wikipedia. No need to own a calculator or a planner if those are supplied on a “smart” device. The device speeds up the process of gathering information, but does that make the wide use of technology in schools a good thing, and are kids really learning the material, and can they pay attention?

In high school psychology class, we had to have an end of the year experiment. We decided to test the saying that “If you write and look up the information in a book it will stick with you better if you just google it and type.” It turns out, this is true. The students we tested remembered the information they were asked to look up better if the wrote it down and used books better if the just googled the answer and typed it in their computer. This process has to deal with the developmental psychology idea of cementing information in your brain through repetition. There are not as many steps if the student just googles rather than physically search and write the information down by hand. It is clear to see that technology plays a role in educational development but what about social development?

Why would you make a phone call if you can send a text stating the exact same thing in two seconds? These little blurbs have revolutionized the way we communicate with each other but at a cost. Since the age of children acquiring cellphones has gotten younger and younger, they haven’t had time to develop the interpersonal skills needed in the job market or to build real world relationships. When I went home recently, I was talking to my brother who is 13 about where he wants to go to high school. When I would ask him “What do you see yourself doing in high school” “What are your goals?” My questions were met with a one-word response without looking away from his phone. To me this is indicative of the state of his peers across the country. Since they have grown up being able to send texts with texting language, they have not been able to develop the interpersonal skills such as reading body language or making eye contact that they will need in the future job market.

There will always be another technological breakthrough. Just think about how writing technology came about. First it was the invention of writing, which was followed by the printing press. Eventually, this lead us to word processors that enabled me to write this paper. Each of these advances were also polarizing like the usage of smart devices today.

In conclusion, while thinking about the topic I became aware of my personal generational bias. That no matter how this generation grows up, I will critique them constantly. So, in knowing that, I truthfully know that technology will play a very important role in the way that kids grow up. Whether it be bad or good, we all will have to wait and see.

Sebastian

Technology and Sport

One of the biggest soccer influences I’ve had on my life was my dad. When I was growing up my dad was a professional soccer player. I was always around the sport of soccer and this is how my love for the game developed. My goal in life to become a professional soccer player coach. The evolution since I started playing soccer and now is immensely different. With the progression of technology now, you can do many things that were once not thought to be possible. Technology has developed the level of soccer tremendously. Professional soccer coaches use more technology now than ever before. Throughout this paper I’m going to talk about the evolution of the technology that coaches use, as well as the technology used in recovery clothes and techniques. Along with this I am also going to talk about the job of the athletic trainers involved with soccer. Thanks to the evolution of technology in soccer, there are a lot of new trends. These trends have a positive and negative effects on the development of the game of soccer. These trends have helped solve many issues once had. Along with the trends and the issues surround them, comes concerns. The societal concerns of the population have become a big problem in the soccer world. In addition, I will talk about the application of technology put forth into these trends and issues.

Technology coaches use have evoleved tremndeously through the time I was born (1997) to now. One of the most used forms of technology coaches use today is film. The quaility and use of film has increasded greratly over the past nineteen years. Cameras used for todays film are more clear and can be used to pinpoint certain aspects of a game and targets. Where as nienteen years ago, film was rarely used and if it was it was not clear at all. Film is used to not only see the potential and skills of the other team, but to use on their own teams to correct errors previously made. When a coach is preparing for a game against an opposing team he will often look to film to see what to expect and how to set up his or her team for the game. This goes also for after a game when a coach uses film from his or her own team. The coach and players both look to the film to see how their performances work. When viewing film, they are able to see what does work in the game and what doesn’t. This includes plays and individual players strengths and weaknesses. Before film technology was introduced, coaches could only base plays and thoughts of teams including their own, based off of what they saw. Film gives coaches the ability to see what they could have missed and an more in-depth view of the game. Film has also been used to look more into close calls on the field that could have been miscalled by refs. Without the further develpoment of film, coaches wouldnt be able to make the calls and see the plays that are able to now. Another evoltion in the game of soccer

