Post Course Reflection

On the day i received my QET results, I was very disappointed that I am required to take the module English for Academic Purpose (ES1102). Why did I not practice before QET? Why did I not take QET seriously? But it was all too late for any regrets.

Since my Junior College days, I always had an impression that there is no need for engineers to be exceptional in writing, in fact, engineering students are rarely required to write a proper essay throughout their years of studies. This is still quite true till date. Therefore I found it pointless and a waste of time to be in this course. Everybody labels this module as a 'burden mod' mainly because it is just extra work. However, during the first lesson, my impression of this module changed completely. The lesson was unlike the normal dry and boring English classes where you just sit down and listen to the teacher ramble about grammar, instead, my mentor, Brad, had made it fun and engaging. If you ask me why it was fun and engaging, I wouldn't really know the definite answer to it. Maybe it's because Brad has a good sense of humour, or probably just the way the lesson is designed to be.

Brad focuses a lot on learning from your peers. I too believe in learning from peers. A mentor may not know everything. having more brains means being able to generate more ideas and suggestions for improvement, especially in a very subjective course like ES1102 which revolves around writing. Different people have different preferences for writing styles. Having more feedback on the posts you have written and reviewing the posts that your peers have written allows you to in-cooperate other styles of writing to improve your own. Instead of just telling us how the essay is supposed to be written, we have to look through the essay very thoroughly and spot for any possible grammar mistakes ourselves. This simple activity actually helps in the formation of 'muscle memory' for the brain. When similar mistakes appears again, we will be able to spot is easily.

Presentation have always been my nemesis because I have never been a confident speaker. However, it is very relevant to Engineering students because there is a need for us to be able to present ideas and solutions in a clear and concise manner. Even though there was no mention of having to do a presentation in this course, I was already expecting it to have one partly because when Brad showed us the blog of one of his ex-student, I had a glimpse of the course appraisal and it says that there is a lack of presentation for this course. I was glad that we were required to come up with a short presentation on our essay topic. I felt that I did not do a good job mainly because I was trying to adopt to a new way of creating my slides and I had other tasking to complete, resulting in the lack of preparation. Even so, I got some pretty constructive feedback for my presentation and I have quite a clear idea and direction on how I can do better for my next presentation which is most probably the oral defense for GEK1549.

English is a very powerful tool for conveying ideas. Having a strong foundation in English language is actually very beneficial in many aspects of life. So instead of asking why is there a need to have a strong English foundation especially when engineers are dealing with numbers and formulas, ask yourself, why not?

Digital Divide and Healthcare (Essay prompt Final Final draft)

In his TED talk, Molinari (2011) asserts the digital divide is a “new illiteracy”, and it occurs due to people not being able to afford the technology, lacking the skills of using it, and being unaware of the benefits. Having access to Internet should be a right in the digitally revolutionised 21^st century as we are unable to operate without it.

Singapore has worked her way up to being one of the most connected countries in this highly digitalised world. However, there are still minority groups in Singapore, such as the elderly who lack the skills to access the Internet. This has caused repercussions for the elderly such as the decrease in efficacy of healthcare treatments. To resolve this, medical institutions will have to provide healthcare information actively, and government agencies can introduce Information Communication Technology (ICT) bridging courses.

According to Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (iDA) (n.d.c), with a Residential Wired Broadband Household Penetration Rate of 106.7% in June 2013, Singapore has positioned herself as one of the most connected countries in the world. However, a digital divide still exists. Even with a broadband penetration rate of more than 100%, according iDA (2013) only 84% of the households actually have access to the Internet. While some households are subscribing to multiple broadband lines, others simply cannot afford it. Even if the household are subscribed to broadband lines, there are people, such as the elderly, who lack the required skills to use it. According to iDA (n.d.a), in 2012, only 16% of the people above 60 years old were using the Internet. The elderly who lack access to the Internet are therefore deprived of vital information for aspects such as healthcare. Healthcare information is extremely important for the elderly to allow them to make informed decisions regarding their health.

Lustria, Smith and Hinnant (2011) discuss the importance of having access to health information. In their research, they demonstrate that many studies have shown the various benefits of having access to health information. In another study, Fox and Purcell (2010 as cited in Lockwood et al 2013), observe that 81% of the healthy adults access the Internet frequently while only 52% of those who are diagnosed with chronic illness go online, and they concluded that ceteris paribus, people living with chronic illness have a negative correlation with having access to the Internet. Medical institutions and government agencies such as iDA will have to intervene to increase health information seeking among the elderly.

