Hi Everyone,

I’ve decided to do my assessment of PBworks through a workspace I created on PBworks.

Using the user names and passwords I have created for you below, please log onto to My Workspace to see the rest of my evaluation.  If you have any trouble logging on to the Workspace please leave me a comment and will try and troubleshoot.

When you have finished exploring PBworks, please join me back on this forum for a few discussion questions.

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever used PBworks before?  If so, what subjects have you used it with?  If not, what subjects do you think it would be most appropriate for?
2. What features are important to you when choosing to incorporate something like this into the classroom?
3. How much time do you spend trying and learning new technology like this before deciding if it’s a good fit for your classroom?
4. I listed a few ways I could see PBworks used in the classroom – do you have any additional ideas as to how this could be used?

Thanks again for reading and commenting.

category: EDDL 5101    

 Introduction to Ethics in Healthcare

Introduction

A career in healthcare can be challenging both mentally and physically but what do we do when the job starts to challenge us morally and ethically?  Decision are made everyday that alter the course of someone’s life – how do we know we’re making the right decision?  What is the right decision?

We could probably spend a whole semester discussing ethics and ethical decision making however we don’t have nearly enough time to fully explore this topic in this course.  In this exercise you will start to investigate the main principles of ethical decision making as well as some ethical dilemmas that you may face in your profession.  Keep in mind that as your education and your career progresses, you will continue to build on the foundations that we are exploring today.

Objective

To start investigating ethical principles and ethical dilemmas in healthcare.

Required readings/viewings

Please watch the following video from the American Association for Respiratory Care.  Keep in mind that they are discussing these cases within the context of the American healthcare system and the Canadian system may be slightly different.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UDnf-IxvIA[/youtube]

American Association for Respiratory Care.  (2015).  Ethical dilemmas in respiratory care.  Retrieved from: https://www.aarc.org/webcasts/ethical-decision-making-in-respiratory-care-2/

Please review the following resource with regards to the Code of Ethics for Canadian Respiratory Therapists.

Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists.  (n.d.).  Code of ethics. Retrieved from http://www.csrt.com/code-of-ethics/

Activity

Please do either of the following activities:

1. Using a resource like MindMup, create a mind map describing the main ethical principles that were described in the video and how these principles connect to the Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists Code of Ethics.  Post your mind map or a link to your mind map to your class blog.
2. Choose an ethical issue that you may face in your profession that was not presented in the video you watched and write a short paragraph (250-300 words) describing the issue and which ethical principles are at play (beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy etc).  Please note that you do not have to make a decision or take a personal stance on the issue.  Post your paragraph to your class blog.

Please post your chosen activity by the end of this week and then review two of your classmate’s submissions and comment/engage in some thoughtful discussion with them.

category: EDDL 5101    

category: EDDL 5101    

I’m not sure I’m following the directions of activity 7.2 correctly but here’s my attempt at embedding an RSS Feed into my blog. I’m not entirely sure how I would “tweak any placement issues” other than visiting the “RSS Include” site and editing the content and styling options there. Am I missing something?

category: EDDL 5101     tags: 7.2, RSS, widget

For this week’s post, I focused mostly on readings that I found relevant to the post-secondary educational system however I think it’s extremely important that these new technologies be introduced and used regularly in the K-12 system otherwise it will be nearly impossible to incorporate these technologies into the post-secondary system.

A challenge I see with post-secondary education is that there isn’t time to teach students how to use these new technologies unless they’re in a course that’s specifically geared towards these technologies or the technologies are exceptionally easy to use.  I can’t expect students in a course on Anatomy and Physiology to know how to code  and create an app or game that aids with their learning/understanding unless that has been an integral part of their K-12 Education.

For now, in the post-secondary system I see a lot of potential for changing how we deliver materials and lectures to students.  I think instructors who aren’t doing so already, should start making more material available on course sites which could be accessed easily on a smart phone or tablet. I also believe there is merit in recording either audio or video of lectures and posting them to the course site as well.  Students are currently recording lectures on their smart phones for later review – why not make that available for everyone via a platform that the instructor has some control over?

I also see a lot of potential for expanding the way we ask students to demonstrate their learning and understanding.  I think students are eager to produce material that is different than a 1000 word essay on a specific topic and I think instructors might be surprised at how a different medium may show a greater understanding of a topic than an essay.  I also found the idea of an “electronic portfolio” (Delich, 2008) to be a very interesting and worthwhile activity for students.  Many students will be job searching after graduation and the ability to have created a portfolio of their accomplishments throughout their schooling would be important not only to the student but also to the potential employer.

Also, a lot of the learning in the medical field is trending towards simulations which makes sense, however simulation mannequins (usually the preferred method of simulation) can be cost prohibitive in some smaller universities so virtual simulations or  virtual technology may become important.  Delich et. al (2008) suggests that display technologies such as: high-definition, wall-sized display screens; three-dimensional displays; handheld mini-projectors’ glasses-mounted, near-to-eye displays; flexible, paper-like displays; full-face virtual-reality (3D) helmets could be used to allow learners to practice their skills and demonstrate understanding and mastery (p. 11).

