I believe I realized the way we were teaching could be more effective
when I was sitting with my then 6-year-old daughter and she showed me an app
called Toontastic. Toontastic provides a
venue to tell a story using cute characters and fun backgrounds. My mind started thinking, "What if we used a
tool like this in education? What if we
told a story about a patient who received a nosocomial infection because the
nurse didn’t wash her hands?" And, thus,
my journey into the world of apps, social media and e-learning began.
My story may or may not be unique to you. Everything I know about leveraging technology
has been self-taught. Many people want
to know how I started. I want to share
with you what I have learned along the way.
1.
Start small. I remember my very first self-imposed project
using an e-learning authoring tool. I
was determined to provide a unique educational twist for nurses during Nurses
Week. I wanted to inspire staff to
“think differently” and began working on my e-learning masterpiece. After many, many hours of trial and error
utilizing a software program that I barely understood, I was able to pull
together a matching game with some strange, sort of eerie music to go with it. I tried to take too much on and didn’t have
the expertise at the time.
2.
Realize there is a learning curve. It is easy to watch a company’s advertisement
on the internet and think creating innovative teaching methodologies is
easy. Most of the programs I have worked
with took time for me to learn to a point where I felt comfortable using them. Watching videos and taking a few classes
online helped me understand the various programs. However, another option is to use a program
you already know, such as PowerPoint, and experiment with some of their more advanced
features.
3.
Utilize experts when you need them. Experts can be in the form of content experts
or technical experts. There are times
when you just need someone to help you or point you in the right direction. I have utilized nurses, other fellow
e-learning gurus as well as programmers, developers and graphic designers in my
projects. Online support communities are
also a great venue to ask questions or find experts.
4.
Look for freebies. There are a fair amount of free resources for
educators on the internet. Once I bought
a very expensive graphics package only to find out I couldn’t modify the
pictures. If I had trialed the program, I would have figured that out pretty
quickly. Instead I purchased it in the
interest of time. Take the time to practice using the free trial
and ask questions. It may even save you
money and time in the long run.
5.
Set a goal. Lastly, I would recommend setting a goal for
yourself or your team to utilize one new technology per year. Without a goal, you may find yourself putting
it off.
I hope this entry has been helpful as you take on innovative
teaching strategies. I love the breadth
and depth of what our organization and team of nurses have done to reshape
professional development at Mercy. Take
a minute and look at the infographic I created about shared governance to get a sense of how
technology can work for you.
Let me know what you
think or if you want to discuss ideas further, please do not hesitate to
contact me. I will most likely be in
front of my computer.
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