Collaboration is a vital principle in learning (Bonk, 2009). Two technologies that promote collaboration through social networking are Delicious and the Flat Classroom. Below are examples of using these two technologies to enhance nursing education.
First URL and brief description of technology
Delicious is a social bookmarking site for storing, classifying, and sharing web links by tagging the link with key words (Richardson
Rational for selecting technology
Bonk (2009) posits that collaboration is a necessity in preparing today's students to work in a globalized society. The ability to work effectively in a team is an essential skill students must garner prior to graduation. Delicious is just one of many tools that foster collaborative learning.
Two examples to incorporate Delicious into nursing education.
Students researching an assignment can tag web links with key words to quickly expand their search possibilities and connect with other users interested in the student's research topic. Grosseck (2008) describes this type of collaborative research as collective intelligence. Students can create an RSS feed to easily follow what people are tagging and saving about their topic. Students can create their own collection of resources on a given topic (Grosseck).
Another example of using Delicious in education is for students working on a group project to create a delicious account to research and share material for the project. Students can add comments and/or critique group members tagged items until the group has a collaborative collection of information to create and complete their project. Faculty can access the groups site to offer feedback if needed (Grosseck).
Second URL and brief description of technology
According to Bonk (2009), web technologies have flattened the world related to educational opportunities. The flat classroom is a tool that encourages learning through global collaborative practices. Educators and students can connect with other teachers and learners from around the world to share, learn and create new knowledge.
Rational for selecting the technology
The flat classroom concept offers the opportunity to unite and learn from diverse populations, bringing different ideas to the classroom. For nursing education, collaborating with nursing students from other countries would open the door to international nursing perspectives. Students learn how to use multiple web tools, such as blogs, wikis, or email to communicate asynchronously with fellow students in another time zone, and possibly another language.
Two examples to incorporate the Flat Classroom into nursing education
One flat classroom project might be to have nursing students share data and solutions about health disparities in their respective countries. Connecting with nursing students whose country has nationalized health care would offer great insight into the differences between national health care and private insurance.
A second project might be to learn about the differences and commonalities of the nursing profession between the two countries. Flat classroom projects can transform education through global collaboration (Bonk, 2009).
References:
Bonk, C. J. (2009). Collaborate or Die. In The world is open: How web technology is revolutionizing education. San Francisco , CA
Grosseck, G. (2008). Using delicious in education. The International Journal of Informatics and New media in education. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/2413801/The-Role-of-Delicious-in-Education
Linda, I too looked at Delicious as a collaborating tool but am very intrigued by the Flatclassroom. I teach at a local community college for the echocardiography program which is ultrasound of the heart. We have 5 campuses and probably 40 health career programs across those campuses. But, I am the ONLY person who knows about echocardiography so I do not have anyone to get advice from or talk to unless I go outside the school. Flatclassroom sounds like a great tool to use to talk to instructors from another school that teaches this program and a way for the students to talk to other students taking this program somewhere else and get good ideas how to study or share case studies with. I will definitely have to check this tool out better, thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHello Tabby, Flatclassroom might be a good tool for you and your students to collaborate with participants in other echocardiography programs. The abundance of resources makes it challenging to figure out which will work best. I guess there is some trial and error. Thanks for responding.
ReplyDeleteCollaboration is an awesome thing. The flatclassroom sounds interesting. I think it is important to share and connect ideas and practices. This would be a great tool for social science instructors, especially those in history, political science, and civics courses.
ReplyDeleteLinda, thanks for sharing about Flatclassroom. It sounds like a great concept for vitural training on a global scale. I can immediately see the cost savings for folks like Tabby who could avoid travelling between each campus to teach one product.
ReplyDeleteThis is worth another look