When it comes to teaching there can be benefits from lecturing to a class so as people can listen to what is being taught and take their own notes on the topic, but there seem to be more when it comes to blogging when compared to other methods.
When a student is required to blog and find information on topics on their own it helps them to develop the ability to weed out poor sources on topics and find important and relevant information on their own. Once this information is found, the students would then need to find a way to make their blog posts informative in their own way without stealing their information. This makes the student read thoroughly and gain a better understanding of what is trying to be taught because they can find the information from many different sources instead of just a lecture or video. The use of many sources also helps because it gives the student a chance at practicing the ways of properly citing their sources as not to steal copyright information or plagiarize. Once the student has found a way to organize their thoughts, they have to type everything out in their post which leaves it open for comments and criticism on the topics mentioned in their post. These comments can help them understand further what was trying to be taught (if they missed the mark on what they should have really found) and can also help them to figure out what to look for next time and/or how to write better posts in the future.
While yes, lectures can be informative, they seem to drag on for most and professors or lecturers tend to lose their audiences attention due to people becoming bored or antsy while being forced to sit and pay attention for longer periods of time. With this being said, blogging provides people an opportunity to find necessary information on their own and also does so in an interesting way and can even present the information in several different ways which will help to keep people interested in the topics as well as keep basic attention to what needs to be done.
Personally, I prefer blogging over a classroom setting, because while yes, the classroom provides the direct connection between students and professors, I find myself as one of those people that loses interest in a topic over time, but if I have to blog about something, I find it exciting that I have to find my own resources and actually read about topics through articles or journals and learn that way instead of through a presentation or lecture. It gives me more freedom and provides my own learning experience in a way that I know works for me, without providing the stress of losing attention and possibly missing something important. Going out and finding my own information and reading articles that relate to topics mentioned provide a better understanding of what was intended to be learned instead of just being fed facts and information. Reading articles and talking about how they relate or writing about them in my own terms helps to make the information stick and make it make more sense to me in the long run.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Radiation Measurements
After watching the videos shared and reading the information provided about radiation measurements used (links provided at end), it would be understandable if people would get confused as to exactly how much radiation they may have or may be exposed to. There seems to be plenty of different measurements due to different amounts, due to different types of radiation or exposures and also different amounts based as to what someone would be exposed to compared to what is actually absorbed through the skin during an exposure.
As the website for the CDC shows, there are different units of measurement for radiation as to what is being emitted and what the actual exposure to a person is. The conventional unit for radiation being emitted is the curie or "Ci" which was named after Marie Curie (for her discoveries throughout the late 1800's, for which she won a Nobel prize in 1911. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html), but it also states that there is an SI unit which is the becquerel or "Bq" (Named after Henri Becquerel for his discovery of radiation in the late 1800's http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/becquerel-facts.html). This alone would be confusing to the general public if reported by the media. Most people don't understand the units of measurement when dealing with radiation, yet alone lethal amounts. If the media were to report units such as these, it may come off more severe than intended because of lack of information provided as to what would be harmful, but it could also be less severe because the units might be small in comparison to other known units of measurement. If the units seem smaller the people may not see these exposures as a real threat and take them carelessly and listen to potential hazards.
The article from the CDC then goes on to explain the comparisons between the two units mentioned above and shows that one curie or "Ci" is the equivalent of 37 billion becquerel "Bq". Therefore if the media were to use the curie measurement, it may seem like a much smaller number (37 billion times smaller) and the general public may not see it as much of a threat, but if they were to use the Becquerel unit, it would be a much larger number and may raise some alarms.
As stated earlier, there are also different measurements for the actual exposure one may face from radiation and these are radiation absorbed dose or "rad" and the SI unit of gray or "Gy". These levels are also very different, similarly to the Ci and Bq mentioned before, granted the difference isn't quite as drastic, but it is still enough that it may add confusion to what the media is reporting and what is threatening. One Gy unit is the equivalent of 100 rad units, therefore if the media reported levels in Gy units, the number would be smaller and make the situation less severe, while if they used the rad units, the number would be larger which would draw some attention to what was really happening.
Given all of the units of measurement for radiation levels being emitted/potential exposures and also for the actual absorption through the human skin, the media needs to be careful how they present the information and provide more insight to the people so that they can understand what is really happening and the potential hazards to their full extent.
http://www.emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/measurement.asp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-BXmlYouWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB-K78L8oNI
As the website for the CDC shows, there are different units of measurement for radiation as to what is being emitted and what the actual exposure to a person is. The conventional unit for radiation being emitted is the curie or "Ci" which was named after Marie Curie (for her discoveries throughout the late 1800's, for which she won a Nobel prize in 1911. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html), but it also states that there is an SI unit which is the becquerel or "Bq" (Named after Henri Becquerel for his discovery of radiation in the late 1800's http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/becquerel-facts.html). This alone would be confusing to the general public if reported by the media. Most people don't understand the units of measurement when dealing with radiation, yet alone lethal amounts. If the media were to report units such as these, it may come off more severe than intended because of lack of information provided as to what would be harmful, but it could also be less severe because the units might be small in comparison to other known units of measurement. If the units seem smaller the people may not see these exposures as a real threat and take them carelessly and listen to potential hazards.
The article from the CDC then goes on to explain the comparisons between the two units mentioned above and shows that one curie or "Ci" is the equivalent of 37 billion becquerel "Bq". Therefore if the media were to use the curie measurement, it may seem like a much smaller number (37 billion times smaller) and the general public may not see it as much of a threat, but if they were to use the Becquerel unit, it would be a much larger number and may raise some alarms.
As stated earlier, there are also different measurements for the actual exposure one may face from radiation and these are radiation absorbed dose or "rad" and the SI unit of gray or "Gy". These levels are also very different, similarly to the Ci and Bq mentioned before, granted the difference isn't quite as drastic, but it is still enough that it may add confusion to what the media is reporting and what is threatening. One Gy unit is the equivalent of 100 rad units, therefore if the media reported levels in Gy units, the number would be smaller and make the situation less severe, while if they used the rad units, the number would be larger which would draw some attention to what was really happening.
Given all of the units of measurement for radiation levels being emitted/potential exposures and also for the actual absorption through the human skin, the media needs to be careful how they present the information and provide more insight to the people so that they can understand what is really happening and the potential hazards to their full extent.
http://www.emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/measurement.asp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-BXmlYouWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB-K78L8oNI
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