Digital Literacy: How to Search the Web

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e are living in the era of information. Information is knowledge, and knowledge is power. But how to find what you look for? That is why it is important to learn and to develop "digital literacy skills". Nowadays it is so common to find patients who look for answers to their health problems before they go to their primary doctor. With the information accessible to any person from their computers, lot of people without access to the health care system will try to cure themselves. But what type of answers are people finding? I think we have to spread awareness about this fact in the health care community. And that is why we have to learn how to search for information on internet. This presentation was made by Patricia Anderson. I highly recommend it. At the end of the post you will find more links to improve your searching skills.

   Recommended links:
   Professional & Clinical Information Skills Beyond UM 1
   Professional & Clinical Information Skills Beyond UM 2
   Professional & Clinical Information Skills Beyond UM 3
   Professional & Clinical Information Skills Beyond UM 4

Web 2.0: Medical e-books and the Importance of Digital Literacy

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ew weeks ago I went to UCLA Medical Center. Medical students were presenting their posters about the work they did during the summer. There were many interesting ones, but there was one that caught my attention. It was about how publishers are changing from paper publications to electronic publications during the last years. This week I read a post from K.S. Descartin. She wrote about her experience with the use of e-books and all the advantages that this fact represents. Even when I like a lot techno-gadgets. I have to admit that they still have disadvantages when compared with paper materials. While you can access lot of information with a simple click. You depend on the duration of the battery of your device to access the information you want. And actually you have to buy the gadget - what not all can afford -. And what about if the system crash. No internet connection. Have you think about that? What will happen if you can not access the information you want the moment you need it. Of course technology has lot of advantages we can not deny too. But, are we using these technologies efficiently? These things make me think about the importance of digital literacy again. And the fact there is still a lot to learn. Somehow each one of us learn about it by our own. I have not found a formal course to learn about it. I think now more than ever, with lot of information you can access if you know how, learning is a matter of motivation more than a merely passive act.

This is a funny video just to think why digital literacy really matters:

   Recommended links:
   Medicine 2.0 in action (blog carnival)
   Medicine 2.0 Tool: Study On The Go With Medical e-Books plus Some Experiential Babbles & Lessons On Integration
   How to Use Web 2.0 to get Medical Ebooks
   Using Web 2.0 to Access Medical Ebooks Online and More

Are Doctors Prepared to Used the Web 2.0 ?

This is an update of the presentation of Ves Dimov about Web 2.0 and Medicine. In my opinion one of the biggest problem we face is the fact that most of us still do not realize, that we have to learn about internet and how to use it, that medicine and computer literacy are necessary to continue our education by ourselves. Even when we are far from big cities or we are working in rural places, or even when we are in transition to get a job or to get into a residency program, we can continue with our education, since the time we enter to medical school, or even before, we know that our profession will never end, that we will face one and thousand tests the rest of our lives, and this is a time when the best doctors can be found anywhere, not only in the big cities or in the big hospitals, to become one of them, we have to work hard, and we have to change the idea the most of us have about traditional medical education.
I made a small search into the curriculum of some medical schools of the United States, but I didn't find computer literacy skill courses as part of the formal education of a student who will become a doctor receive, some of them just have some elective courses or some seminars to learn how to use the internet and how to select information and evaluate resources of knowledge. But what can we expect when our teachers don't understand what we are talking about, when most of our colleges do not show interest to development new skills. Most of the people who is working and using these tools that internet offers, learned everything about internet by themselves, they spent time and energy to understand about Blogs, RSS, Podcast, Videocast, Wikis, Medical Search, Content Sharing sites, Online communities, companies, e-books, online writing, and many things more, but what about the rest of us, I have been trying to teach others about this tools, and the basics of internet, and I have realized that sometimes people can not differentiate between a browser, a search engine or an operative system. I know that anybody you explain how the web can be used is going to tell you that it is amazing, but even in these cases they are not going to use it. And the reason of why not, results simple, we are not prepared to use these technologies, it is too "complicated" yet. I analize it, and think that it will take some time yet, until each one of us can use the internet as the powerful tool it is.
We have lot of things to learn, this is the curve of learning we have to pass, just at that point of learning, we will take advantage of the main purpose of internet that is COLLABORATION. We the people who likes both Medicine and Internet are working hard to get this goal, but definitively it will take time, even when the tools already exists.

