Minneapolis high school students take e-field trip to the operating room

About a year ago I observed that 64% of the schools in this region have connectivity at 100 Mbit/s or greater to the K12HSN -- and in turn the Internet and Internet2. I shared a few thoughts on how this might be used to do some nifty things.

Today I came across a news item from the Internet2 web site, covering a high school in Minneapolis that, using an Internet2 connection, participated in a live knee surgery.

As the surgery progressed before them, the 30 juniors and seniors in John Redelsheimer's class reacted to crystal-clear images of sliced flesh and bone with predictable groans and urrrghs. They asked questions of the surgical staff, such as how long the implant might last, and how a full and partial knee replacement differ.

Students in the Robbinsdale Armstrong High School anatomy and physiology class observed Wednesday as a surgeon in Columbus, Ohio, performed total knee-replacement surgery on an 85-year-old woman. And they didn't even board a bus.

Students in the Robbinsdale district are among a select group for whom technological expertise and resources have aligned to allow them to take an e-field trip -- in this case, to Dr. Joel Politi's operating room. Other classes have been to the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minn., a classroom in Egypt and a village in Mozambique.

The session was sponsored by COSI, a science center in Columbus, Ohio. It was made possible by Web-driven video-conferencing technology via Internet2, a superfast network linking universities, industry and government. The basic technology -- the cameras and microphones -- isn't new, but schools haven't been able to use it fully until recently because most lack that fast, powerful connection.

Link to full article is here.



This is what I am talking about!

The Modem Free Generation

Wow, how time does fly. We now have, at least in the US and elsewhere, our first generation of Internet users that have no idea what a real modem sounds like. For these folks, this is the closest they'll ever get to one.

While I'm not as old as the photo above by any means, my first modem was an external U.S. Robotics 2400 bps (generously loaned to me by a friend's father whom I later bought a more affordable Gould 1200 bps modem from), so I suppose, in a way, even I was late to the game.

Sure, with Caller ID we still have modems in our phones (at least until end-to-end SIP can do away with all that) and xDSL is still really a glorified analog modem but they are stealthy. Poll a random nine year old on the street with a modem carrier audio sample or ask if they've ever cursed when they forgot and set ATM2 instead of ATM0 or ATM1 and you'll get a blank look (and probably a scream for mommy to come and take them away from the scary crazy guy though a few smart top-of-their-class nine year olds, just starting their introduction classes to CCIE certification of course, might think I'm talking about this which is at least in the right vein).

I've yet to see an xDSL modem that has a speaker (let alone supports the AT command set) and rarely do I hear the caller ID carrier unless I'm on a really cheap phone and pick up the phone fast enough.

Maybe we can bring it back in vogue by customizing our mobile phone ring tone to sound like the good old days. And, demanding that xDSL modem vendors, add speakers. On other hand, there aren't too many of these around anymore either. And, man, were those things slow.

AT
OK
ATZ
OK
ATM0
OK

-jr