Visual Tools to Kindle Motivation
Panorama
Designing Digital Systems
Mind Over Matter
SQU Admits 3223 Students
News Update
Exporting Unprocessed
Fish Causes Loss
Department of Public
Relations and Information
Sultan Qaboos University
Issue 248
View Point
A Balanced Approach
In order to sustain the pace of development and progress that Sultanate
of Oman has been witnessing since 1970, economic diversification is important. Emphasising science, technology and innovation is important to
sustain the economic growth. This means universities and other tertiary institutions must design their courses in a way that brings forth professionals
that will take up roles in key sectors like engineering, scientific research and
other technical areas.
Mohamed Salem Al Ghailani
Editorial Supervision
Humaid Abdullah Al Adwani
Editor in Chief
M.K. Santhosh
Senior Editor
Ahlam Al Wahaibi
Design & Layout
Rashad Al Wahaibi
& Photography Dept., CET
Photography
If there is a gap between the job market requirements and the capabilities
of the graduates, the issue should be sorted out without further delay. For
instance, university curricula should focus on fields where job growth is
expected, such as manufacturing, entrepreneurship, agribusiness and the
service sector. There is a need to change tertiary education to focus more on
practice than theory to prepare graduates for the job market. Internship and
other training opportunities offered to students could help students to get
more hands on training and exposure to the real world.
Any university that is concerned about its responsibilities and service to
the nation, should sustain links with the public and private sector establishments and help align education programs with the short- and long-term
economic needs of the country. Universities need to make it mandatory that
graduates go for internships to acquire necessary on-the-job training. In addition, curricula should be changed with input from employers to make
sure the latest information, technology and practices are used when preparing students.
Oil sector and manufacturing will still have its place in the country. Research and innovation are crucial to sustain these sectors and to discover
new feasible energy sources for the future. As the nation is focussing now
on increase revenues through promoting tourism and other service based
sectors, the biggest source of new job growth tends to fall into the service
industry - a broad category that includes working in restaurants, providing health care and basic needs to elderly people, and working in retail.
The service economy from retail workers, to restaurant and fast-food chain
employees, to nurses and home health aides and landscapers has seen the
largest increase in jobs across the globe in the last few decades. A balanced
approach concentrating both on the traditional sectors and the emerging
fields is advisable.
Horizon invites contributions from SQU members of staff and faculty. Contributions in the form
of articles, news, travelogues, stories of unique and interesting experiences, encounters, etc., are
welcome. Contributions may be edited for the sake of clarity and length. Please send your contributions to horizon@squ.edu.om preferably, as MSWord attachments. Authors will be suitably
credited.
The views and opinions expressed in the articles published in this newsletter are those of the authors and
are not to be construed as the official views of the publication. Horizon is published three times a month
by the Department of Public Relations and Information, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 50, P.C.
123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
Phone: +968 24141045
E-mail: horizon@squ.edu.om
10 September 2012 P2
Fax: +968 24413 391
Website: www.squ.edu.om
News Update
SQU Admits 3223
Students
Sultan Qaboos University, through its Deanship of Admissions and Registration, admitted 3223 undergraduate students for the academic year 2012-2013 with an increase of
around 100 students compared with last year’s admissions.
SQU receives the list of Omani students eligible for admission to undergraduate courses fromthe Higher Education
Admission Centre (HEAC), functioning under the Ministry
ofHigher Education.
The College of Arts &Social Sciences received the maximum
number of undergraduate students this year which is 593 students, followed by the College of Science with 525 students,
College of Economics and Political Science with 520 students,
College of Engineering with 500 students, College of Agricultural & Marine Sciences with 330 students, College of Education with 300 students, College of Law with 200 students,
College of Medicine &Health Sciences with 155 students,
and College of Nursing with 100 students. SQU will accept a
number of Omani students transferred from Government and
private institutions this year who satisfy the transfer regulations. The final number of admissions will only be completed
when HEAC completes its allocation procedure which occurs
in a number of sequential rounds of offers to students.
Dr. Abdullah Al Badi, Dean of Admissions and Registration at SQU said that in order to simplify the students’ admission procedure for SQU, the Deanship improved
the newly introduced online system which allows the students to finalize their admission from their home computers by filling a certain form. He added that the
website that contains useful information for the new cohort, has been updated. The
classes for the new batch began on Saturday, 8th September.
