What is a Pandemic?

What is a Pandemic?

All pandemics have the potential to cause serious illness, death, and large-scale social and economic disruption.The flu (influenza) is a highly contagious illness caused by influenza viruses infecting nose, throat, and lungs. There are two main factors used to determine the impact of a pandemic. The first is the seriousness of illness associated with infection. The second factor is how easily the pandemic virus spreads from person-to-person.

How does infection happen?

When people with a flu cough, sneeze or talk tiny droplets, loaded with the flu virus, escape. These droplets can fly far land settle on nearby people. Droplets loaded with the flu virus also land on objects and a person might also get flu by touching a surface or object that has flu virus on it and then touching their own mouth, eyes or their nose. Since flu is an airborne virus, meaning it can be transmitted through the air, it is especially contagious.

How long can you infect someone?
You can infect others before know you are sick and while you are sick. Infecting others starts 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 5 to 7 days after becoming sick. Some people, especially young children and people with weakened immune systems, might be able to infect others for an even longer time. Symptoms begin in about 1 to 4 days, with an average of about 2 days.

Complications of Flu
Complications of flu can include bacterial pneumonia, ear infections, sinus infections, dehydration, and worsening of chronic medical conditions, such as congestive heart failure, asthma, or diabetes.

Who is at high risk getting the flu?
Anyone can get the flu. At higher risk are people 65 years and older, anyone in a long-term care facility, anyone with certain chronic medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, cancer patients, HIV-positive patients, Lupus and any other autoimmune compromised person, pregnant women, people with body mass index (BMI) of 40 or greater, American Indian or Alaska Natives and young children.

Symptoms

People who have the flu often feel some or all of these signs and symptoms:

Fever* or feeling feverish/chills
Cough
Sore throat
Runny or stuffy nose
Muscle or body aches
Headaches
Fatigue (very tired)
Some people may have vomiting and diarrhea, though this is more common in children than adults

*It’s important to note that not everyone with flu will have a fever

Flu prevention

Get a flu shot. It’s the No. 1 thing you can do to prevent the flu
Wash your hands a lot. If you come in contact with people who are contagious, you have to wash your hands with soap. To completely get rid of viruses from your skin, you need to scrub hard for 20 seconds or more. A good way to time yourself is to sing “Happy Birthday” twice while scrubbing the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails. It doesn’t matter if the water’s hot or cold, the very act of scrubbing will physically remove the germs.
Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer on your hands as that kills cold and flu germs. Spread the sanitizer over the front, back and between the fingers and nails of your hand.
Avoid getting close to people who are sick. Don’t stand close to someone who is ill and avoid shaking hands
Keep your surroundings clean, do not share dishes, glasses and wash clothing, bedspreads, and towels of sick family members.
Household, social and workplace viral touchpoints

Biggest Challenges

- Shared dishes at a bar such as candy, peanut or chip bowls – DO NOT touch or eat from those
- Dirty doorknobs and touch points – wipe frequently with disinfectant, especially when entering and leaving bathrooms
- Germy linens, couch pillows, and throws – wash and dry
- Used dishes, toothbrushes, and tissues – DO NOT share, discard tissues immediately and don’t touch them – they are loaded with the virus

Use:

- Disinfecting spray
- Rubbing alcohol
- Washer, dryer
- Household bleach
- Dishwasher

Flu Infographic Cowin

Take the Quiz and check your knowledge!

The Flu and You

Personalized Learning Networks (PNL’s) and VW’s

Exploring new technological resources such as VW’s and their unique environments opens new dimensions of the formative teaching and learning process. Current space-temporal barriers are opening and disrupting up the ESL teaching field. The contexts within VW’s requires thoughts about how the role of ESL teachers in VW’s. Also, an exploration of the dynamics of ESL students entering VW’s, their learning, the interaction between peers, teachers and ‘drop-ins’ or visitors is necessary. Exploring, sharing and learning in a VW unfolds venues of student network collaborations, leading to Personal Learning Networks (PNL). ESL language acquisition cannot be understood without this social and educational perspective.

Virtual Worlds are emerging as a strong educational phenomenon because they enable participants and in-world travelers to meet and socially interact with others in a variety of online environments. Users navigate these online environments utilizing an avatar. Avatars are personalized by the user and act as their ‘alter ego’ in their chosen virtual setting. There is a multitude of virtual worlds focused on education. Here a small sample: ScienceSim, Heritage Key, Active Worlds Educational Universe, Secret Builders and WizWorld Online.
VW’s invite and require a certain degree of self-organization in the personalized trajectory of improving L2 language skills. The importance of self-organization as a learning process is stated by Wiley and Edwards:
“Jacobs argues that communities self-organize a manner similar to social insects: instead of thousands of ants crossing each other’s pheromone trails and changing their behavior accordingly, thousands of humans pass each other on the sidewalk and change their behavior accordingly.”
In her article, Wendy Drexler, University of FloridaI, “The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy” states:

“Principles of networked learning, constructivism, and connectivism inform the design of a test case through which secondary students construct personal learning environments for the purpose of independent inquiry. Emerging web applications and open educational resources are integrated to support a Networked Student Model that promotes inquiry-based learning and digital literacy, empowers the learner, and offers flexibility as new technologies emerge.”

