Technology: In Plain English טכנולוגיה: באנגלית פשוטה: A funny thing happened on the way to the blog post... (with apologies to "The Forum" and musical theater everywhere!)

Let me start by apologizing about the delay in getting this blog post out.

I know, I know... it is the end-of-the-year and everyone is busy so why should I be any different, but on a general basis, I do one blog post every week or so. And let me tell you that there is soooo much to blog about!!

More about the reason for my delayed post towards the end... so keep on reading!

Well, since it IS the end-of-the-school-year and one of the most important things that you can do for your graduating students and departing teachers is help them move their GAFE - ahem, I mean - G-Suite - emails, contacts, files over to new G-Mail accounts.

Now, yes, Google does have Google Takeout which will kind of do this for you. It will backup your emails, some files, some contacts and so on... but it does not move files shared with you, and it requires a bunch of hoops to jump through... not so fun!

(Click here to go to Google Takeout)

Last year, I reported on Grad Gopher (previous blog post here) - which is now called Cloud Gopher (www.cloudgopher.com) It is still - by far - the best deal in moving G-Suite stuff from one domain to another! As they say on their website...

This service is really a "gem of an app!!"

Yes, yes, I know you are thinking: "Great Yossie, why didn't you tell me about these services last week so that I could have got a jump on this! - gee thanks!"

To answer that question, let me tell you what happened to me as I put together this blog post over a week ago.

About an hour after the conclusion of Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath), - June 3rd to be exact - I was preparing my livestreaming gear to help one of our CIJE Member High Schools broadcast their Sunday afternoon graduation (an extra-help service that we give to our member schools) and then I was going to move on to assemble this very blog post. I felt just a wee bit too tired so I thought to myself that I would finish it during the day on Sunday. Well, one thing led to another and at around 2 am on Sunday morning, I was just not feeling right and decided to go to the hospital to find out why.

So I got in my car and drove myself to Cedars Sinai Medical Center (well... center is a bit of an understatement... it is actually more like a small city of its own in Beverly Hills!) and checked into the Emergency Room. I was immediately seen by the triage nurse and... that's the last thing I remember until I woke up at 10 am in the ICU! It seems that I was the recipient of a full on cardiac arrest!! Yep, no joke... CPR for 10 minutes.

Do you know what saved me?
(For those that know me personally, you know I always start with Hashem!!)

An amazing team of well prepared, well trained AND PRACTICED individuals in the ER and Cardiac Catheterization Lab. (As my regular readers may remember, I was a Paramedic for 14 years - part of that as an Instructor Trainer - so I KNOW the difficulties of collaborating in an active ER!)

You know what else saved me?

Leading edge tech such as the special coolers to reduce my body temperature to keep my brain from being damaged. A state-of-the-art Cardiac Catheter Lab where the blockage in my coronary circumflex artery was diagnosed and a new medicated stent was installed.

You know what else saved me?

A great staff (with really cool tech) in the ICU to keep me stable during the critical next two days to be followed by...

A caring group of caregivers in the Cardiac Observation Unit where I spent the last few days of my stay until I was discharged home - having spent a total of seven days and seven hours at Cedars Sinai Hospital.

Do you know what else is amazing about all of this?

Except for a bit of pain from catheterization (it's normal!) bruised arms from the IV's (whisper the word needle to my skin and every vein goes into hiding!!) I was back at work by Monday (yesterday)!! Yes, I have a reduced work load as I can't lift anything too heavy yet, but can you imagine it??!! From basically "dead" to writing about "ED-tech" in one week!!

Each one of the devices that was used save my life and hasten my recovery was invented by a person, or team of people, who benefited from a Science or STEM based education. Each member of the Cedars-Sinai team that I interacted with was a dedicated person who was well versed in 21st Century Ed Principals such as Collaboration, Creativity and, Critical thinking!

CIJE (the Center for Innovations in Jewish Education) works hard at giving our partner schools the tools they need to give our kids a quality 21st Century Education - so that they can grow up to become life-savers.. just like all of the people I met at the Hospital!. And that, my dear readers is why I work for CIJE!!

Regards to you all! Coming up next week, stay tuned for some more blogs on Mixed Reality and the world's thinnest holograms!

As always, I solicit your remarks on the blog site.

Yossie

Oh yes, I would be remiss if I didn't give HaKoret HaTov (give thanks...) to ALL of the Administration, Staff and Volunteers at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. Thank You!!