The introductory program for the 27th batch concluded last week. Dr. Badr bin Hilal
Al Alawi, Dean of Student Affairs, said that the annual introductory program aims
at familiarising the new students with the academic and administrative staff and
formalities at the university. The two day introductory program concluded as the
students met with officials of the Main Library.
SQU, UAEU Conclude Forum
at Jabal Akhdhar
The 1st Students Forum between the Sultan Qaboos University and
the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) concluded at the Niyabat of Al Jabal Al Akhdhar in the Governorate of Al Dakhiliyah
recently. Participant students at the forum visited tourist sites in Al
Jabal Al Akhdhar, in addition to organizing cultural competitions,
sport activities and an introductory lecture on Al Jabal Al Akhdhar,
as well as a lecture on time management and first aid.
HE Dr. Ali bin Saud al Bimani, SQU Vice-Chancellor said that the
fraternal relation binding SQU and UAEU is an outcome of the
joint work and one of fruits of the Omani-UAE Joint Committee.
He added that the objective of the forum represents in the joint
co-operation between the two universities as the forum achieved
many academic and scientific gains.
Library for Visually
Impaired Students
An agreement was signed between Sultan Qaboos
University and Qalhat LNG to set up a special library
for the blind and visually impaired students at the
university’s main library premises. According to the
agreement signed by HE Dr. Ali bin Saud Al Bimani,
Vice Chancellor of Sultan Qaboos University, and
Khalid Al-Massan, Vice President for Corporate Affairs of Qalhat LNG, the company, as part of its corporate social responsibility, will bear the expenses
for setting up the special library at the university’s
Cultural Centre. The company’s policy earmarks one
percent of its annual net profit for different social
service initiatives and charity. SQU shall implement
the project within six months.
On the occasion of signing the agreement, Khalid
Al Massan said that this agreement is yet again a
testimony of Qalhat LNG commitment to its welldeveloped Social Investment Program adopted since
inception. “This reflects the Company’s dedication towards developing Omani society in different fields”. He also noted that this agreement reflected the strong cooperation between the Company and SQU. “This initiative came to enhance further
cooperation between Qalhat LNG and Sultan Qaboos University, and we hope the
project will achieve the desired results and goals in serving student with visual disabilities to contribute effectively in the development of their academic knowledge”,
added Al Massan.
10 September 2012 P3
Insight
Exporting Unprocessed Fish
Causes Economic Loss
A study conducted by researchers at Sultan Qaboos
University, which estimated the potential loss in economic activity to Oman resulting from exporting unprocessed fish, indicates that if fish exported between
2003 and 2007 had been processed in Oman, 479.7 to
829.5 million Omani Riyals in economic activity could
have been generated. It further says that between 2003
and 2007, if all the unprocessed fish exported had
been processed locally, between 0.874 and 1.818 billion Omani Riyals increase in income could have been
generated, with an additional income of up to 1.594
billion Omani Riyals through induced effects. The results of this study show that for every person the fish
processing industries could have employed (if all fish
processing was to be done in Oman) between 3 and 5
jobs could have been created in the other sectors of the
Oman economy. According to the researchers, these results, however, must be taken only as broad indicators.
“This is because the lack of input-output data (multiplier data) for Oman related to the fisheries sector led
us to use fish processing multipliers from other countries spanning from 1998 to 2007”, they said.
This economic study using multiplier effects approach, was done by Dr. Msafiri D. Mbaga, of the
Department of Natural Resource Economics, Dr.
Saud M. Al Jufaili, of the Department of Marine Science and Fisheries, and Ms. Mariam Al Belushi of
the Department of Natural Resource Economics. Dr.
Mbaga said that fish export is a significant earner
of foreign exchange to the Oman national economy,
ranking second after oil exports and first among
the non-oil exports. “According to the Oman 2020
vision, the fisheries sector is expected to contribute
around 2% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by
2020 compared to 1.1% recorded in 1995. Over the
years, Oman fish exports have increased with increased earnings. According to Dr. Mbaga, despite
the increase in fish exports over the years, Oman is
not benefiting fully from its fish exports, because
most of the fish exported from Oman to UAE and
other GCC countries is unprocessed with no value
added, essentially exporting jobs to importing countries”, he added.
