Essay: Technology in my subjects

When studying in a university, we are faced with a whole new world of challenges that we need to sort in order to pass all of the required courses. to achieve this goals we have the help of nowdays technology. I think that in the old days it was harder to study, since people didn't have the aids that we now have. For example, before, professors had to write things on chalk boards, wasting time that could be used in teaching, nowdays we have computers and proyectors, which are used as a visual aid. Students had no choice but to go to classes and take very good notes, so that they didn't miss any important information, nowdays the classes can be uploaded to the web and downloaded so the students have everything they need in their homes (we asume that most of the student population have internet access). Another use of technology that we, scientist in formation, use, would be the microscope, a very powerful instrument when studying biology. I'll delve more into this matter later.

As I mentioned before, the internet and computer technology has proved to be a tremendously useful tool to the learning process in college. Considering the large quantity of knowledge that exists in science nowdays, it's impossible for a student to know everything that there is to know in biology for example, and we also have to consider that scientists all over the world are always investigating and publishing new knowledge. So a computer with internet can help you find the information that you need in no time, and most importantly, it is updated information. Before, the publications of the research took months or even years to reach the chilean classroom, so we can say that sometimes, the material that was taugh was very outdated. Another comodity that internet allows is that if by any reason a student misses a class, the information will be on the web. If there is a group assignment, it can be done via chat or email, so there are no problems of different schedule and things like that.

Another type of technology that is very used by a scientific student is a microscope. As a physical therapy student, we need very strong basis in subjects like histology, biology, genetics, etc. and to study in a detailed way all of this, the use of the microscope is elemental. We use it to understand how tissues or cells work, so that we have a better understanding of how the human body works.

In conclusion, we can say that technology makes the student and teacher's life very easy, internet proves to be, in my opinion, the most useful tool of all, providing means of comunication between teachers and students (making this relationship more fluid). Internet is also the most complete plataform of updated information, that is used to do assignments and complement the learning process. Microscope is the most easy and approachable way to learn biology and all the basis that we need to be a complete health porfessional.

Challenges in Physical Therapy

The challenges that faces Physical Therapy (PT) in Chile currently is mostly, in my opinion, of the research kind, there is great lack of research at momment in Chile, for different reasons. Other problem of PT is the lack of better technology in hospitals of the public service.

Widening in the research issues, or the lack of it, we have as an example our very own Universidad de Chile, which is one of the best PT schools of Chile. This University has many good students and a lot of great proffessors who could dedicate themselves to research, but there is a great deficit in the financing for said research. There is also a lack of better technology for studentrs or teachers to work with, which is a direct result of the lack of financing. There is also the matter of the salary for the researchers, if they're getting paid to work in hospitals and clinics, why would they dedicate their time to research if they're not getting paid enough? Or even if they wanted to do research, they still have bills and costs to cover, so they can't really afford to spend their time investigating. I think that this is a very important problem, that if it's solved, we could save millions preventing diseases instead of treating them and the pacients would hurt less. We could also develop treatments or standard measures for the specific chilean population, instead of following the ones made in Switzerland or the USA.

As for the other problem of PT is the poor technology for the kinesic treatments in in the public health system. The diferences between the public and private system are too gruesome. Again we face a problem in the financing.

Socially speaking, I whink that PTs have more status than other Health related professions, but not as much as the doctors have. I also think, but I can't be sure beacause I have't experienced it, that PTs are very respected among their colleagues in a medical team, their opinions are well recieved and taken into acount.

There is also to consider the fact that PT has the highest ranking of students in the health related careers, after medicine, here in Chile, so the quality of students is very good. There is a fair amount of PT school here in Chile, mostly from private universities, but the best evaluated still are the state universities, speacilly Univesidad de Chile.

Another problem that this proffesion faces is the lack of commiment of the pacients, sometimes they think that it's not really necessary to go to the PT, or they go to a few sessions and then they think that they're okey and don't go anymore, so we must fight against the stuborness of some people.

