Learning opportunities and a new find...

Over the last couple of months there has been a course in Connectivism at the University of Manitoba Extended Education and Learning Technologies Centre (http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/) and a course in Work Literacy (http://workliteracy.ning.com/). I signed up for both and following them has been an abysmal failure. I tend to take a buffet approach in my personal learning environment and there has been too many choices and time conflicts to thoroughly enjoy the banquet. Hopefully the resources will continue to be available after the course has formally completed. A free online event "Corporate Learning Trends and Innovations" begins 11/17/2008 at http://www.learntrends.com/. I hope to be able to look in from time to time and I believe there will be online archives. The list of presentation speakers and topics looks fantastic.

Last month my facility conducted an excellent 1 day program on Evidence Based Practice which was attended by well over 100 nurses. Over the past couple of weeks I've taught a couple of "guerilla informatics" classes on using PowerPoint and Excel. For both of the topics I tried to key in on simple and hopefully useful techniques that were also practical. I'd like to plan a joint class with our medical librarian on using RSS to keep up with the healthcare literature That session could be followed by one on using either Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com) or PageFlakes (http://www.pageflakes.com) as a tool to collect resources in a single area as an approach to creating a personal learning environment.

A potentially useful and fun site called Popfly (http://www.popfly.com) can produce mashups, games and web pages. It's a Microsoft application and it requires the user to install the free Microsoft Silverlight browser plugin (http://Microsoft.com/silverlight). According to the Microsoft website "Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. By using Silverlight's support for .NET, High Definition video, cost-effective advanced streaming, and unparalleled high-resolution interactivity with Deep Zoom technology, businesses can reach out to new markets across the Web, desktop, and devices."

Lots of opportunities to learn, explore and share!

Everyone knows....? Caveat Emptor

There are many oft-repeated phrases about computer literacy, information competency, and the value of Interent resources. How many times have you heard about "digital natives" and made an assumption that youth=computer literacy=information literacy, or heard the term "wisdom of the crowds"?

"Caveat emptor" might be a saying well worth following. Here are a couple of interesting blog posts that question some assumptions. This posting is somewhat of a follow-on an earlier one http://digitalhornbook.blogspot.com/2008/08/digital-natives-attitude-or-competence.html.

Michelle Martin writes in Masters of Technology? from Work Literacy about "A new report, sponsored by the British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee, debunks the myth that young people are “masters of technology,” finding that while teens may have the basic technology skills to use tools like search engines, they lack the information processing and higher order thinking skills necessary to really use them effectively. "

On the Mashable! blog, Mark Hopkins writes Wisdom of the Crowds Isn’t the Answer for Everything where he questions the validity of the phrase and gives some good examples of where it fails miserably (remember the "Emperor's New Clothes"). Wikipedia's section on Wisdom of the Crowds lists four elements required to form a wise crowd as:

• Diversity of opinion: Each person should have private information even if it's just an eccentric interpretation of the known facts.
• Independence: People's opinions aren't determined by the opinions of those around them.
• Decentralization: People are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge.
• Aggregation: Some mechanism exists for turning private judgments into a collective decision.

How many times do we have that combination?

Free "Coaching Patients" video from the CHCF

The CHCH website is a great resource and I subscribe to a couple of their newsletters. If you don't, I encourage you to create a free account. I've never been spammed because of my subscription.

From the website http://www.chcf.org/ :

"Coaching Patients for Successful Self-Management," a video produced by the California HealthCare Foundation, features techniques that providers can use to work with patients and effectively educate and encourage them to take charge of their health.

The video shows how to use an action planning process to help the patient change behavior and reviews steps to ensure patients take their medication appropriately. In both cases, the coach, in partnership with a clinician, provides patients with the skills they need to become active participants in their own care, performing a function that clinicians often don't have time to perform.

The material is presented by Tom Bodenheimer, M.D., of the University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital.See the video online now http://lyris.chcf.org/t/2494/607673/3627/0/" .