10 September 2012 P4
Dr. Msafiri D. Mbaga
Oman exports to GCC
is quite a significant
share of total exports, ranging from 50% to 73% over
the 1997–2007 period, mostly to Dubai, Doha, and
Al-Katif in Saudi Arabia. Most of these fish exports
were in fresh form, with little processing and value adding. The Dubai wholesale fish market is the
dominant market in the region, attracting fish from
various countries both GCC and non-GCC. Of the
total Omani fish exported to GCC, 75% is exported
to Dubai, and of the total fish sold in the Dubai market, 60% is Omani fish, based on Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MoAF) statistics.
The study suggests that by processing fish in Oman,
fish processors would bring more money into the
Oman economy and would create jobs by employing people to work in the fish processing plants.
There will also be an increase in demand for fish by
processing plants and this will lead to more fishing
jobs and an increase in demand for fishing equip-
ment such as boats, fishing nets, engines, etc. The industries and businesses supporting the fishing sector will
expand and create more jobs and in the
process these industries and businesses
will purchase goods and services from
secondary industries that are not directly related to fish processing and the
government will earn tax revenue from
businesses. These industries would experience increased output as a result
of increased demand for goods and
services by households receiving salaries and wages from the fish processing
sector. In order to stop the economic
losses due to the lack of sufficient fish
processing infrastructure in Oman,
the researchers suggest that the policy
makers in Oman should create incentives for either private investment or
jointly public and private investment
in fish processing so that fish can be
processed in Oman to create jobs and
stimulate economic activities in other
related sectors of the Oman economy.
Another recommendation is to help artisanal fishermen who are the majority
to form cooperatives or fishing groups
that will eventually, with government
help, evolve into fish processing
cooperative groups owned and
run by the members themselves. Such processing
facilities are quintessential to reducing
poverty and are an
efficient way for the
fishermen and the
country to benefit from
fisheries resources. Yet another recommendation is to create the necessary
infrastructure that will facilitate efficient flow of market information (e.g.,
fish price information) to fish market
participants. The information to be
provided should cover domestic markets and export markets such as Dubai
Central Market.
According to Dr. Mbaga, it is the need
of the hour to make sure the proposal
to establish a wholesale fish market
in Oman becomes a reality as soon as
possible because such a market would
go a long way towards addressing the
deficiencies inherent in the current fish
marketing system in Oman. This study
has been published in the Journal of
Food Products Marketing Volume 18,
Issue 3, April 19th, 2012. It is available
at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/
abs/10.1080/10454446.2012.666440
Mind Over Matter
Designing Digital Systems
The Centre for Community Service & Continuing Education at SQU
organized a week long short course on “FPGA Based Digital System
Design Using Verilog-HDL” recently. Delegates from various government and private institutions participated in this hands on training.
The course logistics was led by Dr. Afaq Ahmad of the Electrical &
Computer Engineering Department from College of Engineering at
SQU. He said that the importance of FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate
Array, a type of logic chip that can be programmed) and HDL (hardware description language) programming are growing each day, and
learning, adapting and embedding these technologies sooner will be
better. Dr Ahmad also highlighted the availability of fully equipped
lab facilities for FPGA and HDL programming in the Digital System
Laboratory of his Department.
Speaking on FPGA and HDL programming Dr. Ahmad said that if we
look back the recent year’s developments of wireless and wired digital
communication the trend shows an exponential growth. The driving
forces behind this growth are consumers, bandwidth-hungry explosive
applications hence forcing a short product life to market. During the past
decade the world observed the migration from low-speed dial-up modem connections of a few K-bits per second to DSL broadband speeds
of M-bits per second that changed the necessity of life style of every
common man to use and acquire the basic knowledge of using a computer. Road ahead is taking the world to a migration, perhaps taking
fixed point wireless connectivity of a few M-Bits per second using 802.1x
standards to the true anytime, anywhere, anyplace mobile wireless connectivity likely to be offered by new technologies. Further, adding to this
is the continued demand for very high-speed radar, defense systems,
and space-based communications. The solution lies in FPGA and HDL
programming, the best to offer flexibility, reprogram-ability, and incredible levels of processing power for various applications in wireless, video
and image processing, military, medical, industrial, display, consumer,
aerospace and automotive.
