Unit 1 Question:

To What Extent Does our Health Depend on Technology?

Area of Interaction (AOI):

Health and Social Education

Significant Concept:

Our health is only as good as our health service

Clarissa Annunziata

Investigate

ProblemFor this unit, I have to create a video or animation to educate a certain group on the health benefits of a particular technology. With this video, I will try to raise awareness of the problems related to this technology and hopefully teach a certain age group the dangers and benefits of a particular technology. I will be able to achieve these things thanks to my investigation which will help me in researching in depth the technology and then present a video or animation to a certain group.

What kind of technology could I research? Pacemaker Dialysis for kidney’s problems Electronic cigarette Electronic toothbrush

After having discussed during lesson, I chose to research the health benefits of the dialysis machine for kidney’s problem because I think that it is a very important machine and without technology many people would’ve had many problems with their kidneys. I will try to educate a certain group of people of what this machine does, how it helps people and how it works.

How does the problem relate to me?This project will help many people as it raises awareness of a specific technology that can provide certain health benefits. I chose to research the dialysis machine and fortunately, I don’t have any kidney problems so this type of technology isn’t directly related to me, however I have met people who suffer from kidney problems and this machine is essential for them to live.

How does the problem relate to the society?This problem relates to the society in many ways because this technology provides an enormous change in people’s life and in extreme cases, extending it. Many people around the world need the dialysis machine to survive so, this problem is very relevant to the society.

How does the problem link to the Area of Interaction?This problem relates to mainly Human Ingenuity because as a goal I am creating a video to raise awareness of the technology that I am researching and to teach a certain group of people this. It also can be related to Health and Social Education because I am researching the health benefits of this specific technology and sharing my information to people.

Guiding QuestionsI have to create some guiding questions that will lead into my research; these questions will help me for my research and for the information that I have to find in my investigate section.

“What are the health benefits of this technology?”

“How does this technology work?”

“How can I raise awareness of this technology with a video?”

“How can I find a variety of sources for my research?”

“How can I decide which age group to focus myself when creating the video?”

“How can I show the information that I researched?”

“How can I make this video interesting to a specific age group?”

Sources that I will need for my researchI came up with a variety of sources for my research, these are essential to have a good range of different information to make sure that they are relevant, true and recent, especially when we are talking about health related technologies because they can change and improve in a short time. So, we have to make sure that sources are recent and we have to back up them with clear evidence. I should have at least five sources for my research:

Websites Books Magazines Videos Newspaper articles Interview an expert Television programs Documentaries

Research: The Dialysis Machine Does the job that a normal kidney should do

clean the blood and the waste exits the body through urine.

People use it when they have kidney problems The blood runs through tubes in the machine that

removes salt and urea form the blood It takes about 4 hours and the patient has to go

about three times a week depending on the case

http://www.davita.com/treatment-options/hemodialysis/in-center-hemodialysis/how-does-a-dialysis-machine-work?/t/5596

What does my dialysis machine do? The dialysis machine mixes and monitors the dialysate. Dialysate is the fluid that

helps remove the unwanted waste products from your blood. It also helps get your electrolytes and minerals to their proper levels in your body. The machine also monitors the flow of your blood while it is outside of your body. You may hear an alarm go off from time to time. This is how the machine lets us know that something needs to be checked.

What are those plastic jugs sitting in front of my machine?  The plastic jugs hold the liquids used to mix the dialysate. The machine mixes

the dialysate, which is made up of an acidified solution, bicarbonate and purified water. The acidified solution contains electrolytes and minerals. You may hear it referred to as “acid.” The other solution is bicarbonate or bicarb, which is like baking soda. Both are mixed inside the machine with purified water. While you are dialyzing, dialysate and your blood flow through the dialyzer (but they never touch). Fresh dialysate from the machine enters your dialyzer throughout your treatment. Impurities are filtered out of your blood into the dialysate. Dialysate containing unwanted waste products and excess electrolytes leave the dialyzer and are washed down the drain.

How does my blood get in and out of my body?  Blood tubing carries your blood from your access to the dialyzer. The blood

tubing is threaded through the blood pump. You’ll see the blood pump turning in a circular motion. The pumping action of the blood pump pushes your blood through the dialyzer and back into your body.

What’s in the syringe that’s attached to my machine? Blood tends to clot when it moves through the blood tubing. To prevent this the

nurse will give you a drug called “heparin.” Your doctor orders the amount of heparin you get at each treatment. That amount of heparin is drawn up into a syringe then placed on the machine into the “heparin pump.” The heparin pump is programmed to release the right amount of heparin into your blood tubing during your treatment. The heparin prevents your blood from clotting.

How does the machine keep me safe?   One problem that may occur during dialysis is that air gets into the blood tubing.

To prevent this from happening, blood tubings have two air traps built into them. One trap is before the dialyzer and the other is after it. These traps catch any air that may get into the system. If air does get past these traps an internal machine air sensor shuts down the blood pump and an alarm will sound. All blood flow is stopped until the air is removed.

Why are there so many alarms?  The machine continuously monitors the pressures created by your blood inside

the blood tubing and dialyzer. It also monitors the blood flow, temperature and proper mixture of the dialysate. If any of these go out of range, the machine lets us know by sounding an alarm, blinking lights and shutting down blood or dialysate flow. It also lets us know if your blood pressure is too low or high.