Searching the Internet: Life Beyond Google

Digital Literacy: Sources of Information

Information literacy in this Century

This is a presentation just to emphasize the importance of learning digital skills, and to show you how people is working to help professional to get this goal. It is important to learn how to educate ourselves in a continuous manner, with all the information I found for free on internet I believe that the main role of our universities or wherever we go to study is to teach us how to become long life learners. But, my question is why when the information is there, so few ones use it?

Digital Literacy Skills

How to get the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers? What skills do you have to learn in order to become digital literate? With this presentation I just try to show you some of the skills you have to develop. But keep in mind that you will have to spend time and patience until you become really efficient in the use of the internet as a tool.

What is Digital Literacy?

click here to see the presentation in full screen
One of the main things about Web 2.0 is the fact that make the access to internet easy, let you do things without the necessity to learn about digital language, but even when it is easy now to upload a video, share a photo, have your own podcast, there are many other things we have to learn, and we have to learn those thing by ourselves, fortunately internet allow us access to all this information, we just have to look for.
In this presentation I just try to explain why it is important to learn about it.

Are we part of this Humanity Lobotomy?

This is an amazing video about the control of internet and how big telephone companies are fighting to get the control of internet. We can here opinion of Sir Tim Berners creator of World Wide Web, Net Neutrality,how do we pass the information we create and how this change with the time. How the ways we create and transmit this information is regulated , who create the information in the traditional media(television, radio, newspapers)who benefit for that , just few have access to this why? we can not create radio, but technologies are changing, now anyone can have a podcast anyone can say what they want on internet, but this can be regulated in the future, by who?. Sir Tim Berners explain that freedom of connection with any application to any party connection is the fundamental social basis of society we build on internet, but control over the internet is going to kill the innovation of creation, who create the content of internet? the answer us. so spread awareness.
note: this video belongs to http://www.foureyedmonsters.com/

Health Computer Illiteracy Part 2

How Web 2.0 is Changing Medicine BMJ 2006;333:1283-1284 ,this is a good article about tools that can make doctors' jobs easier and more efficient. The Web 2.0 is about freedom and sharing( weren't those the purposes of the creation of the internet?), the main difference with the old web is the fact that now we don't have to know nothing about language of computers to create a blog, to share files online, to create discussion groups, interchange images, look for help in difficult diagnostic cases, make meetings online, socialize, create medical communities, etc. Now, the use of internet has become so similar as the use of calculators or microwave ovens, because we do not know how do they work but we can use them in our behalf. There are directories of Web 2.0 like http://www.go2web20.net/ where we can find the tools we are looking for. we just have to ask ourselves some simple questions, can I do that? it is possible to do that? what I can do to solve this problem? the chances to find someone who has the same problem to solve are really high. Just consider that internet is huge, and the number of users is growing. But are doctors prepared to take advantage of these tools? Are doctors taking an active participation of this revolution? are they applying Web 2.0 concepts? And if the answer is no, who is responsible for that? Who has to teach the doctors how to use these "new" technologies? In my opinion this is a responsibility of each one of us. If we learn, know and apply what already exists, the change this article talks about will come to pass sooner.

Health Computer Illiteracy

Lately, I have been reading about the tools of web 2.0 and the multiple applications we can take advantage to improve our clinical practice. And it is true that the development of this "new" technology to do that can be called a revolutionary, but are we part of this revolution? Are doctors Health Computer literate?. This web is to share and interact with others, the amount of information that exist is huge and the resources any one with internet can access, grow and grow with no stop. So it es important that doctors learn how to used these resources, how to select them and how to apply them to their practices. But who is responsible for that, our governments, our educational institutions, or ourselves.