The rapid advances in the FPGA technology along with high-levels of
system integration have made FPGAs the preferred platform not only
for rapid prototyping for ASICs but also for production of digital embedded systems and DSP communication market. The 28-nanometer
(nm) FPGAs which can host designs as complex as a five-million-gate
ASIC is a good news for an estimated 90 percent of ASIC designers who
use FPGAs to check their work in physical prototypes. Further, during
the process of FPGA based designs, project-management techniques
can help teams in developing new versions of their designs more quick-
ly, trading off the quality of results for reduced runtimes. Eventually,
though, a team’s attention will turn to meeting the final design goals,
particularly in terms of power consumption and performance. Design
teams can manage dynamic power by utilizing features that generate
switching activity during synthesis, which can be used for power analysis and driving power optimizations with FPGA vendor tools.
FPGA is already a hit in the high-end market, which finds FPGA’s role increasingly of importance due to the design flexibility offered by FPGAs.
Due to fall in cost of FPGA and also power consumption to some extent,
FPGA is increasingly finding importance in many medium and low-end
custom electronic design applications. One can predict the future market
of FPGA which in 2010 only in USA shown a market growth by 30% to
reach in rocking business of US$ 4 billion. The beauty of programmable
semiconductor chip industry is the range of applications it can address.
Talking about the FPGA and HDL facilities of Digital System Lab Dr. Ahmad told that the facility is built through ALTERA@ university program.
Under this inexpensive program the experimental set-ups are built on
DE0 Development and Education Board based on Cyclone III (EP3C16
FPGA) which offers with up to 200K logic elements, 8 M-bits of embedded memory, and 396 embedded multipliers. Cyclone III offers lowest
power, high functionality FPGA with the lowest cost. Cyclone III FPGA
holds promise of delivering even in harsh conditions and works well
in temperature ranges of - 40 degrees to 85 degrees Centigrade. In near
future Cyclone III LS devices will be acquired which are the first to offer a suite of security features at the silicon, software, and intellectual
property (IP) level on a low power, high functionality FPGA. This suite
of security features protects an IP from tampering, reverse engineering,
and cloning. Additionally, these devices enable to introduce redundancy
in a single chip using design separation, which reduces the size, weight,
and power of applications.
Dr. Ahmad told that the participants worked with industry-standard
FPGA design tools and learned the complete design flow. They acquired
the concepts and practiced with different methodologies of digital system
design. The course gave a professional platform of learning and practicing Verilog-HDL programming to the participants. The course gave a
comprehensive exposition of recent developments and future roadmaps
of world’s semiconductor industries. By the end of the completion of
the course all the participants were able to write the HDL programs for
various proto type systems took their implementation onto real FPGA
devices independently in the Digital System Laboratory.
10 September 2012 P5
News Round Up
Bimani Receives
IAEA Experts
HE Dr. Ali bin Saud Al Bimani, Vice Chancellor of SQU, received in his office, a team
of experts from the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) consisting of David
J. Schlyer, Senior Scientist at Brookhaven
National Laboratory, USA, and Manhar
M. Vora, Chairman, Cyclotron & Radiopharmaceuticals Department, King Faisal
Specialist Hospital & Research Centre,
Saudi Arabia. They discussed on boosting
the ties between SQU and IAEA through
research and development initiatives in
nuclear medicine and medial physics.
The experts held discussions with authorities in the College of Medicine & Health
Sciences and SQU Hospital on molecular
imaging facilities and laboratories at the university. The plans of SQU for establishing cyclotron/positron emission tomography (PET) units and other advanced medical imaging techniques at SQU were also discussed. Other topics included present facilities and future plans for
education and training programs in nuclear sciences, pharmacy and biochemistry. Dr. Hilal Al
Sabti, Deputy Director General of SQU Hospital and Dr. Faizal Al Azri from the Radiology &
Molecular Imaging Department of SQU Hospital attended the discussion. During their visit in
Oman, the experts presented their views on technical, physical and human resources requirements of Cyclotron / PET radiopharmaceutical facility in the country.
Book on Complex Binary Number System
Worldwide publishing group Springer recently released
the book “Complex Binary Number System” authored
by Dr. Tariq Jamil, an academic in the Department of
Electrical & Computer Engineering at Sultan Qaboos
University. This book is a compilation of the entire research work on the topic of Complex Binary Number
System (CBNS) carried out by the author as the principal
investigator and members of his research groups at various universities during the years 1992-2012.
According to the publishers, this work will be of interest
to anyone involved in computer arithmetic and digital
logic design and is expected to kindle renewed enthusiasm among the engineers working in the areas of digital signal and image processing for developing newer
and efficient algorithms and techniques incorporating
CBNS.