Connectivism

I've been fascinated with the theory of connectivism and how it reflects the way we find, collect, and use information in a computer driven environment. Learning how to find, evaluate and use information rapidly and effectively using technology is becoming a critical skill. It's a central theme in my Personal Learning Environment and using a tool like Pageflakes or Netvibes is an attempt to have a container to centralize connections and resources.

The best place to read about Connectivism is on George Siemens website, http://connectivism.ca

His post from Aug 6 is entitled "What is the unique idea in Connectivism?" (http://connectivism.ca/blog/2008/08/what_is_the_unique_idea_in_con.html). The entire post is worth reading, but here are the 5 points under the section "The Unique Ideas in Connectivism"

1. Connectivism is the application of network principles to define both knowledge and the process of learning. Knowledge is defined as a particular pattern of relationships and learning is defined as the creation of new connections and patterns as well as the ability to maneuver around existing networks/patterns.
   
2. Connectivism addresses the principles of learning at numerous levels - biological/neural, conceptual, and social/external. What I'm saying with connectivism (and I think Stephen would share this) is that the same structure of learning that creates neural connections can be found in how we link ideas and in how we connect to people and information sources. One scepter to rule them all.
   
3. Connectivism focuses on the inclusion of technology as part of our distribution of cognition and knowledge. Our knowledge resides in the connections we form - where to other people or to information sources such as databases. Additionally, technology plays a key role of 1) cognitive grunt work in creating and displaying patterns, 2) extending and enhancing our cognitive ability, 3) holding information in ready access form (for example, search engines, semantic structures, etc). We see the beginning of this concept in tool-based discussions of Activity Theory. Connectivism acknowledges the prominence of tools as a mediating object in our activity system, but then extends it by suggesting that technology plays a central role in our distribution of identity, cognition, and thereby, knowledge.
   
4. Context. While other theories pay partial attention to context, connectivism recognizes the fluid nature of knowledge and connections based on context. As such, it becomes increasingly vital that we focus not on pre-made or pre-defined knowledge, but on our interactions with each other, and the context in which those interactions arise. The context brings as much to a space of knowledge connection/exchange as do the parties involved in the exchange.
   
5. Understanding. Coherence. Sensemaking. Meaning. These elements are prominent in constructivism, to a lessor extent cognitivism, and not at all in behaviourism. But in connectivism, we argue that the rapid flow and abundance of information raises these elements to critical importance. As stated at the start of this post, constructivism found it's roots of growth in the social reform-based climate and post-modern era. Connectivism finds its roots in the climate of abundance, rapid change, diverse information sources and perspectives, and the critical need to find a way to filter and make sense of the chaos. As such, the networked centrality of connectivism permits a scaling of both abundance and diversity. The information climate of continual and ongoing change raises the importance of being continually current. As Anderson has stated, "more is different". The "more" of information and technology today, and the need to stay current, forms the climate that gives roots to connectivism.

There is link to an excellent interview with George Siemens on http://connectivism.ca/blog/2008/08/short_interview_on_connectivis.html. It's about 25 min or so and is a Skype video recording.

Digital Natives - Attitude or Competence?

A valued colleague, Margaret Hansen (http://www.m2hnursing.com/) sent me a link to http://stigmergicweb.org/2006/10/20/the-myth-of-the-digital-native "Myth of the Digital Native". The author, Bob Wall, is a public school teacher in Saskatchewan. Bob questions the implied attribute of technical comptence that goes with the term "digital native".

I agree with many of his observations, particularly as I look at my students who range from 19 to adults embarking on a second career. While many of them are very comfortable using email, surfing, etc from the perspective of consumers, they are very much newbies when it comes to learning new applications, formulating search strategies and critically evaluating resources.

I don't know if a regional thing, but my undergrad nursing students seem uncomfortable with the idea of learning or interacting in Second Life, and very few will admit to playing games. Most of them are avid Facebook users, but listservs, online discussion boards and blogs are foreign to many of them.

He cites a Presnky quote in his posting: "Lest this perspective appear radical, rather than just descriptive, let me highlight some of the issues. Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to "serious" work."