In general, even if we face all of this challenges, PT is still a very good profession to study.

Improvements in your Faculty

My faculty is the Medicine Faculty of the Universidad de Chile, it's located in Independencia Av with Santos Dummont st. As one of the first faculties of the university, it started giving lectures even before the university was created, it's very old, so most of the infraestructure of the building is from early 19th century. You can tell that it's an old building from the exterior and the hallways. but most of the classrooms, auditoriums, offices and labs are very contemporary, a lot of them were recently renovated, so there's no complaint there.

One of the most annoying things from this faculty is that there are not enough bathrooms, sometimes you have to walk to the other side of the faculty to find one that's empty, because aside from being few, they're small, they only have two stalls each, so they're always occupied.

Another thing that I don't like about this faculty is that there aren't many green areas and there is not enough parking space. I don't drive a car, but if I did, I would probably have problems with parking.

To solve all of this problems, there are few things that can be done. For the green areas, there is only one place available that I yhink that can be transformed into one, but it would be very incovienent to do something during class period, so it would have to be done in the summer.

As for the bathroom problem, the only solution would be to build more bathrroms, so it would oonly be a matter of finding the correct places to make some. But I don't know anything about plumbing, so maybe it's harder than I think.

For the parking spaces, the only thing that I can think of is to do an underground parking lot, but again, I know nothing about building, so mayble it's more complicated to build something like that.

In general I think that these changes would benefit everyone in the faculty, us, students, the teachers, and the faculty staff in general.

Hobbies

During my life I've had a few hobbies, like playing basketball or doing sports in general in school. There was a time, when I was around ten years old, that I was part of the Drama club in my school, we used to meet twice a week and do exercises related to corporal expressions, I think that helped me to get over my shy and quiet personality. When I was in High School I was also part of a catholic group for young people, but it felt more like a place to meet new people and make some good friends. But the hobby thet I like the most and the one that I've never left is watching tv and movies. I also like reading a lot, specially when I have free time.

I think that sports, in general, help a person to develop a healthy life, and basketball, like all of the team sports, helps you to learn to work in teams and respect and consider other people's actions. The drama club, that I was part of during two or three years, helped me mostly to develop my personality and express my feelings and opinion without fear of what other people might think or say. The catholic group that I was part of, helped me mostly to learn how to make new friends, how to respect other opinions and learn about different realities, since I had friends whose life was very different to mine. Watching and tv and going to the movies is not exactly a healthy habit, but I really enjoy watching a movie or following a tv series. I think that the most valued skill that I've gotten from watching lots of tv is the ability to understand and speak a decent English. I also learn a lot of popular culture with it, so it gives me something to talk about, and personally, I think that you can learn a lot from a tv show, in a life lessons kind of way, since it shows you people in situations that you can relate to, or people in extraordinary situations that are completly unreal but entertaining all the same. Reading have a similar impact, but more subdued, of the tv and the movies in my life.

As I said before, these hobbies have helped me to be who I am today, mostly since they helped me to learn to express myself, to accept other people, and myself, with their faults and values. Most of these hobbies put me in contact with other people, except watching tv and reading, but in an indirect kind of way, they still help me to develop socially spoecking, since when I have a problem or someone I know needs an advise, the "life lessons" that you can get from tv or reading a book are very helpful.

PS: Friends is my favourite tv show ogf all times.

The Holidays

In the summer I like going out of the city as much as I like staying in here. Here in Santiago there are many things to do, that I can't usually do because I'm too busy, like going to the movies, the mall, or just spending an afternoon in pool. On the other side, the prospect of going out of the city and spending a relaxing time in an unknown place is very exciting too, exploring an extrange city or getting to know other cultures is very appealing.