I think the Web of today and the future makes many things possible that we could have only dreamed of in the past and the only limitation may be our own imagination and willingness to accept this new technology.

Reference:

Delich, P., Kelly, K., & McIntosh, D. (2008).  Emerging technologies in e-learning. In D. Harper (Ed.), Education for a digital world. Vancouver, BC: BCCampus and Commonwealth of Learning. Retrieved from
http://www.colfinder.org/materials/Education_for_a_Digital_World/Education_for_a_Digital_World_part1.pdf

category: EDDL 5101     tags: 7.1, technology

Please find my submission for Assignment 2 here.

category: EDDL 5101    

In a post-secondary environment I think that cybersafety is still important however I don’t think there’s as much responsibility on the instructor to control the material or control the access that a student has as compared to an instructor in an elementary or a secondary school.  I think it would be impossible as an instructor or an institution to try to control what students access as many students have their own computers/ipads/etc that they will use to access information.

When using public computers on campus, I do agree that there should be a thorough policy regarding the proper use of the equipment and there should be consequences for any improper use.  At TRU, the Computer Usage Agreement can be found here and the specific policy for Responsible Use of Information Technology Facilities and Services is found here.  Both documents provide a clear outline of how computers are to be used on campus and what kind of usage is considered illegal and unacceptable.  Most students in a post-secondary environment are considered adults and should be given the responsibilities of an adult which should include unrestricted access to the internet as well as the responsibility of using the access appropriately.

I do think that instructors have a responsibility to their students to model appropriate computer use and I think instructors should also be sensitive to the student’s privacy and try to protect their personal information as much as possible.  Instructors should try to limit having students sign up for accounts on websites that might compromise their personal safety and should give students options as to how much personal information they’re comfortable with sharing.  I think it would also be reasonable for instructors to include some element of cybersafety into their curriculum especially in classes that access the internet frequently for course work/discussion boards.  Also in the medical education field, students need to be reminded what is appropriate to share online and to respect the privacy of their patients and coworkers/fellow students.

On a personal note, I had my identity stolen about 3 years ago.  Nothing major happened except some very expensive cell phones being added to my cell phone bill but I became aware that there was someone out there that had ID in my name, knew where I lived, knew when my birthday was and knew what my SIN # was.  I’m not sure how this person got my information, but at that point in time I took a hard look at how much information I was sharing about myself online and decided that there was entirely too much information out there.  I made a decision to try to eliminate as much of my personal information as possible and since then I have been very cautious about adding any information.  This limits me in some respects – I don’t have Facebook, I have a very limited LinkedIn profile and my Instagram is private – but it helps me control who sees my information and how it’s displayed.  I am very wary about signing up for social media platforms and I am cautious even with educational blogs like this one.  This experience, however unpleasant, was a good reminder about the importance of cybersafey.

category: EDDL 5101     tags: 6.1, cybersafety

For my annotated resource list I have decided to collect resources that would help me prepare a lesson on Respiratory Land Marking and Auscultation as well as provide some breath sound simulations for the students to explore on their own time.

I have used my own criteria that I previously developed to evaluate the academic appropriateness of these resources and that criteria can be found here.

A table outlining my evaluation of the resources can be accessed by following this link.

In searching for resources for this activity I tried to collect a mix of academic articles, commonly accessed information (Wikipedia), as well some resources that I found kept popping up on google searches or in the reference lists of articles I had already accessed.  I wanted to collect resources for myself that could be used to create a lesson and I also wanted to get a sense of what information students might be finding through a simple google search and what the credibility of that information might be.  For the most part, the information I collected seemed worthwhile and credible however there were a few questionable sites that would require very careful consideration before they are used.

For my own personal use, I found the article “Technology for Enhancing Chest Auscultation in Clinical Simulation” to be very interesting and useful, albeit a bit old (2011), however it’s an excellent foundation piece for how to use sims to aid with teaching auscultation.  I also found the “A Practical Guide to Clinical Medicine – The Lung Exam” to be an excellent resource and it contained a wealth of images that would be extremely useful in putting together a visual lesson on land marking or to aid in the development of lab material.  Both of these resources were evaluated to be creditable, accurate and objective.

Probably the worst resource I encountered, in my opinion, was a resource I kept seeing on reference lists throughout the material I was reading which was The R.A.L.E Repository.  This reference was mostly pointless for my purposes as it was promoting their product which is essentially a breath sound simulator.  There was very little information on this website that could be access for free to aid with learning and, unless I was looking to purchase a breath sound simulator to use in a classroom or lab (which I’m not) , I would not use this website for my own informational purposes nor would I recommend it to my students.  Another website that raised some concerns when I evaluated it was Essential Lung Sounds.  I struggled to find online lung sound simulators that were easy to access and credible and this was no exception to that.  I would not consider this website credible by any means, I found it slow to navigate through their links and I also found their recordings of breath sounds to be accurate in some respects but lacking the accuracy that I’ve seen in the breath sound simulators that are available to the students in the lab.

