Discussion: “T” from SECTIONS
T: Teaching and learning: What kinds of learning are needed? What instructional approaches will best meet these needs? What are the best technologies for supporting this teaching and learning?
The T in SECTIONS resonated with me because I use digital tools in the classroom for problem based learning, formative assessments and competency tracking.
Like many educators in post secondary education, I started out as a “sage on the stage”. I soon realized after attending several workshops hosted by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at my college, that I needed to enroll in a 12 step program for lectureholics. As time went on I began incorporating more and more group work in my class, recognizing that the best learning happened when students were thinking, discussing and doing. One of my favorite activities with my students was/is to do problem based learning in groups. The way in which I have incorporated technology into this exercise is to give students a case (on paper or pdf) and have them look up the necessary information to solve the case using a smartphone, tablet or laptop computer. As good fortunate would have it, 100% of my students have at least one of more web-connected devices. I felt this was important because, in the real world, lifelong learning as a healthcare provider is not an option. Healthcare providers have to learn continuously to stay up-to-date and to improve their practice. And, one of the quickest ways to stay up to date, in addition to using your peers as a resource, is to be able to access credible information quickly on a mobile computer device. One of my responsibilities as the educator is not only to recommend the appropriate tools for finding information but to teach information literacy so they can recognize when and when not information is credible. In terms of strategic support, the institution must be able to provide broadband access to all students. In terms of tactical support, the educator, in this case me, needs to be able to provide students with the appropriate apps that are either free or available at a minimal cost. My responsibility is to find apps that are appropriate to the type of research that they need and contain credible information and reliable functionality. For example, I give my students the names of three or four prescription drug apps that are free and will provide them with the necessary information they need, and available on a variety of operating systems, to complete their work. In order to keep the case presentations limited to a single page, what I plan to do in the future, is incorporate QR codes on the page that the students can scan to bring up an image such as an electrocardiogram or some other relevant information to the case. Again, from a tactical standpoint the goal is to provide an app for scanning QR codes that is device agnostic and free.