When I go on holidays, I usually go to the beach, a small beach that's forty five minutes away from Viña del Mar. My family owns a house there so we can go whenever we want for as long as we want to. This beach town is sorrounded by lots of other small beaches, so we have around 4 options of different beaches to go. When I was little, we, my family and I, used to go to the country, where we has distant relatives. They owned something like a farm, where they had animals and plantations of different vegetables. I don't remember much of my time there, but I do remember liking it because I got to ride a horse (or try to at least). There was other summers where i went to visit some small towns of the south of Chile, for a week or so, but I was doing some volunteer work, so it wasn't really vacations. There was also the summer when I went to Bariloche for the Study Tour with my classmates, we had a great time then.

For this summer there is nothing special planned so far, I know that'll Igo to our beach house with my family for a month or so, but aside from that there is nothing set in stone.

Summary of a career-related article from The Guardian

FOSSIL ARDI REVEALS THE FIRST STEPS OF THE HUMAN RACE

In 1992, fossil hunters discovered in Ethiopia what could have been a new species, and during the last 15 years, researchers were removing, preparing and studying every fragment to reach to the conclusion that, indeed, the remains were of a female of a new specie.

This fragments of skeleton belonged to Ardi, a female of the species Ardipithecus ramidus and it's considered the oldest human ancestor discovered so far (4.4 million years ago).

Ardi shares the height and weight of a chimp, and also their brain size, but skeletal evindence show that she was perfectly able to stand in 2 feet and walk upright. Although Ardi is very similar to a chimp or a gorilla, she has many primitive traits, which leads to the conclusion that chimps and other modern apes have also evolved from the comun ancestor.

Ardi, besides being able to walk upright, had opposable toes so she was able to swing in trees with no problems. Dental evidence suggests that her diet consisted in figs, fruits and small mammals. Both female and male had small canines, which suggests that males did not bare their teeth in battles for other females, unlike modern apes like the gorila, so we can asume that Ardipithecus was part of an established social group.

Some scientists say that the finding of Ardi is even more important than the finding of Lucy (Australopithecus Afarensis), others say that Ardi is actually direct ancestor of Lucy.

But the main importance of this finding is that "we now no longer have to guess about where we came from ... We now have an evidentiary basis for understanding that we didn't get here in the form we see today, we evolved," says Tim White (lead author of the study and professor of the University of California, Berkeley).

(The Guardian, Oct 1st, 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/oct/01/fossil-ardi-human-race)

What to do / Where to go in Santiago

When a tourist comes to Santiago, one of the first things he should do is get a map of the metro and a bip card if he doesn't have private transportation.

Some of the interesting places that a foreing person should visit is Plaza de Armas, where you can admire the old architecture of buildings like the Catedral and Correos de Chile, also, if you like to play chess, you can do it in one of the tables that are set in the park. After that you can go to La Piojera, where you can enjoy some of the traditional Chilean food and drinks. Another place to enjoy in Santiago is Quinta Normal, a very big park where, besides strolling around, you can visit the Museo de Ferrocarriles (Train Museum) and the Museo de Historia Natural (Natural History Museum).

Also very interesting is the Cerro San Cristóbal, where you can ride a bike uphill or take the Teleferico (cable car), there is also the Metropolitan Zoo and some nice places to rest and have a picnic. Then, after a day in the Cerro San Cristobal you can visit Bellavista, a bohemian neighbourhood where you can go party and dancing. After that, the morning after, you can go recover at the Mercado Central, a place where you can eat fresh sea products.

Besides visiting all of this places, a must for the tourist is actually talking with the locals, to get to know the Santiago life, the eclectic Chilean culture and how us Santiaguinos act in our daily life.

There are some other interesting neighbourhoods where you can have fun like Suecia neighbourhood or Plaza Ñuñoa, specifically La Batuta, a place with live music from the local and some international emergent artists. And other interesting parks like Parque O'Higgins, where there is a theather, an amusement park (Fantasilandia), a skating rink, and park stuff in general.

Summing up, the must do or go when visiting Santiago are some place of the above to party, another one to eat local food and one of the parks with interesting history, or visit all of them.