A trend is a change or development in a certain direction. Special trends in soccer are the hearth rate, legs rehab like the Normatech, scouting, strength machines like TRX-cables, footbonaut. These trends are used for soccer athlete’s rehabilitation to better their performances. Everything start in preseason, before the season start you go to the doctor and he take tests of you heart. You run on a treadmill with monitors on your heart. Every 3minutes the speed goes higher and they take blood and note your heart rate. After the test, they do a body scan and look how you react on the test. A couple week later they send you special zones. These zones help you to develop your endurance and prevent injuries. When you have everything, the preseason can start. you have zones: maximum heart rate zone, anaerobic zone, aerobic zone and resting zone. These zones are very important in preseason. If a team use this zones good you going to have less injuries and a better shape for the season. After an intensive day of practice or week, you have now a lot of methods to recoup. Before the new technologies the only method you had was running and some massages but now you have so much more. We have ice bath, hot tube, contra bath and rollers. If you have in preseason a practice in the morning and at night, between this practices you can take ice baths to recover the legs. If you are sore you can use hot-packs or hot tubes. Another popular trend seen over the years seen in soccer is leg rehibitions. After a game you can take some contra-baths that is first an ice bath, then a hot bath and that you do 3 times in a row. There is also something new, the normatech. It put some compression on your legs (2012 Nathan Alan Keck). It compress your leg from your toe to your groin. The blood flow in your leg goes up and it removes the actic lacid. Another popular trend seen is the Footbonaut. A Footbonaut is a robot that only some German teams have. It has been shown to improve the skills and the speed of handling the ball by players. It’s the newest method to practice indoor, which is one of the most important tactics in soccer. You can be athletic and strong, but if you cannot handle the basic things in soccer you have a big problem.

With the improvement of technology, there is often issues that arise. Although the development throughout technology has greatly made life easier for professional soccer coaches, there is a down side. One of these downsides is the coaches and players become too dependent on technology. This can go for many different aspects including film, to training, to post game rehibition. When a coach or player becomes too dependent on technology, they can often forget the fundamentals of the game. Soccer athletes are not robots and even though they might be trained to be sometimes, they are humans. Injuries are a huge factor in the professional athlete world and every professional coach endures them. Coaches may sometimes rely on rehab techniques and machines to cure their players instead of the traditional physical therapy techniques. Although these techniques may be successful, sometimes technology does fail and may not work in a coach favor. Sometimes a player may also become too dependent on these techniques and think they do not need to properly take care of their bodies. This effects a soccer coach because his or her players are not playing to their true protentional, or worse, may not even be able to play. This causes chaos in the mind of a professional soccer coach and they may have to rethink a game line up. Besides the risk of players or coaches becoming too dependent on technology resources, technology for the most part makes the job easier for professional soccer coaches. Although rehibition techniques for the most part an advantage, they can sometimes create an issue.

The advancement in technology over the years has helped athletes, coaches, and over lookers of any sport greatly. However, with the advancement in technology, the cost of it has risen increasingly allowing only some schools or clubs the ability to afford it. Since only some athletic departments are able to afford the technology available, it has become a huge concern that schools and clubs that cannot afford it are negatively impacted. For example, if a school cannot afford to film a game and one of their players gets seriously hurt, they are unable to see how their player got hurt and cannot find ways to prevent the injury. Meanwhile, a school that can afford to film a game and see the injury happen as well can find ways to prevent it are at a major advantage because they have the technology to do this. The schools and/or clubs that have this technology are positively impacted since with the money they can afford it and be able to use it in any way they possibly need to. Most of the time the technology is used to better the team or program, and it positively influences them. Whereas, in schools that cannot afford the technology are negatively impacted since they do not have the necessary resources. Another part of the concerns involved with the advantages of technology are pushed towards an ethical perspective. A lot of inner schools, which are ethically mixed, are at a disadvantage when it comes to money. There could be multiple reasons why there is lack of money but the lack of sufficient funding affects these programs and causes them to be at a huge disadvantage because they are unable to have the resources necessary to achieve. Meanwhile, suburban schools and clubs have the advantage since they have the funds that allow them to have the advanced technology required to achieve whatever they need. At a collegiate level, it is very obvious as to who is able to afford the technology and who is not. For instance, when we played Loyola, it was obvious they did not have the technology we do. We were able to outrun them, run our plays the coach created for us, as well as communicate the way our coach taught us, despite the language barrier. Without our coach and the technology we have to offer, we would not be able to do most of the things we do. The technology our soccer team uses is amazing and without it, we would not be where we are today. Our soccer team would not be able to have the video cameras we do to watch film, our athletic trainers that help us with every ache and sore muscles, as well as a very nice soccer stadium to practice in play in. All of these factors of new technology are a huge factor as to why we have such a positive influence on our team as opposed to other schools. Many schools we have played did not have the updated technology like we do and for them, that is a huge negative influence because they got to see that with new technology you are able to do so much better, that is why we won. It is very obvious when a team has good technology and when a team does not. Socal aspects are very influential to a Professional soccer coach.