Overall I was able to find some excellent resources to start to develop a lesson on Respiratory Land Marking and Auscultation however I was a bit disheartened by some of the information that students may be accessing to aid in their own learning and development.  Without critical evaluations of the resources, there can be a lot of time wasted on sites that shouldn’t really even get a second glance.  I found that if a site didn’t pass my first criteria – being able to identify the author – it likely shouldn’t have gotten a further look.  In the medical field we spend a lot of time asking our students to critically evaluate research papers, however during my 4+ years of schooling I don’t recall ever having a lesson or exercise that focused on critically evaluating web resources.  Things could certainly be different as this was 5-10 years ago, however it should be an essential part of the curriculum to ensure that students are constantly vigilant when supplementing their learning with web based material.

category: EDDL 5101     tags: Assignment 1

MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) was a completely new term to me this week but as soon as I started reading more about them I realized I had heard of them before I just didn’t know what they were called.

My understanding of connectivism comes from the article by Anderson & Dron (Learning technology through three generations of technology enhanced distance education pedagogy, 2012) which they describe as the process of building networks of information, contacts and resources that are applied to real problems.  The learner’s role in the connectivist environment is to find, filter and apply knowledge when needed.  The focus is on creation, as opposed to consumption, of information and knowledge resources.

Of the two articles, I found that I could related to Brennan‘s article more than I could relate to the article by Downes.  I think I related most to Brennan because I have taken online courses before as a complete novice and ended up feeling so overwhelmed by all the information being thrown at me and so unsupported by the instructor/course design that I eventually quit the course all together.  I think it’s important to consider the novice but on the other hand I agree with Downes when he pointed out that: “at a certain point in a complex world a learner has to be able to set the bar for him or herself, to set the challenges appropriately, and find the relevant resources. The more an instructional designer does it for you, the less able you are to do it for yourself, and ultimately, the less useful the resource would be.”  I’m not sure how it would be appropriate to support a novice within a MOOC but I think there is a level of support that’s needed if the learner is to get something out of the experience.

I think connectivism has a role in education, perhaps not a central role but definitely a role.  I think all learners have a unique viewpoint, set of skills and prior experiences that could be invaluable to other learners and in a connectivist approach, connecting these learners with each other could provide a colorful and worthwhile learning experience.  As I read these articles about connectivism I wondered if that’s perhaps what we’re trying to do in this course – build networks of contacts, collect resources and filter information.  Some of the exercises that I’ve participated in certainly feel this way and have certainly added value to my experience.

My favorite quote of the two articles was when Brennan said “I’m ideologically promiscuous. I go with what works, and I am ruthless in weeding out what doesn’t. I do this because there is no “one size fits all” theory. Because there is no “one size fits all” student. And because students, participants, and learners are the final metric that measures any theory, and experience is the proving ground for theory.”

category: EDDL 5101     tags: 4.2, connectivist, MOOC, pedagogy

While reading the articles by Kanuka and Anderson & Dron, I tried to relate to some of the educational philosophies there were speaking of.  I struggle a lot with educational philosophy because I always feel like I don’t have quite the right background and I more or less stepped into an educator role rather than spending 4 years of an undergrad preparing for it.  That being said, I found I could relate to much of what the articles were talking about and could see similarities in how I was teaching without even know I was ever ascribing to a specific philosophy.

I taught exclusively in the post-secondary system in a lab so the humanist philosophy seemed familiar to me especially the characteristics of freedom, autonomy, trust, and active cooperation/participation.

In the labs I facilitated, students were placed in groups that they were expected to work within all semester.  The students were given a lab manual that they were allowed to work through at their own pace with the understanding that all the labs had to be completed by a specific date.  The students were free to experiment and discover at their own pace and I, as the teacher/facilitator, was there to help as needed.  The major difference between the humanist philosophy and what was happening during the labs was that there were expectations that they were meeting the course objectives and evaluation was performed at the end of the semester to test whether learning had taken place.

The role of tech in the lab was still relatively undeveloped and it was open to interpretation by the students.  Some students printed their lab manuals and wrote in their answers/discoveries in pen, some students had a e-copy of the lab and typed in answers on their tablets/computers and some used smart phones to take pictures or videos of what they created or learned.  This seems inline with uses determinism as the tech was a neutral tool in the lab and students were frees to determine the effect of the technology available.

In general I found the article by Kanuka to be very interesting and a worthwhile read and foundation piece to start me thinking about integrating technology and educational pedagogy.  I think it’s an interesting topic and I especially liked the conflicting viewpoints that “educators shape education, not technology” and “the medium is the message”.

category: EDDL 5101     tags: 4.1, educational philosophy, pedagogy, technology