Many medical centers are beginning to use the Nintendo Wii to assist in the rehabilitation of stroke victims and others who have lost the use of their hand or arm due to stroke damage to the brain. To regain the use of an arm, most doctors believe that the brain has to “communicate” or “tell” the hand or the arm to do something. For example, one of the exercises my dad does is to take a spoon with his damaged hand (using both hands in the beginning) and move the sugar in a bowl from one bowl to the other. After many hours and days of this therapy, he was gradually able to move his fingers, his hand, and his arm to some degree. Another exercise his therapist had/has him do is to use his fingers to pick up small pebbles and move them from one place to another on a lapdesk. As he does this, his brain is rewiring the synapses and nerves that were damaged by the stroke.

If you do a simple Google search using the phrase “stroke victim” and the word Wii, you will see many articles on this subject. Researchers at Rutgers and others elsewhere are exploring the use of a modified gaming glove with the Xbox to assist in the rehabilitation of stroke victims. There are also very expensive commercial technology solutions available for stroke victims, but the Xbox glove solution is seen to be more affordable by the average person.

Personally, I think the potential is great for the use of games for rehabilitation by the medical community.

The Google apps don’t have all the tools of Office yet, but they cover the essential ones nicely.

Sites is intriguing, in that it could be a way for easy online publishing. There are 500+ people registered for the PSU Team Edition, but this is as close as I could find to a “class” use of Sites: http://sites.google.com/a/psu.edu/angel-how-to-fly/

Still, interesting to consider. Though it brings up even more questions that Dave mentioned re: where info sits and who has access.