Design Brief

I will address my new problem stated to a specific group through a video. Since I am researching the dialysis machine, the age group is quite general but I chose to focus myself on my age group since I will show my final video in school. I will achieve my problem by different steps. Firstly I will start with my research and investigating my chosen technology. Then I will interview some people and create storyboards for my video and test them with a survey. Testing my storyboards with a survey is very important to understand which one is the best and which one is the most professional and the one which has the right amount of research. When I decided which story board I am going to produce into a video, I will create it and try and make it as professional as possible.

I will have to organize my time well in order to hand in and create everything in time. Thanks to a Gantt chart that I will create during the research, I will know what to do in order to have everything ready in time.

My GoalWith this video, my goal is to educate a certain age group, in this case my age group, on the health benefits of the dialysis machine. In the video I hope to include some facts about the machine and how this helps many people around the world.

My Target AudienceThe technology that I am researching can be targeted at everyone because many people of different age need the dialysis machine. However, after talking with my teacher, I decided to focus myself on school, hence the targeted audiences are teenagers and my peers. I chose this because I will present my video in front of my classroom and I hope to educate my peers on the health benefits of this technology.

Design Specification

Limits

Function Appearance Content Materials SizeThere must not be more than 1 technology

It must not look childish

There must not be too much information

The music must not interfere with the rest of the video

The video must not be made in a poor quality

It must not be aimed at any

There has to be images

The video must not be

age group, it has to be a specific one

about the technology

too long or short

Demands

Function Appearance Content Materials SizeIt must talk about 1 technology

It has to be a video or animation

There has to be information related to the technology

There must be music

It has to be high quality

It needs to be aimed at a specific age group

It has to be professional

There has to be images

It has to be created in a video format

The video has to have a reasonable length

The information must be in bullet points

Wishes

Function Appearance Content Materials SizeIt should be aimed at my peers

It should be professional

It should have interesting images

There should be music, fitting the topic

It should be high quality

It should teach something

There must be at least 10 facts

It should be a video or animation

It should be around 5 min long

It shouldn’t bore people

These three tables will help me make my specifications for the project to follow when I am creating it. The limits and demands are very important for specific information such as how long the video or animation is going to be is or how many facts to put about the information.

Test Plan

Test Name Actual Outcome Comments/ improvements needed?

Is the video at least 5 minutes in length?Does the video contain at

least 10 facts about the chosen technology?Does it talk about only one specific technology?Does the video aim at a specific age group?Does the video look professional?Is the video interesting?Is there suitable music in the video?Is the information clear and easy to understand?Are there enough images?Is it high quality?Is it a video or animation?Do at least 5 people find my video interesting?

This table is a test plan that I will have to complete once my video or animation is created. It shows all of the demands, limits and wishes previously stated in the design specification. It will be very useful to understand which aspects of my video needs improvement and to see if I did everything following my design specification. Moreover, it will help me when I will evaluate my whole project against the design specification.

I am going to create another test plan to complete and I chose to do a survey at my age group and people in school, to understand if my video is interesting, professional and if it is suitable for my age group. Creating two different test plans will help me have a variety of opinions to follow and this way you can really understand what is wrong and right in my video.

QuestionnaireThis is a questionnaire that I am going to ask to complete to at least 4 people to get a clear opinion that will help me to evaluate my video.

Do you like the video?

Did you learn something new from it?

Did you find it entertaining?

Is it professional?

Does the music interfere or disturb you?

Is it clear?

Is it high quality?

What would you change?

Any other comments?

Evaluating my performance

During this stage of the design cycle, I had to decide some crucial things for my project, such as, choosing the technology that I will talk about, choosing which age group to focus on and doing the design brief and design specification. In this section, there wasn’t a very difficult thing to do, so I didn’t struggle with much. However, I struggled a bit in choosing my demands, whishes and limits because I had to carefully choose everything that I wanted in my video. I could’ve added more things in my test plan and questionnaire to make it more professional. When writing the Design Brief and Design Specification, I had to think of every little detail that is going to be in my video. I chose carefully the time limits, how many facts there will be about the technology and if I am going to create a video or an animation. These specifications will help me when I will evaluate my designs against it and see if I followed it thoroughly. For the testing part, I chose to do a questionnaire and testing plan. Creating two different test plans will help me to give a clear opinion of my video and then it is easier evaluating the whole thing with the opinion of more people. The research that I did wasn’t very long because the most important facts are written and, in my video I don’t want to fill it with lots of information. However, I used more than four sources such as videos, books, websites and an expert. For my next project, I want to do create an even more detailed specification because they are essential to carry out a project and to evaluate it against it.

Design

StoryboardsIn this second stage of the design cycle, I have to create storyboards for my video. I have to create more than one of it because I then have to choose the best one and

evaluate it against the design specification. The storyboards have to be very detailed; for example, there can be included if there’s a close up, if there’s a song, how many seconds or minutes does the clip last ecc.

Storyboard #1

Storyboard #2

Storyboard #3

Storyboard #4

Bibliography

"HowStuffWorks "How does a kidney dialysis machine work?"." HowStuffWorks "Science". N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/everyday-innovations/question17.htm>.

S., Joe, and DaVita Bio-medical Technician. "How Does a Dialysis Machine Work? - DaVita." Kidney disease and dialysis information - DaVita. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://www.davita.com/treatment-options/hemodialysis/in-center-hemodialysis/how-does-a-dialysis-machine-work?/t/5596>.