The application are different according to how the aspect of technology is used. First for the heart rate , soccer players should practice every day with one heart rate monitor in order to know if they have a heart problem or not. However if I could improve that technology I would create a heart rate monitor more powerful in order to evaluate all of the research about the health about the tiredness and about physical limits about my players. For example this monitor would be lighter and smaller than the older one. With more battery and more smart for the detail , for example when the need to drink water and when not. Like if they need to eat some energetic bars and everything like that. Furthermore for the lift machines. Soccer players should use all of the lift machines in order to be ready physically for the games to prevent of the injuries , they should use that during all of the pre-saison, to be ready for the season. If I could develop lift machine I

will create machines which don’t cause back problem after the use of them. I think will create a machine without pounds but with the weight of the player who want to use it. Moreover for the rehabilitation, my players should use all of the rehabilitation technology to be ready and to take care of their body before or after a game. If I could develop the rehabilitation technology I would create some specific rooms just in order to improve the fast of the rest of the muscles. Like a very cold room to ice the body without go in a ice bath and burning your skin. And a very hot room in order to remove the toxins in the body by the perspiration without runing if you are injured and you can’t run. Moreover I would create special compression pants in order to compress and block the blood inside the legs to evacuate the surplus of blood in muscles after a big efforts. Furthermore for the scouting technology. Soccer players should use all of the video that I produce in order to help them to analyse the opponents team against they will play. They should use that before the game. If I could improve that kind of technology i will do it in order to learn about the others team. Like that my players will know how defend and how attack against them during the game to become the best team ever. Secondly it will be to learn about their mistakes in order to correct some tactics placement on the field that we did. If the players could do that and work on those video they will become the best team because there will have no loophole.

After all the research and information that I have done for this paper. I have concluded that if you are a professional soccer coach you have so many more opportunities to make the team better with technology today than ever before. Not only are the quality of your players important, but also the technology you use as a coach. If I can choose in the future for a school with a lot of technology or a school with less technology than is my choice very easy. You can work by yourself on the tactics of your team with help of videos of other teams, so you can make your team ready with the weaknesses of the opponents. If you need to train without information of the others it’s very difficult to find a way to beat them. I also learned that the rehab one of the most important things in a coach career is, maybe you can’t do everything by yourself but with the help of you, your assistant coaches, athletic trainer and your players, you can make it worth. After every practice a stretching and cooldown is necessary, the ice baths, compression, athletic room and massages of the athletic room helps to prevent the injuries of your players. In practice, coaches would use the newest technology ever, the footbonaut is the best thing develop the basic qualities of a player. Training with the heart rate for polar is the best thing ever, if every player wear the polar heart rate you can use an app and see everybody’s shape on the tablet. If a player is tired you can take him out of the exercise and let him do something else that he still works in the same zone like the others, that means that the players don’t be overworked. That means that your players are every time in a good condition for all the games. These aspects are important tools for a professional soccer plater coach. Technology today is completely different than is was nineteen years ago. The evolution of technology has made life easier for soccer players, but for coaches themselves. Without the evolution of technology, soccer would not be where it is today.