Forum

"We receive hundreds of emails each week, we study on computers (likely with earphones in our ears), some of us have fully computerized notes, we navigate with our GPS, communicate with Skype, and do just about everything on smartphones. What do you think of all this technology in a vet student’s life? Making things easier or more complicated? Do you prefer to communicate and study electronically or would you be much happier unplugged?"

Stephanie Silberstang
Cornell University, '13

This past year I decided to try something new. I wanted to go paperless, or as close to paperless as I could. My main motivation was to reduce my carbon footprint on the world. I pursued this goal in many other aspects of my life including composting at home, walking and taking public transportation when possible and participating in a local farm share. In addition to becoming environmentally friendly, I thought it was important to embrace technology to prepare for the future of veterinary medicine that includes paperless medical records. However, my first step to pursuing this goal within my academic career was to not buy my course notes, which were hundreds of pages of printed notes. Instead, I decided to bring my laptop to lecture every day to view PowerPoint slides and to take notes digitally. This easy step saved me one hundred dollars!

    However, this transition was not as easy as it sounded. My first challenge was to resist the temptation of surfing the Internet when lectures became monotonous. I tried many different strategies including turning off my wireless connection, hiding Internet browsers, and sheer willpower. I have to admit that more than once I fell victim to a short attention span and having a computer in front of me made it much harder to focus in lecture. Fortunately, I came to realize that there are always distractions in a classroom whether they are cell phones, your neighbor or doodling on your notes, and this helped me focus on the professor in front of me.

    Another challenge I faced was that I had to change my style of studying. I was used to the physicality of taking notes directly onto the handouts and highlighting information when studying. It may sound strange, but not holding the notes in my hand was one of the hardest habits to break. I had to read, take notes, and highlight everything right on my laptop. For this challenge there were many computer applications that helped. Once I began talking to my other technologically advanced classmates I realized that there were some phenomenal computer programs made for the purpose of taking notes on a laptop. These programs allowed underlining, highlighting, bookmarking and drawing of diagrams, everything I needed to overcome pen and paper. After the first few lectures with these programs, I got the hang of it and really acclimated to digital note taking.

    Despite the challenges I faced I am happy that I decided not to buy the class notes. Although this seems like one tiny step, I am one step closer to becoming more environmentally friendly as well as using technology to my advantage in my veterinary career. It was an important step for me to realize that I can adapt to new situations and still do well, even if they do take me out of my comfort zone for a short period of time. The future is trending towards many veterinary clinics using computerized medical records and even bringing in laptops or tablets to take histories and note physical exam findings. With any luck these trends will increase practice efficiency, save money and reduce the carbon footprint of the clinics involved. I hope that I will be at an advantage due to my familiarities with these technologies and my willingness to use them.