Friday, December 7, 2012
Winding Down to Start Again
Thursday, Dec 6th 11 PM
I am at home writing the final blog assignment because I cannot recall the password and it is at my office. The office is lonely and quiet after dark, and I thought I would just do it at home, but that did not work. I just emailed the blog I wrote to myself...
Tomorrow is the day of our presentations and all the AIL 600 students are coming to town. There will be a small celebration with food as the semester winds down.
Friday , Dec 7(continued)
I am really winding down for 2012 too. I got registered for AIL 602 in the Spring. My nursing license is renewed for the 40th year and it will soon be time for the rest and renewal of the holiday season. As I reflect on my time in AIL 600, I realize I am still learning new ways to teach nursing. That is after all, why I am enrolled in the doctoral program, but it is good to find that my mind can still practice and learn things which are difficult and new. One new tool I will use to teach selected content will be he online delegation game I developed in this course to use with my Leadership class next semester. I felt proud when I added it to the list of “readings” in that course for undergraduate nursing students. It is such a difficult class: senior nursing students are psyched about taking their critical care course concurrently and Leadership is just not as glamorous or pumped full of adrenalin-rich experiences.
But the BSN job IS management; the glitz of critical care will fade after a few years. Management of people, patient care, crucial conversations about life and death, schedules, policies, and difficult decisions in general. Meanwhile, in their Leadership course, they can learn a bit about how a manager and leader handles quality measurement through gaming, and frankly, through any other learning method which might capture their interest!
A always enjoy the "beginning again and making it better" part of teaching each semester. Groups of students can be so different. I look forward to enhanced use of technology with the skills I have gained this next semester. In order to achive the right balance of teaching methods between low tech and high tech,faculty really needs to understand the application of many methods enough to carefully target the learning objective for a particular group. That insight is what I have really gained professionally this semester.
Linda
Monday, November 19, 2012
Perfectly Good Enough, if Not Pefect
I may be BAD, but I am pefectly good at it. I cannot pretend to be anything but weak at technology (as detailed on previous blogs) overall, but am fairly thrilled at my small improvements with the assignment on emerging technology. Not only was it easier for me to manipulate the technology a little during this assignment, but I found a real resource in freenursetutor.com and used it to create a game for my Leadership class on delegation, a topic which is difficult for students to remember! I had tried to create a rebus on the topic, based on the itunes app" The Rebus Show" but that was beyond my capacity. Then I realized that I needed to use the the tools on freenursetutor to create an interactive game on the nursing delegtion topic I have previously assigned as a paper. As Pearl Bailey said it: "What the world really needs is more love and less paper work."
As a result of spending weekends working on the different assignments for AIL 600, I can do a few things that will really help me work smarter and help students retain diffficult or essential but boring content. As a mater of fact, I am perfectly good at inserting webpage links into Powerpoint and having them work. That was not a small thing to me as I always had to endure the distraction of entering url's before during class.
I am now perfectly good at saving non-Office files such as videos, audios, and pictures in a few other formats. I have a small clue. I am also exploring having fewer paper files. All of these details are outside my usual frame of refence as a big picture person. Cannot help but enjoy the irony
of ME, the big picture person, handling some details of technology! Always delegated that one!
Sincerely, FunnyValentine 51
delegated that one before.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Technicalities
This course on intergrating technology into teaching has already been the mechanism that forced me to think more deeply about the issues of technology in my teaching role. I have carefully and intentionally relegated electronic devices, passive entertainment via television, and even the more interactive internet, to a minor supporting role in my personal life. This has been an ongoing struggle for me, and I suspect others, as the technical parts of common life often overwhelm interpersonal relationships and interactivity of groups of people. Most good things are better when used in moderation. That includes many things such as alone time, family time, friendships, sex, alcohol, food, exercise, and yes, technical tools.
I considered a couple of examples of the way technology supports good relationships in clarification of my values and to illustrate my perspectives. Yesterday, my brother and I were discussing the history of root beer during a family outing. We were shopping and eating out in the new Mr. Chen's Restaurant and Chinese Market and noticed an actual Ginseng root for sale. Bill remembered hearing in his Boy Scout Troop, that this root was used to flavor root beer, while my Girl Scout memory was that native American sassafrass root and bark flavors root beer. We did not have to spend any time debating this tidbit from our past experiences and just had fun searching for the facts on our smart phones.
I also enjoy keeping up with extended family and out-of town friends through the pictures and comments facilitated through Facebook, especially when I get emailed that someone has posted on my page. I rarely post myself, but how fun when my close elementary school friend who moved away found me again after 40 years and we reconnected in person because she comes to Tuscaloosa every home football game at this time in her life. Considering the crowds and considering my skimpy football involvement, I never would have known.
