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According to a Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project study, "The Mobile Difference," nearly 40 percent Americans have positive and improving attitudes about their mobile communication devices, thereby further immersing themselves into a more robust digital lifestyle.
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How will broadband affect burgeoning controversies over health care? The answers to this question and more came courtesy of a Broadband Cenus-hosted, hour-long panel discussion. View a video of the discussion.
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President Obama on Innovation and Sustainable Growth. President Barack Obama has new plans to strengthen the economy that will all favor people with hi-tech educations.
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Elevate Miami, a comprehensive Digital Inclusion program launched by the city of Miami, aims to serve youth, low-income families, minorities, seniors and residents facing barriers to digital inclusion.
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The Knight Center of Digital Excellence held its first Stimulus Webcast Session for Knight communities and program directors July 23. Watch it online now.
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By pushing hard on broadband, lawmakers hope to close the "digital divide" that has long separated rural America. In doing so, they hope to give rural consumers access to the same sorts of high-speed services and opportunities - think telemedicine, distance-learning and Web-based commerce - that city dwellers have enjoyed for years.
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Posts Tagged ‘hospital’
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Kimberlee McKee, president of the Downtown Akron Partnership (DAP), spoke with us about her vision for the new Connect Akron Wireless Network, which will cover a 10-square-mile area of the central city and will serve between 80,000 and 90,000 Akron residents and over 30,000 downtown workers when complete later this year.
Q: DAP refers to this wireless corridor as a “living room.” Can you expand on that?
A: Downtown is the center of the community. It represents the heart and soul of the area. It is often described as the community living room – a place where all people, regardless of income, race, age, gender, etc. – can feel at home.
Q: DAP also anticipates more people downtown as a result of the network. How so?
A: It is our hope that the introduction of the wireless network will encourage businesses and other development, attracting students from the University of Akron. As more students take advantage of residential opportunities downtown in the coming years, we hope they will spend their free time at coffee shops, restaurants, the main library, the Akron Art Museum, Lock 3 Park and all of the resources downtown has to offer. The wireless network is a wonderful feature to help encourage students to incorporate downtown in to their daily lives.
Q: Does DAP have any specific plans at this point for drawing on the wireless network to promote downtown Akron?
A: In June we launched a redesign of our website, www.downtownakron.com, featuring interactive maps, a comprehensive calendar of downtown events and links to our social networking outlets to better serve downtown visitors. Recently Downtown Akron Partnership’s marketing efforts have been more toward email blasts and social networking. With the wireless network in place, more people than ever will have unrestricted access to all of the information DAP provides about downtown Akron.
Q: How might communications change during major downtown events, such as FirstNight?
A: We’ve been approached with ideas on ways to maximize the impact of the wireless network downtown such as digital kiosks and Bluetooth marketing. Moving forward, we will continue to work with the groups that are developing these ideas and possibly market downtown activities through these mediums.
Tags: Akron Art Museum, Bluetooth, broadband, community, Connect Akron, Connect Akron Wireless Network, DAP, digital, Downtown Akron Partnership, economy, education, healthcare, high-speed, hospital, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Kimberlee McKee, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, library, Lock 3 Park, Ohio
Posted in Digital news, Guest Viewpoints, Knight Center of Digital Excellence | No Comments »
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
The Knight Center of Digital Excellence has been actively involved in the planning of an innovative, IT workforce development program in the Knight community of Lexington, Ky.
YouthTech will have participants (18 to 24 years old) take part in training programs that include technology classes, mentoring, personal development and workforce training. In addition, all participants receive case management and referral services as appropriate.
The program is designed to address four key areas:
• Workforce development: Overall, the goal of YouthTech is that students will ultimately develop into self-reliant, productive adults working in the IT field. But in addition to students working to become IT-competent, they’ll work to become “employable.” This includes developing skills in resume writing and delivery; bolstering interview techniques; and developing professional habits such as punctuality, dependability and workplace-appropriate communication.
