December 14th 

In the last post, my partner Ishika and I discussed three possible themes for our midterm collaborative podcast project. We have since refined our thinking and added another person to our group - Jerush (researching planes). We knew this would be quite the challenge. The best way to incorporate his ideas was into our first theme of visions of the future (since we love a good play on words) and to continue with that topic since it fits the best, especially with the addition of Jerush. 

Vision of the Future: A Brief Description 

Significance - The importance of this theme would be to demonstrate the future of eye care and technology related to both fields of ophthalmology and airplanes, but also overlap of technology within the two fields combined, not solely separate. 

Perspective - This podcast would affect a vast amount of people as we tie eye care, which is vital to people's everyday lives with the increased usage of phones and blue light, with airplanes, which is a part of many people's lives as travel is a component of American culture. 

Evidence - To prove our point, we can pull up statistics on the number of people in America who go on airplanes and statistics on eye-related issues. The evidence would prove that everyone must be focused on the issue of entertainment in the form of big, close-up TV screens on plane, as most people have experienced in their lives. Also, all technological advancements are things we should be focusing on, whether that be for eye care or for the betterment of the environment through sustainable practices, which even vision can work on when creating glasses and contact lenses. 

Connections - These theme connects to the respective topics of all the people in our group and is related to everything in the world, as we are a forward-thinking society, constantly focused on the future. 

Supposition - This podcast aims to focus on a different future. What if planes were built differently? What if entertainment was different? What if we developed more sustainable practices?

We are not sure whether to use WeVideo or SoundTrap yet because we have less experience with the latter and, obviously, would prefer to use a program we are more comfortable with. In addition, WeVideo is more beneficial to videos. Since the podcast will be all audio, SoundTrap seems more promising, so we, as a partnership, have decided to look more into it before making a final decision. We may do SoundTrap since we are assuming it will have more sound effects available to us. 

My Relation To the Theme:

My essential question for this midterm will have to fall along future technology and sustainability while keeping to my research of refractive errors. I wanted to focus on developments in eye care that I have mentioned in passing but have not delved into. It is an opportunity for me to jam in statistics to increase the reliability and understanding of the information I am presenting. I need to know how is/can eye care be sustainable. It connects to the theme because it relates to future solutions to vision errors that are good for the environment. The theme is broad as it relates to the future, but since we all strive for a better future, my essential question is based on the improvement of the field of ophthalmology. So far, I know I want to mention glasses due to the material they are of, and maybe even contacts, which I know little about. I also know Lasik can be a way to stop the usage of possibly earth-harming materials to make other vision correctors. Since it is a laser, the radiation could also have poor health effects, which would connect to my partner's topics by revolving around sustainability. Jerush is also researching sustainability with planes, and Ishika is also looking into improving eye care. All in all, I have a pretty solid idea of what direction I am going in, but I am guessing as of now when it comes to the specifics.