So, I finished my Post Masters Nurse Educator Certificate, rested up for a year or two, now I'm back to school. PhD vs. DNP? The Ohio State University decided for me. The DNP is the practice doctorate for Nursing (Doctor of Nursing Practice). The PhD nurse is a researcher. The DNP, also trained in research methods, adds the application to practice. The curriculum is much more exciting! Unlike most of my fellow students, I will have to work on an advanced practice certificate. Whether that is to become a nurse practitioner or a clinical nurse specialist I have yet to decide. I'm also in need of a serious study focus. Right now my ideas are all over the place. They tell me this is normal at this stage of the game. So, DNP, here we go!

Personal Digital Assistants

Hudson, K., & Buell, V. (2011). Empowering a safer practice: PDAs are integral tools for nursing and health care. Journal of Nursing Management, 19, 400-406. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2834.2011.0125.

 This article reports a study of personal digital assistants (PDAs) using Lewin’s Change Theory as a framework to institute change in an educational setting. The authors assert that the use of PDAs improve safety at the bedside through the efficient retrieval of health and nursing facts. They also report that “handheld technologies support learners in authentic and seamless nursing such as within clinical and educational settings” (p. 401). Lewen’s Change Theory was valuable in this study because in this Texas nursing program PDAs were being introduced for the first time.

PDAs in this study included pharmacology, laboratory information, medical dictionary, patient teaching, health assessment, nursing procedures, pathophysiology, calculations, foreign language interpretation and nursing diagnoses. I found it interesting that most of these functions were not used frequently. The most commonly used function was the drug reference (41%), followed by patient teaching (19%). There was much interesting data presented in this article about student satisfaction with the PDA as well as common problems associated with their use. There was even data about the perceptions of client family and staff members when students used PDAs. Most family members liked the PDA use, though one family thought the student was not smart if s(he) had to use it!

I found the most useful part of this article to be the importance of role models in change theory. In this study the authors noted that staff members were not using PDAs. Instructors were using them and had one month to use the device before teaching students. Students were required to purchase PDAs (an obstacle for some). If PDAs improve the safety and quality of patient care as the authors assert, it’s important to support the adoption of this technology.  In order to be supportive, I need to explore the use of these devices, incorporating all the functions in my teaching. Students need to know that the money they have invested in this tool is not wasted. Role modeling the use PDAs in the classroom and in the clinical setting will encourage students to adopt this technology.

Interactive Whiteboards

Turel, Y.K., & Johnson, T. E. (2012). Teachers’ belief and use of interactive whiteboards for teaching and learning. Educational Technology & Society, 15 (1), 381-394.

This research was a quantitative descriptive study of teachers in Turkey who regularly use interactive whiteboards (IWB). The authors investigated teacher’s perceptions about the frequency of their IWB use and their feelings of competence. The authors determined the most commonly used features of IWB’s in this group of educators as well as how they developed skill in its use and what training topics they felt were needed. Three themes were investigated, instructional effects, motivational effects and usability.

Not surprisingly, the authors found that teacher skill increased with their frequency of use. Most teachers agreed that IWB’s are motivating, engaging and enjoyable for teachers and students.  One of the problems of IWB use is the need for appropriate skills and knowledge. Because most teachers were found to have had only one training session provided by their school, or IWB vendor, the training is deemed superficial. The authors defined a range of use between using the device as a chalk board, to using hyperlinks, or incompetent to professional. Most of the respondents in this self-identified in the mid-range of the competent range, and revealed that most of what they know was gleaned from colleagues.

This article is helpful because not much is mentioned in the nursing literature about the use of interactive white boards.  Though the participants in this research study were K-12 teachers, nursing schools could benefit from the positive impact this technology has on helping students become active learners and engage. The IWB adds the benefit of reaching many different learning styles, such as visual, auditory and kinetic. Turel and Johnson point out that the more experience teachers have with IWB’s, the more features they use. As teachers become advanced users of IWB’s, they are able to “construct meaning using interactive and fluid lesson strategies” (p. 383). Research about effectiveness of interactive whiteboards is needed in the field of nursing education.

Differentiated instruction

When reading the module on differentiated instruction and the use of technology, the concept of multi-tasking comes to mind. The process of identifying the needs of learners in a large classroom is a complicated task, but technology can assist in identifying these needs in a more efficient way, for example with on-line survey like Survey Monkey or ProfilerPro. Planning instruction to attend to all of these different learning needs is also a huge task. I liked the idea that through on-line learning, many different assignments could be used, giving the learner choices in the best way to assimilate ideas. Technology can make this process more efficient, effective and engaging, the important 3 E’s and a great rubric for planning and evaluating teaching and learning.