Dr. Tariq Jamil is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer. He joined SQU in
September 2000 and before this he was a lecturer at the
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and
the University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia. He
has around 18 years of teaching experience. His recent
teaching and research areas include computer architecture, parallel processing, computer arithmetic, and cryptography. Dr. Jamil is a senior member of IEEE, USA and
a member of IEEE Computer Society, USA; IET, UK; a
chartered engineer of the Engineering Council, UK; and
a registered professional engineer, Pakistan.
Workshop on Industrial Biotechnology
Ms. Aisha Salim Al-Wahaibi, a Research Assistant at the Center of
Excellence in Marine Biotechnology, was nominated by SQU to attend the International Workshop on Industrial Biotechnology held
in Islamabad, Pakistan on July 10-12, 2012. It was organized by
COMSTECH, a Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and
Technological Cooperation of fifty-seven member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Workshop topics included
10 September 2012 P6
the role of industrial biotechnology, environmental friendly biotechnological industry, biotransformation for production of pharmaceuticals products, industrial wastes and their management,
fermenter design and operation and enzymatic remediation of industrial wastewater. These topics were delivered by international
speakers. Oman is one of the member states of the OIC.
Panorama
Visual Tools to Kindle Motivation
By: Sylvia James D’mello
English Language and
Humanities Department
Scientific College of Design
Muscat
“My students are so unmotivated!”
We hear this utterance umpteen times. Lack of motivation is the biggest obstacle faced by Instructors in the teaching profession. Furthermore, English as a Second Language (ESL) classes are more apt to
create demotivation because the explanation is given in English and
students find it difficult to comprehend. However, the good news is
that the application of humorous visuals is one of the methodologies for equipping teachers with proven techniques to develop and
increase students’ motivation. A Humorous visual strategy incorporates a humorous theme relevant to the content and helps motivate
students to focus and retain content learned in class.
Why use Humor in Class?
Humor is an effective tool in motivating students as it
lowers the affective filter and promotes pro-social behavior that is necessary for second language acquisition.
Student survey conducted at Scientific College of Design
(SCD) placed humor as one of the most effective motivational strategy for learning a foreign language. Humor can
serve a variety of purposes for the teacher. It can be used
as an ice breaker to facilitate creativity. Through humor, a
teacher may create a positive classroom climate for learning. This can boost self-esteem of shy students and they
will feel comfortable and confident to participate. It will
put them at ease and make the learning process more enjoyable. They will be more willing to participate and take
risks in using their second language in a classroom that allows them to do so without fear of criticism and ridicule.
The Merging of Humor and Modern Technology
Research has proved that video effectively communicates
complex information to students and makes the right side
of the brain (responsible for visualization) and left side of
the brain (responsible for reasoning) work together more
synergistically to grab students’ attention and increase
understanding. The merger of Humor - the best medicine
to lower the affective filter and our digital experts - generation of adolescents engrossed in technology signals
the evolution of humorous videos. Research has proved
that the learning potential is 50% higher when teaching is
connected with visual input. Humorous visuals (humor +
video) when incorporated are a fabulous way to develop
motivation in students that second language acquisition
requires and has proven to be one of the successful teaching strategy at SCD. Learning Outcomes
1. Mesmerizes and grabs students’ attention
2. Fosters creativity and imagination
3. Builds a positive and supportive teacher-student
relationship
4. Increases memory of content
5. Motivates and instills confidence in students
6. Makes the learning process more meaningful and
fun
7. Improves student participation and collaboration
8. Constructs a bridge from the classroom world to the
world beyond it.
Conclusion
Teaching communicative skills is an important part of
second language learning. Humorous Videos provide
a funny environment where meaningful communication takes place. It creates a classroom environment
where students will laugh and talk without fear. This
may cause digression, but that might be a good thing.
They’ll talk in English. Adapt as necessary. Prompt
students to speak more. Various activities can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic interactive skills necessary for life. The important feature
of humorous video clips lies in their ability not only to
present complete communicative situations, but also
to motivate students to write. They will collaborate,
talk, laugh and write about the incident they saw on
the video. Hence a challenging task of speaking and
writing will be accomplished with ease and confidence.