I do love having the search engines handy, and my address bool and calendar and alarm clock on my smart phone, and even use itin public to isolate myself from unwanted conversations. But it is so sad to use isolating technology in a group of "friends" or even in a family during what should be a special life event or even a daily moment of interaction. We lose more than we gain as people when time is spent in isolation to the exclusion of others. Moderation again.
I have no close friends who blog. I cannot identify a single group of people whose members would care to read regularly what I think about life in general and my life in particular. I will always choose to spend my time in personal contact even if it takes the form of a written letter to an individual. If I want to write for a group, it will be to share something I plan to publish for income and/or personal fulfillment. I enjoy keeping up with extended family and out-of town friends through the pictures and comments as facilitated through Facebook,but post very rarely. I never even gave a secnd thought to blogging, and will probably not do so again after this course. After all I only do a group holiday letter to firends and family about one each decade,when I have totally lost touch with what is important and need to catch out of town friends up on what I would have said if I had visited or called to talk in person.
Having made it perfectly clear how I feel about blogging and the use of technology in a habitual and unthinking manner, the blogging assignment has accomplished my goal made me think deeply about the place of technologies in my teaching. I realize that I have let my strong strong philosophy of life, and the dual lack of experience and spare time, limit my exploration of technical tools in my work. I glossed over something important that was not just a technicality. It would save time if I chose what to learn and use in teaching a subject as carefully as I do the tools I use in my personal life. I have some support at work, but the reality is that it takes me three time as much practice and actual personal help instead of tutorials to get started. It is usually only the getting started that is a problem and I know I just have trouble investing myself and my precious spare time on learning something that does not come to me as to those who already have the vocabulary and experience. I also think personality type (I am not a detail person, but a but a big picture person) has a great deal to do with how much effort it takes for me to lean a new technology tool.
I use appliances and electronics that let me work smarter and in a more organized fashion and do whatever it takes to learn how to use them despite my personal inclination and philosophy. What a luxury to have two clean towels every day because the washing machine actually does the hard work. I did have to work to learn how to use a big computerized washer. What a luxury, and how much more consistent the quality, to use screen capture efficiently to give the same lessons more than once in class. It would accomplish selected teaching objectives more easily if I chose what to learn to use in teaching a subject as carefully as I do the tools I use in my personal life. I have some support at work, but the reality is that it takes me three time as much practice and actual tutoring help instead of electronic tutorials to get started.
It is usually only the getting started that is a problem and I know I just have trouble investing myself and my precious spare time on learning something that does not come to me as easily as to those who already have the vocabulary and experience. I also think personality type (I am not a detail person, but a but a big picture person) has a great deal to do with how much effort it takes for me to lean a new technology tool.
Note to self: get over it and on with the adoption of a few more exciting tools!
I considered a couple of examples of the way technology supports good relationships in clarification of my values and to illustrate my perspectives. Yesterday, my brother and I were discussing the history of root beer during a family outing. We were shopping and eating out in the new Mr. Chen's Restaurant and Chinese Market and noticed an actual Ginseng root for sale. Bill remembered hearing in his Boy Scout Troop, that this root was used to flavor root beer, while my Girl Scout memory was that native American sassafrass root and bark flavors root beer. We did not have to spend any time debating this tidbit from our past experiences and just had fun searching for the facts on our smart phones.
I also enjoy keeping up with extended family and out-of town friends through the pictures and comments facilitated through Facebook, especially when I get emailed that someone has posted on my page. I rarely post myself, but how fun when my close elementary school friend who moved away found me again after 40 years and we reconnected in person because she comes to Tuscaloosa every home football game at this time in her life. Considering the crowds and considering my skimpy football involvement, I never would have known.
I do love having the search engines handy, and my address bool and calendar and alarm clock on my smart phone, and even use itin public to isolate myself from unwanted conversations. But it is so sad to use isolating technology in a group of "friends" or even in a family during what should be a special life event or even a daily moment of interaction. We lose more than we gain as people when time is spent in isolation to the exclusion of others. Moderation again.
I have no close friends who blog. I cannot identify a single group of people whose members would care to read regularly what I think about life in general and my life in particular. I will always choose to spend my time in personal contact even if it takes the form of a written letter to an individual. If I want to write for a group, it will be to share something I plan to publish for income and/or personal fulfillment. I enjoy keeping up with extended family and out-of town friends through the pictures and comments as facilitated through Facebook,but post very rarely. I never even gave a secnd thought to blogging, and will probably not do so again after this course. After all I only do a group holiday letter to firends and family about one each decade,when I have totally lost touch with what is important and need to catch out of town friends up on what I would have said if I had visited or called to talk in person.
