• Innovation – Life, Inspired . Miracle Cell | PBS

  A young mother, the victim of an accident that left her paralyzed, travels to Portugal for a radical treatment. Adult stem cells will be harvested from her nose, amplified, and injected into her spine. The hope is that the cells will heal her damaged spinal cord. This episode of INNOVATION looks at regenerative medicine and follows spinal cord and heart patients undergoing stem cell treatments — the tip of the iceberg in a promising but controversial field. Find out more about this episode or get the video.

  tags: video, stem cells

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

To give you a taste I’ve embedded the following two videos on Viral DNA packaging.  To get the full experience, please view both videos.

Does this sound familiar?  Today we were short staffed because of a requirement to deliver a standardized computer test to all the eighth grade students.  I had to cover for another teacher who was assigned to proctor the test.   My first two classes doubled in size and I was in a room adjacent to the testing lab, which shared a common non-soundproof wall.

So what do I do?

In another time and place, I would be scrambling to come up with a plan to keep all my pre-teens (7th graders) quiet and happy.  But today I had no problems.  With a classroom full of computers and a website that supports all kinds of learning, I was able to direct all the students to a thoroughly engaging website called MedMyst: Medical Mysteries on the Web.

The students were captivated by the storyline that placed them in a simulation of future world of 2254 after a great plague.  They played the role of a new recruit being trained to solve medical mysteries.  Students are exposed to a wealth of high quality information on epidemiology, all in a game-like environment.  Each student proceeded at their own pace in learning pathways of their own choosing.  The students were focused, quiet, happy and most importantly learning about disease and pathogens.  I believe that they learned in a much deeper and more satisfying way than I could ever provide using the traditional (boring) methods.

There is enough on this one website for several forty-five minute period classes.  To me this is a glimpse into the future of education.  Online game-like learning modules like these will fully engage students and allow them to differentiate their own learning while providing the best information the web can provide.

Hurrah for technology.  I believe in the future!