Technologies for learning & teaching

Technology for learning and teaching

 What an amazing document the NMC 2012 Horizons Report on technology in higher education (2012) is. It reviews the current trends in technology being used currently and in the near future in education.

I was fortunate enough to be given not only an iPad but an iTouch this year and have been (like many) totally absorbed by the technology and it’s uses. I can now see what people are talking about and can see the potential in education for their uses. Without having my own devices I wouldn’t have the imagination or the ability to understand their potential application. So for this aspect of FL, I will discuss how I will use tablets and iPhone/iTouchs in the 1^st year primary care paper.

Primary health care is a clinical paper as opposed to a theory paper, and it involves having clinical placements in the home with families and an older adult.  There are about 18 students in each tutorial group. The indicative content related to the learning outcomes includes undertaking a community assessment, a windshield assessment, health promotion and general safety assessment in the home. Other aspects that students need to complete are reflective writing and journaling. All aspects are assessed in their portfolio at their formative and summative.  I can see the use of different technologies for all these aspects of this paper.

Community assessment: This is undertaken by a group of 2-3 students who then report back to the tutorial group. This is part of learning beginning research skills and uses both visual cues and internet based research. Here the students visit an area in Dunedin and review what makes up the defined community. This year all groups used PowerPoint for their presentation and all used photographs as visual representation of their community using their cell phones.  None used videos, but with the use of tablets and smartphones or iTouch, they could use this medium rather than a PowerPoint. I am unsure how the students communicated together but there is capacity for them to use a private Facebook, twitter or other social media to share the information together.

Windshield: This is a smaller version of the community profile and is completed by individual students rather than as a group. The students are expected to look around and describe the community that their clinical placement client lives in. They should be able to describe the topography of the area and the obvious associated hazards e.g. hills, icey roads and poor road lighting. They also describe the services or agencies that the placement may use in their community e.g schools, shops, cafes, police etc. This year, all students listed these, but again this could be done using videos/cameras on their cell phones and tablets. They can then represent these either in the form of an ePortfolio or printed  and placed into their portfolio.

Health promotion: The students need to show they have an understanding of the theories of health promotion and its application. Most of the students this year did a project with their clinical families on things like oral hygiene and nutrition with the children in the families they visited. Again this could be completed by video or photography using a cell phones /iTouch or tablets. This could also be transmitted using facebook or other social media. Rather than creating their own health promotion message, I will encourage the students to look for something that has already been done using a social media forum.

Health and safety and hazards in the home: the students list the health and safety hazards int he home and what can be doen to avoid injuries. Depending on consent by the placement, this could be videotaped/photographed and placed into their portfolio.

Journaling and reflective practice: As this is an essential skill for all students to learn, there is limited capacity to use technology with this or to use in a collaborative manner.

There is scope however to use scenario-based learning or networked learning as part of this paper, particularly on linking theories from other papers to the learning outcomes of this paper, for example on child development when working with families and with the aging process when working with the older adult. This could be achieved by having a ‘virtual family’ with 3 children of different ages with different developmental issues, or with older adults with health related issues associated with age, e.g. Parkinsons, Diabetes, Stokes (CVAs). Students could work in groups of 3-4 using ‘dropbox’, google docs or other cloud-based technologies to work collaboratively to develop the scenario. The students could review information on the pathophysiology, search for the relevant social or community-based agencies and develop health promotion messages using technology. Each member of the group would be expected to build part of the picture with  the group dynamic and participation being part of the evaluation. The lecturers role is again as the facilitator. This fits within numbers 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 of the Horizon Report’s (2012) list of trends in higher education.

The Report also includes what technology will be used in the near term (within the year), mid-term (within 2-3 years) and far term (4-5 years) and this type of teaching and learning fits with the technologies of the near term and has potential for the mid-term. If this is implemented next year it could include using mobile apps (if there has been ones designed for this and I’m sure there will be) and tablet computing (near term).

One of the things that this has raised for me is it has the potential for the tutorials to be more interactive. As it is most of the tutorials are discussions with the lecturer’s role as the facilitator. If students have more access to tablets they could share more of the work together including researching different web and social media sites.

Reference:

NMC (2012). Horizon report: High education edition. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/HR2012.pdf