Balancing the benefits of technology and real-life experiences in the experiential realm will be a challenge for the educational system at large. The benefits of VW’s are anchored in participants’ ability to create PLN’s; enhance their imagination; to grow and learn; to create with one’s mind and fingers a world that existed only as a representation and then enter that world as active learners. One future of education is the establishment of learning communities where we come to learn with each other and from each other in a collaborative process. Collaborative processes give rise to vibrant cultures of growth and development with the result of a harvest of student achievement filled with a growth mindset, mental flexibility, curiosity, risk taking and intrinsic motivation.

“The Phoenix Firestorm Project: Virtual Worlds, JokaydiaGrid and Second Life” Teaching ESL in OpenSym Grids

screenshot-2016-08-10-20-34-17

An accepted paper by Jasmin B. Cowin, Ed.D. for the TESOL Conference, November 3rd and 4th, 2016 in Syracuse, New York.

I am embarking on a journey of discovery with critical questions in my mind: How does an ESL facilitator put virtual environments to practical use? The purpose of my paper and presentation encompasses several areas which I will explore in future blogs. An essential element will be describing and analyzing my experience as the avatar ‘Muse Terpsichore’ in virtual worlds during my online summer “Games and Simulations” course at Marlboro College for Professional and Graduate Studies in Brattleboro, VT. Another component will focus on describing and comparing the virtual worlds of Jokaydia Grid and Second Life. Immersed in these virtual environments I will investigate their suitability for ESL education with a closer look at areas such as experiential learning, fluency practice, virtual classroom meetings, grammar, and storytelling. I look forward to an in-depth exploration into content availability and suitability for independent, guided, synchronous and asynchronous student-teacher interaction and collaboration. Finally, I want to examine the difference between the student and administrator view of virtual environments. How does a virtual world look like to an administrator or student? What set-up work is necessary to stage for a successful learning experience? What skills does an administrator or student need to successfully implement and engage in a virtual learning component?

I hope you will check in often to read about my ambitious journey into the alternate universes and creative teaching possibilities within virtual worlds.

Minds Online by Michelle Miller book review

Educating Minds Online by Michelle Miller – A Reflection

Educating Minds Online by Michelle Miller

by Dr. Jasmin Bey Cowin CowinJasmin

Educating Minds Online was written by Michelle Miller, a Professor, teacher and cognitive scientist. The book’s focus is on weaving her broad knowledge of the field together with a roadmap for truly effective teaching with technology.

Miller discusses in-depth cognition, online learning, mental processes and the cognitive resources needed to transform online content into concrete learning outcomes for students. Her focus on how attention works from both neurological and psychological perspectives has implication for classroom and online design. She states: “Attention is the complex and somewhat mysterious process of allocating limited cognitive resources across myriad competing demands. It is intimately tied up with consciousness, perception and memory, involving multiple structures within the brain, ” Her findings are backed up by multiple sources, research and experiments.

One key factor is her description of attentional limitations crossing all sectors of intelligence and personal ability. The Inattentional blindness effect demonstrates how narrow personal focus can be in learning. Much of chapter four is devoted to experiments focusing on divided attention and the negative learning outcomes of the participating subjects. A key fact pertinent to teachers is that “attention is limited.” Generally, there is a personal disconnect between perceived and actual capacity handling multiple tasks at once. Most people think they can juggle multiple tasks at once when really they can’t.

However, scaffolded, repeated practice can lead to automaticity and working memory. Students with a strong capacity to access needed information and filtering out irrelevant information are more successful in retaining and synthesizing information and content. Miller then analyzes selective attention abilities and how they relate to learning and academic achievement.

As stated by Miller, courses, therefore, need to provide interleaving scaffolding and formats with several learning opportunities and repeated practice for all students, including those with ADHD, to manage students attentional limitations. Her strategies for successful online learning design are fourfold: Ask students to respond. Take advantage of automaticity. Assess cognitive load. Discourage divided attention. Therefore, important concepts in scaffolding online courses and delivering in-class modules “include repetition, organizing new language, summarizing meaning, guessing the meaning from context, and using imagery for memorization.”