There are thousands of short humorous videos on the
web that work very well for teaching and many can
be found on youtube.com, collegehumor.com, funnyordie.com, etc. Teachers need to understand the
ways in which these resources can be applied to make
a significant difference in student learning and to liven
up the classroom. They simply have to take the time
to look them over and be a little creative about how to
put them into class. These Humorous videos use funny authentic and real life situations to stimulate the
brain and increase learning because students can now
connect the new material with the funny video, thereby storing the information in long-term memory.
10 September 2012 P7
Straight Talk
Natalie Lafferty
Mrs. Natalie Lafferty is a Lecturer in
e-Learning at the University of Dundee Medical School in the United
Kingdom. She is a graduate in Combined Science in Applied Biology
and Geology. As lecturer in e-learning Natalie is the e-Learning lead
for the Medical School and working
with clinical teaching staff to develop online teaching resources to support the undergraduate curriculum.
She gave a talk on “Connecting with
the curriculum: Medical Education
in the digital age” at the International Conference for Medical Students
in the GCC countries held at SQU.
Horizon: Could you please give an outline of your
talk at the conference?
Natalie: We are living in a world that is changing
rapidly particularly in terms of technology. Developments in new learning technologies and online platforms have greatly influenced medical education like
many other disciplines. In the past students visited
libraries to gather information and read textbooks to
build on the learning in class room lectures and clinical training. Today, medical students and professionals
can find information online 24/7. People can google
key words to find information and resources in medical
education in learning repositories. The possibilities of
virtual learning environments (VLEs) have brought a
sea change to medical education and medical institutions across the world. Beyond the VLE so many teaching resources are available online, effectively creating
a virtual medical school. Students can network with
other learners, thanks to social networking tools such
as the Facebook, Twitter and access teaching resources
via video sharing sites like Youtube. In my talk I outlined how medical students and professionals could
make use of these online tools towards networking
with other medical students and those who work in the
same field around the world. Through online networking platforms, medical students can share and discover
resources and study materials with other students in a
different country or continent.
Horizon: What are the other major online tools that
medical students could make use of?
Natalie: Blogs offer much potential for medical education and can be used by students or groups to record
information and reflect on their learning on a regular
basis. The commenting features of a blog can be used
to get feedback or answers to the questions from those
who access and read the site. Free screencasting tools
can be used to create and share video tutorials. Students can use these to create peer-teaching resources.
Teachers could also use them, for example, recording
an X ray image, using a screen casting tool and highlighting the pathology and key features of the image as
it relates to a particular patient scenario. Sharing such
resources online, can support effective and useful feedback between students and teachers. Social bookmarking tools can be used to catalogue useful websites and
share with classmates. Citation management tools can
be used for referencing academic research papers and
supporting collaborative research. By simply typing in
key words or phrases you can find useful resources and
begin to identify specialists in a particular field who are
curating good quality content relevant to your studies
or specialty. An advantage of social bookmarking and
citation management tools is that reliable resources can
be found very quickly. The important key to using these
tools is to establish connections and build a personal learning networking through these online platforms. Once connections are established with
those who have similar interests or who work in the same profession, information can start to come to you rather than always having to search for
it. In this busy world of information and communication technologies, we
can feel like we are suffering from information overload. However, though
judicious use of social media and other online tools, we can filter information and have the right sort of information be pushed to us. This can help
save a lot of time.
Can virtual learning environment be considered as a substitute to classroom learning?
Horizon:
Natalie: The digital learning environment is not a substitute for classroom and face-to-face clinical teaching and experience. Rather online learning serves to complement and supplement face-to-face learning. For medical students teaching and learning in the clinical environment is absolutely
essential. The digital learning environment, however, offers the potential
for establishing connections, networking, discussion and collaboration
with students and doctors in other institutions or countries who have similar interests. This can be particularly helpful for students who may be on
clinical attachments or electives and for distance learning too. Even though
people may be hundreds of miles apart, social media tools offer a kind of
social experience that was previously not possible..
Horizon: Digital indiscretions is a major issue with medical students or
professionals using online tools for sharing information, isn’t it?
Natalie: Today, amidst the flurry of social media and fluency in online
social dialogue care must be taken not to breach health privacy and confidentiality issues. Consequently medical professionals and students need to
think and consider what they may post and disclose online, as breaching
patient confidentiality could just be the click of a button away. Both doctors and students should be aware of issues around digital professionalism
and their responsibilities with regards ethics and good medical practice.
Networking with other professionals and engaging in discussion via social
media can be enriching and support lifelong learning. These advantages of,
social media apart however, individuals need to be aware when to exercise
caution.