End of Part One Blog

In reviewing the objectives for the unit I feel that I was able to accomplish most of them. Upon reflecting on my experience with the course, I am thinking about my online teaching and learning experience, and in particular, the objective related to it. My feelings about my online experience is best summed up as " I'm gettinhg there".

Since I often feel inadequate in what I present-not particularly attractive or meaningful- I especially appreciated the assigned readings Probably the most meaningful to me was "High Touch" in a High Tech" World: Strategies for Individualizing Online Teaching. In the article, the author describes his discussions with online educators. Their main concern, it seems, are attractive presentations of materials that will impress the students. This is a surprise to the author, as he/she feels that the most successful online teachers are superior mentors, who actively engage their students. The author provides advice to achieve the goal of a successful online teacher:

1. Provide a safe climate
2. Invite input regarding the goals and agenda of the course
3. Provide individualized feedback
4. Connect learners with one another.

I think I can provide a safe climate. I will be careful with my humor and make sure my announcements and responses do not offend or hut.
I can invite input and provide individualized feedback. I enjoy reading and responding to discussions.

I do think that I continue to have trouble with connecting learners with one another in the courses that I do online.

So, one of my goals still remains to create activities that would invite student interaction. The other goal is still to become comfortable with technology. I continue to have problems with this. For example, I do not do well with blogs. I already truncated this blog once and had to edit. Oh, well each is a learning experience, and goals are still to be met.

I was familiar (and more comfortable)with learning styles. The material on the topic did introduce different learning style inventories than the one that I had taken-the Myers-Briggs. This provided a greater variety of styles and I think the DAK was easier to understand than the Myers-Briggs results.

I really really enjoyed the group assignment related to learning styles. Although I was a bit nervous about finding material, I discovered websites that were appropriate without too much trouble. I actually was secretly proud of finding the Kenjo's rap song and videoclip (with voiceover)as my part in presenting resources for the kinesthetic learner. The experience spurred me on to find resources for a nursing course I am teaching on informatics (ironic, isn't it). I found a great site for that features PDA technology and a John Hopkins sites with all kinds of references for nursing applications of technology.

The material on teaching styles was useful, as I am studying for a certification exam for nurse educator. I agreed with the results since I feel that I am more a facilitator than expert, although, there are elements of that in my style also. The fact that nurse-educators are often expected to be the "expert" led to a great discussion on the topic by those of us who teach nursing.

The ASU professors' videoclips were enjoyable. I marveled at the technology involved. It was helpful to get the views of professors in different disciplines in online teaching. The nurse/professor was the most disappointing of the one's that I viewed. I thought that she would have suggestions for resources, but she had none.

To summarize: I think I made progress in learning online strategies. My prior experience with materials on teaching and learning styles were enhanced. Technology was only a little bit easier (remember, I attended chat with a headset!). But I forge onlward to Wimba Live!

2nd mandatory blog

Thoughts:

I thought a lot about what to post regarding the course content. During this time, I got to thinking how our course content would apply to patient teaching. Since nurses do a lot of patient teaching, do we try to determine what kind of learners our patients are?. I don't think so. We tend to have formulaic brochures or commercially produced vides that we use as educational materials for our patients. Sometimes we sit with them and sometimes we don't. We are available to answer questions however.
My conclusion is that nurses should ask patients how best they learn-looking at pictures, writing down things or listening to videos. This is in place of them taking a learning inventory, which would probably be too time consuming for a busy nursing unit.

I also think that nurses should be aware of their teaching style. I don't think that we teach this at the BSN or ADN level. We are concerned about how well the student can do an oral presentation and how good the content of their materials for their patient teaching projects are. We need to add materials on teaching styles and learning styles to our undergraduate curriculum.

So, I did some really hard thinking about what we have done so far in class. I guess this comes under the category of application.

My Thoughts

Is anyone out there

Hi classmates:
I haven't heard from you. How are you doing in the course. I am getting better at technical aspects and wondering if you have any advice for the blog assignment?