I can see how a survey might be used to identify learner needs, while students could choose from different learning opportunities to provide feedback to themselves and others about the quality of their learning. A student might create a survey or a video, or even design a wiki site as a group project  to apply concepts, just a few of a whole host of other options that technology can offer. As a teacher, creating all these different options without the use of technology would be too cumbersome and time-consuming. Since the one-lesson- fits all has been shown to be ineffective, variety is crucial to the learner in this new technological era.

A challenge that needs to be addressed is the support required to maintain technology. Teachers need continuing education to keep up to date since technological developments are occurring so quickly. Just as one device is mastered, something new comes along. Motivation is also important in order to stay on top of things. I’m curious how many institutions have the ability to support both students and faculty in the use of technology to support differentiated instruction.

Streaming

Little, G.L. (2010). The revolution will be streamed on-line: Academic libraries and video. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37, 70-72.

This article addresses the use of video streaming as it had emerged over the last five to six years under the umbrella of Web 2.0 applications. You Tube is highlighted, likely due to its ubiquitous presence, but Vimeo, Academic Earth and Apple iTunes are also mentioned.

The author points out the many applications of video streaming, including promotion, marketing and instruction. How-to videos and supplements of in-class sessions are discussed. Preservation of film with digitization is also mentioned.

I discovered Vimeo and Academic Earth by reading this article. You Tube, which I had never considered to be a reliable source of information, turns out to be a legitimate source of endless instructional aids.

Video streaming is a terrific way to get students excited about learning. According to the author, videos used in this way must be upbeat, informal and relatively short. This challenges the creator to be succinct in identifying the most salient points to present.  I would like to learn how to create a Vimeo or You Tube video so that I can help my students use this technology to enhance learning. Or… maybe they can help me!

Click it Baby!

Hunter Revell, S.M. & McCurry, M.K. (2010). Engaging millennial learners: Effectiveness of personal response system technology with nursing students in small and large classrooms. Journal of Nursing Education, 49(5), 272-275. doi: 10:3928/01484834-2009-07

This article reports the results of a study on the use of personal response systems (PRS) in the classroom. A large (n=116) and small (n=33) were compared and there were no significant differences found between classrooms when it comes to the benefits of using PRS. The study supported previous work in determining that PRS use increased participation of learners in the classroom. Interestingly, the authors pointed out that using technology in the classroom demonstrates an understanding of the millennial learner (students born after 1982) who have an interest in technology, preferring active learning and group work. The benefits of PRS were immediate feedback to determine the course of learning and promotion of an active and engaging learning environment. PRS were also found to bridge the gap created by faculty shortages and larger classrooms. Students appreciated the opportunity to experience a variety of test questions and apply material covered in lecture. Students in the study identified other used for PRS including exam reviews, test prep sessions, attendance and the introduction of discussion topics during lecture.

I have read a few articles about PRS or clickers and have had some practice with them as a student. The new nugget of knowledge I gained from this article was the positive impact of clickers on the relationship between student and teacher when student-teacher ratios are increasing.

With my new found knowledge and ability to develop hyperlinked Microsoft PowerPoint ® slides, I am now equipped to use the PRS in the classroom. I think an interesting assignment would be to engage students in the process of developing a quiz to be presented to their peers. This could be done as a group project by assigning groups to different aspects of a particular topic. The development of the quiz would reinforce key concepts and I think the students would enjoy the class participation in their quiz with the use of personal response systems or clickers.

What's a Wiki??!

In the world of technology Wiki is a great way to foster teamwork and provide a framework for collaborative problem solving. In Ciesielka’s (2008) article, the author describes using Wiki to promote community health planning in her community class. Students assembled data and synthesized it to come up with innovative community interventions. The author claims that students were more apt to come up with projects beyond the typical undergraduate health fair solution.

This link will take you to Ciesielka’s Wiki: http://614comm.pbwiki.com/

Wiki is a new concept for me and sparks some ideas that I can implement quickly. One that comes to mind is a general on-line presence for school nurses to post innovative practice.
In the large inner city district where I work, nurses rarely have time or opportunity to network; many of us have great ideas about organizing our work as well as innovative community health interventions. Wiki would be a great framework to use for this work! I think we would all enjoy a way to interact between our yearly meetings.

As an educator I can envision using this format to engage students and teach them the collaborative process. Ciesielka (2008) described a community assessment project, but any group work could be accomplished with Wiki as the tasks can be separated out, assigned to group members and assimilated on-line with one web site. It seems that this type of group work would appeal to students who have difficulty coordinating calendars to meet as a group. I like the fact that Wiki sites can be seen by the public if desired, which I suspect might encourage students to hone their professional writing skills, knowing that a large audience could be reading their work.

What’s a Wiki? Like a blog, but for multiple users!

Ciesielka, D. (2008). Using a Wiki to meet graduate nursing education competencies in collaboration and community health. Education Innovations (47)10, 473-476.