Having made it perfectly clear how I feel about blogging and the use of technology in a habitual and unthinking manner, the blogging assignment has accomplished my goal made me think deeply about the place of technologies in my teaching. I realize that I have let my strong strong philosophy of life, and the dual lack of experience and spare time, limit my exploration of technical tools in my work. I glossed over something important that was not just a technicality. It would save time if I chose what to learn and use in teaching a subject as carefully as I do the tools I use in my personal life. I have some support at work, but the reality is that it takes me three time as much practice and actual personal help instead of tutorials to get started. It is usually only the getting started that is a problem and I know I just have trouble investing myself and my precious spare time on learning something that does not come to me as to those who already have the vocabulary and experience. I also think personality type (I am not a detail person, but a but a big picture person) has a great deal to do with how much effort it takes for me to lean a new technology tool.
I use appliances and electronics that let me work smarter and in a more organized fashion and do whatever it takes to learn how to use them despite my personal inclination and philosophy. What a luxury to have two clean towels every day because the washing machine actually does the hard work. I did have to work to learn how to use a big computerized washer. What a luxury, and how much more consistent the quality, to use screen capture efficiently to give the same lessons more than once in class. It would accomplish selected teaching objectives more easily if I chose what to learn to use in teaching a subject as carefully as I do the tools I use in my personal life. I have some support at work, but the reality is that it takes me three time as much practice and actual tutoring help instead of electronic tutorials to get started.
It is usually only the getting started that is a problem and I know I just have trouble investing myself and my precious spare time on learning something that does not come to me as easily as to those who already have the vocabulary and experience. I also think personality type (I am not a detail person, but a but a big picture person) has a great deal to do with how much effort it takes for me to lean a new technology tool.
Note to self: get over it and on with the adoption of a few more exciting tools!
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Initial Blog, Second Assignment
September 10, 2012
As a long time reflective journalist, I thought blogging would not be a stretch and might even be enjoyable. This week the technical difficulty of getting an online blog started was a bear. It is worth mastering the use of a tool that suits the job at hand, so I hope to grow into the skill. Recognizing my lack of intuitive skill with computerized and/ or online tools, I understood the course would be difficult on some days. I did not understand just how frustrating it is to take so much time in trial and error. Figuring out the gmail account was almost automatic, but like the conceptualization of artificial intelligence, rather scary! I have no idea how I attached a blogger account. I think I figured out how to invite Dr. Wright as an author today (with a little help from my friends) but not sure who sees what on this blog or if an author invitation is what was required. I found the setting that allows comments from readers, but just hope Dr. Wright is the only reader!!! I always feel so uncertain since I cannot recreate the steps I took. The steps were not intentional acts. I just clicked what might work.
Tutorials are in an unknown language like engineering directions on assembly of a child's toy. I have always had technical and secretarial support to accomplish my career goals, and thought of technology as a tool with which I would seek assistance to implement teaching strategies in the classroom, not as a communication aid or planning aid. While it is a valuable lesson, I would not call it pleasant and certainly not funny, so if I could, I would change my blog name. Meanwhile, I will try to publish and see. Also. I will plan to find the settings or profile which describe what others might be seeing. Linda
As a long time reflective journalist, I thought blogging would not be a stretch and might even be enjoyable. This week the technical difficulty of getting an online blog started was a bear. It is worth mastering the use of a tool that suits the job at hand, so I hope to grow into the skill. Recognizing my lack of intuitive skill with computerized and/ or online tools, I understood the course would be difficult on some days. I did not understand just how frustrating it is to take so much time in trial and error. Figuring out the gmail account was almost automatic, but like the conceptualization of artificial intelligence, rather scary! I have no idea how I attached a blogger account. I think I figured out how to invite Dr. Wright as an author today (with a little help from my friends) but not sure who sees what on this blog or if an author invitation is what was required. I found the setting that allows comments from readers, but just hope Dr. Wright is the only reader!!! I always feel so uncertain since I cannot recreate the steps I took. The steps were not intentional acts. I just clicked what might work.
Tutorials are in an unknown language like engineering directions on assembly of a child's toy. I have always had technical and secretarial support to accomplish my career goals, and thought of technology as a tool with which I would seek assistance to implement teaching strategies in the classroom, not as a communication aid or planning aid. While it is a valuable lesson, I would not call it pleasant and certainly not funny, so if I could, I would change my blog name. Meanwhile, I will try to publish and see. Also. I will plan to find the settings or profile which describe what others might be seeing. Linda
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