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.

The Use of Blended Learning in Clinical Settings

The NMC Horizon Report: Higher Education Edition, was a task in itself to read, I felt the best thing to do was break it up into parts. As tedious as the report may have appeared I really came away with insight to what has been established and what is potentially to come. My first impression was apparent with my affinity toward the subject of “….Students as Creators” section, being in the medical field I have found that the obvious answer to improving students understanding of fundamental concepts is to incorporate methods such as: collaborative, participatory, project-based, and peer-to-peer learning. BUT, the bigger problem that I feel that needs attention within my department is the lack of blended learning. It may seem like a copout to speak of something so general but how can I want pursue topics such as “social media and students as creators” when I can’t get on “hangout” because its restricted on our schools servers? So, I took Dr. Schroeder idea that was given in the instructions for this assignment and made a prototype presentation to deliver to my director of the respiratory program and the dean of students. The NMC report does offer a great deal of insight to the now, but my take was what am I going to with it for the future?

I have two items to share:

An artifact that analyzes items of blended learning and mixes it with my experiences within the classroom here.

My prototype presentation to hopefully enact Blended Learning within the Respiratory program, here.

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.

Digital Divide/Digital Inequality Presentation

This was a very interesting artifact, to say the least. If I can remind you, my background is in the medical field and I am an instructor, so my experience or knowledge of the “digital divide” was as close to zero as opposed to some of you. The papers and articles that were assigned for reading opened my eyes to how powerful the tool of technology is to the overall populace of the world and how this influences the overall knowledge of all people. Bringing this topic closer to home, through my own research, I never fully grasped the impact of the “lack of technology” within our schools, and I’m sure the schools located around my house are not the only ones that have this problem. The most intimidating factor is the “gatekeeper” effect, that we are, at a point in time where all the information over the Internet can be controlled by the highest bidder, so to speak. Google being a good example of this method will put one’s website on a high search priority for the right amount of money one is to pay. Although my research indicated that the “digital divide” pretty much a thing of the past, I think we must continue our observations of this claim to ensure all have, not only the access, but the knowledge on how to obtain information.

Given more time, I would like to experiment a bit more with designing my presentation slides, this was the first time I used Google Slides and I can sense the difference. I have always used PowerPoint and it seems a bit easier to use but I see this as a new experience. I also would have liked to jazz-up my slides, I have seen a few of my fellow students presentations and I feel like such a beginner, but I’ll catch up to all of you. Overall, as challenging as this assignment was for me, it definitely gave me a new understanding of the internet and how it is applied all over the world.

 

Here you will find my presentation on Digital Divide, I hope you will enjoy it http://edtech.voicethread.com/share/6099226/

Code of Professional Ethics in Educational Technology

The issue of online cheating has made me contemplate the many possibilities that I can create and change in order deliver exams securely, but my responsibility doe not end there. I must utilize everything within my profession and the Code of Ethics to draw in the student to want to not only learn but how to process and use this information to mold into the individual they want to be. At the college, where I am an instructor, is a small portion out of the term in which I lecture on ethics within our profession (Respiratory Care), so I went into this topic thinking, “I got this”; I could not have been more wrong. We, approaching education technology, must accept the ever-dynamic role that we, collectively, have as educators. Dewy stated, “The moral responsibility of the school, and those who conduct it, is to society”(Januszewski & Molenda, 2008, p. 289), the Code of Ethics begins that journey for us all to society. It may not be perfect but it guides and allows individuals to discuss and learn to be a part of that change.

Please have a look at my paper, I hope you’ll find it eye opening: Using Technology to Fight Cheating in Online Education

EdTech Definition Graphic

After reading chapter one it’s not hard to see how we can take definitions for granted. I found that Educational technology can have a very diverse understanding to many and be used to construct many methods. This one definition points out that studying is not just collecting data but that which is more important, what we do with that research by being an active participant. By having active participation consideration must be made to what is being instructed, who are the learners? What is the type of environment that the lesson will be taught and what are the needs of the learners? Improving performance is what impressed me the most, especially since this is a model that we continuously use in the hospital setting. Empowering the learner is key to a constant evolution and it’s not just the act of knowing the information but for the learner to be capable of USING the knowledge.

 

The tool that I used is the one that I feel most comfortable at this time, Power Point. Since I have been teaching, this has been the primary tool I have used during my lectures. The cycle diagram I picked out, I felt, was sufficient to illustrate the key points of the definition but I used “call out” bubbles on each to emphasize the general principal of each. The clip art is fairly new to me so I was just experimenting on how to use illustrations to show meaning. Maybe I still need some work in this area.

 

RSS in Education

You can copy and paste directly to your post page, embed an Evernote or Google Doc or any number of ways to display your artifact. Include a reflection for each artifact, along with assigning the proper AECT Standard.

As you can see in this post, the AECT Standards, “3.1 Media Utilization” and “4.4 Information Management” have been assigned to this post.

You will want to include a discussion of how the AECT Standard aligns with your artifact, why it is important, and probably revisit this artifact later in the program to identify how the artifact connects practice to theory.

You will need to decide which artifacts to use for your final portfolio for the M.E.T. program. You can easily “hide” artifacts from view by changing their status from “published” to “draft.”  That way, you will always have the artifact in your website.

Category Widget

Can you also see how the Categories widget shows the AECT Standard assigned to this post? Think about how handy this will be as you continue to post your artifacts to your learning log, assigning the AECT Standards. All you will need to do is click one of the standards in the widget and all of your posts will appear for you to review. This will come in very handy at the end of the program.