“You can’t learn something you already know…”

How is it December already? The semester is wrapping up quickly and everyone knows what that means…CRUNCH time! We have all of our “lasts” due soon:  an anatomy test on the 6th, a drawing assignment due on the 10th, website and instructional design project due on 11th, as well as a full day of final presentations on the 11th.  I just know these next couple of weeks are going to fly by with how busy we’ll be.  I’ve made some great progress lately on my website and instructional design project.  My website is finally starting to look presentable.  It’s been difficult to close the gap between my learning curve of HTML and CSS coding, and actually making it look acceptable from a design standpoint.  It has been hard for me too see the website in its primary stages of just plain “ugly”.

So, I’m registered for next semester’s classes and let me tell you, no breather semester here!  I’m scheduled for 19 credit hours.  Shew! I think we’ve all decided that this program is way too short, and that we need more time to take all the classes that we are interested in.  It has been really neat to see my approach to learning change recently, though.  Have I mentioned, I love being in grad school?  I was talking to a friend the other night how awesome it is to actually feel like you are being pushed to your potential.  Is it difficult? absolutely…but how else am I going to be stretched and pushed to learn things I never thought I would be able to learn, let alone, be interested in learning.  I’m seeing school now as an opportunity to gain knowledge or skills in something I’ve never learned before, or something I don’t know a whole lot about, instead of a means to an end…(a way into the next hierarchy of education).  Don’t get me wrong…is being proactive about the next step in life, the next step in education important? ABSOLUTELY! That is how we as learners push ourselves, to be constantly seeking out a higher level of learning.  However, sometimes I think we miss, and I know I have missed out on just the joy of learning.  My anatomy professor said something at the beginning of the semester that resonated with me…She said “you can’t learn something you already know”.

So I sit here and ponder what I should take next semester.  I really want to take that Graphic Design course.  Design is something I’m experienced in, something that I can make good grades in, something that I’ve been critiqued positively on thus far… and then, it hits me.  There are SO many other skill sets I can be seeking out that I DON’T KNOW YET!  So, what am I doing? I’ve signed up for a course in haptics.  haha.  Yep, it is an industrial engineering course in learning how to make devices and applications for these devices that will be able to create an augmented reality of touch sensation that matches up to procedures that medical professionals do daily.  This helps whomever the “doer” is in a procedure to practice tricky hand skills on the actual imported patient anatomy before the actual procedure to reduce risk of anything that may go wrong…But the best part is that with the stylus, they can actually feel what it will feel like in real life. When you insert the “needle” into skin, it feels like skin; muscle, muscle; bone, bone.  It’s incredible.  That is what haptics is all about, the feel.  Not to mention, the screen is 3D, so it looks the part too. I’m definitely seeing some anaplastology+haptics research in my future.

Okay…enough of my blubbering.  Here’s a little sneak peek into what my next Instructional Design project is looking like.  This will be apart of a much bigger presentation. Our assignment was to clarify complexity in some sort of scientific process/cycle.  I decided to tackle none other than the menstrual cycle.  If you’ve ever been in a physiology class, you know that it takes a second to sit down and learn and understand the rises and falls of the hormones associated with the cycle and whats going on in the organs at the same time.  I’m attempting to make that a bit clearer.  Here’s what I’ve got so far…

You can see the change in the uterine wall as it grows thicker and thinner through the cycle as well as the intensity of the color of the rings matching up to a greater secretion of these hormones.  I’m planning on illustrating as well the uterus and what is going on with it in the different stages as well and finally putting it into short presentation form.  The audience is college students and if all is successful I could maybe see if some old professors would be interested in using it.

Thanks for taking some time to read this wordy post.  Be on the lookout for a link to my website soon…its ALMOST there.

LOVE.