• Education: The program isn’t designed to simply teach students basic information technology skills. Training will focus on participants obtaining industry-standard certifications, such as Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) Server 2008 Administration Training, MCTS Application Development Training and others.
• Community service: To complete certification, students will demonstrate skills through service learning projects. As participants progress through the program, projects will be identified comparable with their skill levels. Projects may include teaching a computer literacy course, designing or performing maintenance on the website of a local non-profit organization, or even working on community initiatives to provide wireless Internet access at a reduced rate to low-income neighborhoods in their area.
• Partnerships with local businesses: Plans for YouthTech include the promotion of partnerships with local businesses for mentorship, internship and possible job placement. An interesting aspect of the program will be the individual success plans developed for each participant. For some participants, this could be job readiness upon completion of high school, or admission into and success in a two-year vocational training program or a four-year degree program. Regardless of the goal, local mentors will be assigned to students to foster a relationship that helps carry the student through the program and into post-program success.
If successful, YouthTech will be a high-impact addition to the collection of Lexington-area programs dedicated towards teaching students valuable technology skills. The city already boasts Tubby’s Clubhouse, a computer-training program for low-income middle school students in Lexington-Fayette County; an Academy of Information Technology at Bryan Station High School; and an Information Technology program at Fayette County Public Schools East Side Technical School.
These types of programs can really make a difference for a community.
Lexington is home to numerous small technology businesses in addition to three major hospitals that require advanced security networks and are working to transition into the new era or bioinformatics.
Programs like YouthTech can position local youth to serve as the qualified individuals needed to fill existing and future jobs. It’s this kind of initiative that ensures connected communities will have an intelligent workforce prepared to compete in an ever-evolving global environment.
Tags: Academy of Information Technology, bioinformatics, broadband, Broadband Expansion, Bryan Station High School, community, community service, digital, digital divide, economy, education, Fayette County Public Schools East Side Technical School, healthcare, high-speed, hospital, Information Technology, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, IT, Kentucky, Knight, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Lexington, Lexington-Fayette County, MCTS, Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist, network, partnerships, rural communities, technology classes, Tubby's Clubhouse, workforce development, YouthTech
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence | No Comments »
Friday, March 13th, 2009
Since expanded broadband networks will allow telemedicine – meaning you can see a doctor via Internet – The Knight Center of Digital Excellence is hearing questions about how this will save money and improve health services.
Here’s an example:
At the Montefiore Medical Center in New York, 85 heart failure patients use high-tech scales (the kind you weigh yourself on) to transmit potentially life-saving information to nurses. They even prompt patients by voice – through a digital monitor – to report potential symptoms of heart failure.
The result:
• Nurses can monitor nearly twice as many patients as before;
• At the earliest sign of trouble, the nurse in touch with the patient;
• For participants, time in the hospital is reduced by 50 percent.
This and other similar initiatives demonstrate the value and cost savings broadband investment brings to industries we rely on in life and death situations. Finland has one of the world’s best telemedicine programs, allowing patients to communicate with their doctors via television and remote control.
We don’t.
Unfortunately in the U.S., we don’t have the broadband networks in the rural areas that would most benefit from telemedicine services.
That’s about to change. The federal stimulus plan earmarks $19 billion for the expansion of health care information technology. That’s in addition to broadband investments in rural communities.
Advances in telemedicine and the benefits seen by the select few that have access to it yet again show how broadband development - and the innovation that comes with it - will better our quality of life.
Want more information on how broadband expansion can benefit telemedicine services and impact our healthcare industry? Read “Broadband expansion is just what the doctor ordered.”
Tags: American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009, bandwidth, broadband, Broadband Expansion, broadband investment, community, digital, digital divide, doctor, Finland, health insurance, healthcare, hospital, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Montefiore Medical Center, New York, OneCommunity, rural broadband, stimulus, telemedicine
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Opinion | 2 Comments »
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