Course Reflection of Learning

The challenge of this course was frankly getting over my fear of what was going to be asked of me within this term. Honestly, the extent of my experience with education technology, prior to this class, was minimal at best and getting over my fear was the greatest challenge. To be even more frank, every artifact that was given started every Monday with a small myocardial infarction, decreasing to an anxiety attack by Wednesday and ending finally on Friday with an ease and confidence that anything could be accomplished.

The combining of a research presentation with a format such as VoiceThread was a huge challenge, which of us really likes the sound of their own voice and not to mention the all the errors associated with the initial attempts in trying to get it right. Resources that were provided and some that I found on YouTube that had me focus as if I was talking to my audience instead of a computer screen made the task so much easier. Which brings me to my favorite artifact that was on the Digital Divide. This had a profound impact on me, first of all my knowledge of the topic was scant at best and after researching and compiling my data, it gave me insight as to not only do we have huge financial differences in this country but we have a continual growing technological chasm that separates these same classes.

I did mention that in the courses that I teach, the usage of education technology is minimal to nonexistent but I took my presentation on Blended Learning and made my case to my program director, the dean of students and the president of the college to implement a pilot program on one cohort of students that would allow me to continue lecturing in the traditional sense but also incorporate online learning/tutoring via Google Hangout and Google Docs to run concurrent with the students within the clinical setting. Thus far, although to soon to tell, the response from the students using the addition of online tools has been overwhelmingly positive. Simply put, the fact that I was able to quickly acquire this technology and then pass it on to my students makes me excited about what the remainder of the Education Technology program holds in store for me.

School Evaluation Summary

By far this was a very revealing artifact. When I started teaching three years ago, I felt that the school was more than adequate when it came to technology being offered. Being that I was technologically inexperienced at the time, I felt that the staff and the students had a good working knowledge of the available system but as I started using the tools offered the only question I had was, how do I use this or what can I do with this even if I did know how to use it? As I began investigating the areas covered in the Maturity Model I started to get the sense that there was a definite knowledge gradient between what technology and tools that were available and that of those who were capable of using it.

The greatest surprise that I found, as I expanded into asking questions to the staff and the students, was how much in common their opinions were. The overall expression towards the school’s technologic capabilities was the appreciation of what they think the system can do but feel limited in personal use due to the lack of in-service or technology support that surrounded them. As I discovered going through all the categories, my school has gone through so many changes to keep up with the times. But the point here is, can a school, having good intentions to solve or update its technological woes, expect to improve staff usage or enhanced learning without giving serious thought to the bigger picture of integrating wide technology support in its long term planning?

Please have a look at my summary of PCC and the survey.

Annotated Bibliography

Annotation is an interesting topic if you love pulling out your hair clumps at a time but on the flip side I definitely learned something on this assignment. The medical field, that I have lived in for so long, has a language of its own, the APA format too, has it’s own flow that needs to be recognized. As a way of standardizing how research papers should be made, it gives the readers a universal method to follow so the message of the paper cannot be misunderstood. The topic I choice to research was “blended learning” and frankly, at first, I was struggling just to find any topic that would sound interesting. Amazingly enough, I really dove into trying to find papers and studies about blended learning and began learning how in-depth this subject could be. Ironically, the five papers that became my annotated bibliography began to support one another and I could image how they would come together in the form of a research paper. Although the attempt to learn how to create a research papers can be quite daunting at first, learning the language of the APA format will give your research a fighting chance to be correctly understood.

Please take a look at my Annotated Bibliography here.

RSS in Education Assignment

First off, please have a look at my lesson for Patient Education Blog, I hope you enjoy it.

What did you learn?

As with the Digital Divide, I had no clue going into this assignment what Rapid System Syndication was. Frankly, I used to think that the symbol for RSS was just a way of some online company to install some “cookies” on to my computer or it was a link that would take me to some advertisement that would lockout my screen unless I would buy whatever they were selling. Just a few weeks ago I was that student, part of this class, that was intimidated by the thought of using this type of technology, but now I am not only excited about what RSS can provide but also, what I can create by using it. What I learned the most is RSS is supposed to convey simplicity, adding it to my feedly page only made my life so much more simpler instead of receiving 100 emails a day on the fact that someone updated their blog.

What was difficult about this assignment, if anything?

The most difficult part of this assignment was writing my own lesson plan. At the college I teach the lesson plans are pretty much cookie cutter versions of what is to be done within that particular section. Yes, I have made my own lesson plan BUT it was parodied after the existing lesson plans that the school utilizes. This lesson plan made me look within and follow a more precise formula approach of how the assignment should be conveyed. The sample matrix of how a lesson plan should be put together lead me to research others and get ideas, thus allowing me to take the best from what I found and try to incorporate it within my own.

How might you improve it if you had more time?

Each lesson that I have completed I have said, “I can do better”. This is coming from a person that thought the extent of his education technology was going to be using PowerPoint and Blackboard in its simplest form for the rest of his life. I am starting to understand that not being afraid to explore is the key to success and so far this thought process has not proven me wrong.

Did you test it in class or do you plan to in the future

Although the Respiratory Program has established lesson plans that it provides, I do have assignments and presentations that I have the ability to customize without the headache of going through the approval process to get it done. This lesson will be carried forward into my classroom and the best thing about it is if it doesn’t play out very well the first time it can be reassessed and made better and better.

Well Hi, Hello and Howdy…

Well it has already been a week and I think I have already put in about forty hours or so on making a blog (wish I was joking) BUT I am appreciating the direction given and I am enthusiastic about learning more.  As I have said in my introduction, the care for the human body has been my forte for the past three decades so this has begun a new chapter in my continual search for making myself a better instructor.  I’m hating the stress but loving the challenge, you all may think I’m nuts but the little bit that I have learned this past week has propelled my drive exponentially.

My aim here is to learn all I can so I can pass it on and make myself proud.

Cheers!

P.S. I tried to find a picture that would accurately describe the way I have felt since last Monday.  (This was taken in the Metro in Paris a few years ago, my kid thought it would be funny to take)