One of the many ways to bridge this disparity will be for medical institutions to actively disseminate healthcare information down the patient network via means such as mobile phone messaging service. Miloh (2009, as cited in Lockwood et al 2013) observes that after a text message reminder system has been implemented, there is a vast improvement in medication adherence and a decrease in rejection among pediatric liver transplant patients. With a successful framework already set up, it can be further improve it by incorporating the dissemination of healthcare information. The patient will have to subscribe to this service and choose their preferred language. The healthcare messages keep the patient informed about their current conditions and provide tips to boost their recovery. Even after the patients have recovered, they can continue with this service for advices on post recovery and even tips for healthy lifestyle. With Singapore’s mobile penetration rate of 156% in 2013 (iDA, n.d.c), we may safely assume that almost everyone owns a mobile phone, and this is very crucial for the messaging service to work. At the same time, medical institutions already have the required framework as they have adopted the use of mobile phone messaging for confirmation of appointments, leading to huge amount of cost savings. The information will also be directly from the doctors, making the source extremely trustworthy. With proper publicity, this service may be able to attract more users than just those who lack access to the Internet

What some of the elderly lack are the skills to access the Internet. In 2007, iDA launched The Silver Infocomm Initiative (SII). The SII is a programme that aims to bridge the digital divide for the senior citizens in Singapore (iDA). This programme includes two parts, the Silver Infocomm Hotspots and Junctions. The first part focuses mainly on providing the facilities for the elderly to access the Internet by setting up 100 free hotspots island-wide in accessible location for the elderly, such as community centres. The second part focuses on imparting the skills of accessing the internet to the elderly. The senior citizens are grouped based on their education background, language and their ability to use ICTs. Lessons on how to use the computer and the Internet will then be conducted based on the groups they are in. This will allow the senior citizens to be competent in using the Internet.

The elderly are divided into different classes and with the lessons being planned according to their choice of language and the experience they have with IT. This may facilitate their learning process and also provide them with a good learning experience. This programme is extremely feasible as it targets the root cause of the problem, digital divide, by providing both facilities and skills. However, the participation rate of the programme may be low, unless the programme is being publicised properly.

Efficacy of healthcare treatment increases when patients have access to more healthcare information. At the same time, with access to healthcare information, people will be able to make informed decisions for a healthy lifestyle. With so many benefits closely related to having access to healthcare information, medical institutes and government agencies such as iDA should participate actively to provide access to healthcare information. Medical institutes being a ‘bank’ for healthcare information, can provide the patients with healthcare information through mediums such as mobile phone messages to bridge the information disparity directly, while government agencies can provide both the hardware and ‘software’ for the elderly by providing them the hardware and equipping them with the necessary skills access to the Internet to bridge the digital divide directly.

References

Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (2013). Annual Survey on Infocomm Usage in Households and by Individuals for 2012. Retrieved from

http://www.ida.gov.sg/~/media/Files/Infocomm%20Landscape/Facts%20and%20Figures/SurveyReport/2012/2012HHmgt.pdf

Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (n.d.a). Infocomm Usage- Household and Individuals. Retrieved from

http://www.ida.gov.sg/Infocomm-Landscape/Facts-and-Figures/Infocomm-Usage-Households-and-Individuals#3

Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (n.d.b). Silver Infocomm Initiative. Retrieved from

http://www.ida.gov.sg/Individuals-and-Community/Community-Development/Silver-Infocomm-Initiative

Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (n.d.c). Statistics: Telecommunications. Retrieved from

http://www.ida.gov.sg/Infocomm-Landscape/Facts-and-Figures/Telecommunications

Lockwood, M. B., Saunders, M. R., Lee, C. S., Becker, Y. T., Josephson, M. A. & Chon, W. J. (2013, December). Kidney Transplant and digital divide: is information and communication technology a barrier or a bridge to transplant for African Americans? [Electronic version]. Progress in Transplantation, 23(4), 302-309

Lustria, M. L. A., Smith, S. A., & Hinnant, C. C. (2011). Exploring digital divides: An examination of eHealth technology use in health information seeking, communication and personal health information management in the USA [Electronic version]. Health Informatics Journal, 225-244.

Molinari, A. (2011, August). Let’s bridge the digital divide! Retrieved from

http://www.ted.com/talks/aleph_molinari_let_s_bridge_the_digital_divide

Weaver, J. B. III., Mays, D., Weaver, S. S., Hopkins, G. L., Eroğlu, D. & Bernhardt, J. M. (2010, August). Health Information- Seeking Behaviours, Health Indicators, and Health Risks. [Electronic version]. American Journal of Public Health, 100(8), 1520-1525

Reflection of Presentation

I have always been the 'thinker' kind of person with many crazy ideas. I love to share my ideas and queries. However, I have never been a confident speaker, especially in a presentation setting. I tend to get very nervous when many pairs of eyes are watching me. At the same time, I find it hard to express myself at times because I tend to think faster than I can express my thoughts. At the same time, I did not spend ample time to prepare for the presentation as I had to prepare for a test which was before my presentation and work on my other projects. Trying to adopt the new style of presentation and the lack of preparation increased the amount of uncertainty which made me more nervous. I felt that I zoomed through most of the parts during the presentation because I just wanted to get off the stage, without giving my peers a chance to absorb the information I presented.

I don't think I did a good job this time round even though it was only a short and simple presentation. Since I am not a natural speaker, I will just have to put in more effort and time to prepare for presentations in the future.