Tech Chapter 7 Assignment

According to Fortune, the iPhone is the friendliest mobile device for individuals who are visually impaired. (Wally, 2015) One  iPhone app that has been developed for use by visually impaired technology users is called BlindSquare, which seeks to help those who cannot see navigate the world around them just as someone with flawless vision can. Blindsquare utilizes information provided by the social media check-in app Foursquare in combination with the iPhone's pre-installed VoiceOver application, to provide a sound-based map of locations. Users can verbally request directions while the app is open, and BlindSquare reads street names, surrounding locations, and addresses aloud. BlindSquare also features various categories of locations, including entertainment, shopping, food, and education. The app costs $14.99 in the App Store and supports 26 languages. (Pan, 2012)

Another smartphone app developed to aid those who are visually impaired is called EyeNote, which is free to download from the App Store, and was developed by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This app was designed to assist blind and visually impaired individuals with recognition and identification of Federal Reserve paper currency. The user simply snaps a photo of the money in question with their iPhone's camera, and EyeNote verbally relays what the note is to the user. This app can identify partially visible currency (ie: a bill being held in someone's hand), inform the user whether the front or the back of the bill is facing upwards (for use in vending machine situations), and can relay information in English and Spanish. EyeNote does not require a data connection to run, nor does it require a phone camera that has flash capabilities, and it has a 2-4 second information response time. (http://www.eyenote.gov)

Smartphones have become a critical element in healthcare in third world countries. While many people in these countries do not have access to a laptop or desktop computer, they do have smartphones, which has made these devices instrumental to the operation of their daily lives. Similarly, smartphones are a key resource to non-native healthcare workers doing outreach in these countries. The company eHealth Africa, for example, developed an app for Android phones that allowed medical caseworkers to track individuals who'd come into contact with Ebola patients. By utilizing technology to make this information more widely accessible, eHealth Africa's app was able to cut the reporting time for new Ebola cases by 75%. (Gable, 2015)

Another way that smartphones aid healthcare in third world countries is via SMS messaging to remind patients to take their medications. The app SIMpill was first developed for use in 2007 as a way to ensure that tuberculosis patients took their medicine. The results of the first trial of the app showed that 90% of TB patients followed through with taking their medication, versus the 22-60% of people who followed through without reminders from the app. SIMpill operates via a prescription bottle with an embedded phone chip. This chip communicates to users when it's time to take their medication (via the input of their medication schedule into the chip) and also alerts users if they are about to take too much medication. The SIMpill bottle is tamper-proof and stores all patient interactions with it, only alerting the patient if they have missed a dose of medication. (Saran, 2009)

Wally, M. (2015, June 25). Fortune. The Seeing iPhone is Here with Apps for the Visually Impaired. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from http://fortune.com/2015/06/25/apps-for-blind-community/

Pan, J. (2012, June 1). Mashable. BlindSquare: App Uses Foursquare Data to Help the Blind Navigate Streets. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from http://mashable.com/2012/06/01/blindsquare-app/#m5LSCrq8Pkqz

(n.d.). EyeNote App Overview. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from http://www.eyenote.gov

Gable, E. (2015, February 5). Developing Countries Lead the Way in Mobile Health Technologies. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from http://healthmarketinnovations.org/blog/developing-countries-lead-way-mobile-health-technologies

Saran, C. (2009, March ). Computer Weekly. How Mobile Phones Support Healthcare in the Developing World. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/How-mobile-phones-support-healthcare-in-the-developing-world

"Frontline: A Class Divided" video response.

I really enjoyed A Class Divided, not only because I found it interesting, but also because I had read previously about Mrs. Elliott's experiment, and was eager to see the actual video footage of what occurred. While I think that the experiment was carried out flawlessly, I couldn't help but feel bad for the third graders while I watched the footage of Mrs. Elliott's classroom. Although I understand that the message of the experiment would not have been properly conveyed without the example of hands-on prejudice and discrimination, some of the children's faces showed such hurt and confusion that it was at times difficult to watch. You could clearly tell that some of these children didn't understand why their friends were suddenly worth more or less based on something as silly as eye color, and yet they still blindly followed the teacher's example. The fact that Mrs. Elliott's students were so quick to take her prejudiced words as gospel just goes to show that, per our textbook, prejudice is easily picked up in childhood because we are more likely to take everything we hear at face value, and believe it. (Bucher, 73)

The thing that shocked me the most about the video was how freely third graders were to toss out racial slurs when discussing with their teacher members of other races. When Mrs. Elliott asked her class how members of minority races were treated, the children were ready with a handful of accurate examples. Many people assume that children are blind to the problems of the world, or that they don't notice certain things because they are too busy "being kids", but the Riceville students proved just how astute children can be. Several students freely tossed out the N-word without a second thought because they likely had heard it spoken by their parents or somewhere in the media. These kids knew it was a "bad word", but they didn't understand what exactly the impact of such a slur was.

Another aspect of the experiment that I found related with our reading for this module was the concept of coping fatigue. (Bucher, 76) When brown-eyed children were the lower class on the first day of the experiment, it took them significantly longer to complete a learning exercise than it did on the second day of the experiment, where they were considered the superior group in class. As the minority group on the first day, the brown-eyed children were too busy shouldering the burden of being discriminated against, called names and treated with disdain from their blue-eyed classmates. This burden distracted them and exhausted them, making it so that they could not focus as easily on classroom tasks; therefore, they suffered from a degree of coping fatigue. However, when the brown-eyed children believed that they were the superior group, they didn't have to worry about name-calling and mistreatment, and they were able to focus 100% of their attention and energy on schoolwork.

 Peters, W. (Producer). (1985). A Class Divided [Video file]. USA: Frontline. Retrieved September 30, 2016, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/class-divided/

 Bucher, R. D. (2015). Diversity Consciousness: Opening Our Minds to People, Cultures, and Opportunities (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.