Yes, they scan, write very informally and seem more interested in easily obtained, superficial information. Wikipedia is a primary information source for many of them. If I wander about our computer lab while lecturing, many have multiple windows open and flip between IM, email, Facebook, and my lecture notes. The biggest advantage I think the "natives" have is the willingness to experiment and a lack of fear they'll "break something" and they view electronic communciation and collaboration as normal rather than something new.

The caveat to using the term "digital natives" is to remember you can't make the assumption that comfort in the electronic environment and williness to explore equates with information literacy or technical competence.

The Asus 900 eeePC

A couple of weeks ago I bought an Ausus 900 eeePC (http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product.htm). It’s a “netbook”, a very small laptop (8.86" x 6.69") with 1 GB of RAM, 16GB of flash storage, and weighs a touch over 2 lbs. This model has a Linux operating system (although Windows XP Home is available) and comes with a good bundle of applications such as Firefox, Open Office, Skype, as well as audio and video players. My thought was it would be a perfect machine for travelling and connecting to my work and home computers. With my eeePC I can reach my desktop computer at the hospital with our IS approved secure Citrix client and my home computer with LogMeIn. The eeePC connects easily to a wireless or wired Internet connection, so I have the resources of all 3 machines available to me in a 2 lb package.

This would be a great tool for the mobile clinician (assuming it will fit in a lab coat pocket), student, or anyone on the go. It would also be a wonderful component for a mobile computer lab. The biggest things I’ve had to get accustomed to are the small keyboard and a 1024x600 display, neither of which are show stoppers. I also have to remind myself it is not intended to be a desktop or laptop replacement. It fills a middle ground between PDAs and a full size laptop and it does it extremely well.

A lot of players are coming into the netbook arena. Asus, HP, Acer, MSI, and Dell all have or will soon have similar products starting at $299. Even with several options one of these devices will cost less than many PDAs and has a screen size much more accommodating to aging Baby Boomer eyes!

Free Quick Reference Guides to Microsoft and Adobe Products

Free 2 page guides covering the essentilas for a wide variety of Microsoft and Adobe products. Excellent student handouts. This is just a sample of the couple of dozen they have available:

http://www.customguide.com/pdf/word-quick-reference-2007.pdf
http://www.customguide.com/pdf/powerpoint-quick-reference-2007.pdf
http://www.customguide.com/pdf/excel-quick-reference-2007.pdf
http://www.customguide.com/pdf/access-quick-reference-2007.pdf

re: A Portal to Media Literacy

Finished watching the video over the weekend. Definitely worth watching and I think I will watch it again to pick on the bits I missed, especially about using netvibes as a classroom portal. I will likely take some of these techniques and see if I can plug them into my PageFlakes PLE.

Super Simple Blogging

Posterous (http://www.posterous.com) is a simple micro-blogging application that works by sending email to your site address and will post attached images and mp3 files. Definitely worth a second look.

Take a look at a full write up from Read Write Web (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/posterous_minimalist_blogging.php)

More from Michael Wesch

Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropology professor from Kansas State University recently (6/17/2008) delivered a lecture at the University of Manitoba entitled "A Portal to Media Literacy" (http://umanitoba.ca/ist/production/streaming/podcast_wesch.html) . He's the person behind the YouTube classics Information R/evolution and several others.

I haven't finished watching it yet (it's over an hour) but Tony Karrer at the Workplace Literacy blog (http://www.workliteracy.com/network-key-skill) says he ends with "..the thought that students needed to go from:
Knowledgeable
to
Knowledge-able"

Tony proceeds to note "However, when I think about key skills gaps that exist and the biggest changes in knowledge work, it’s more about People, Expertise Finding, Networking, Collaboration, Virtual Teams, etc. "

I'd like to start with my students (and many in the workplace) being "knowlege-able" and creating opportunities and encouragment for the other elements to follow.

Thinking about Informatics Competency

I listened to an interview posted by CHCF at: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2008/6/23/Efforts-Aim-To-Increase-Health-Care-IT-Informatics-in-US-Nurse-Training-Programs.aspx?av=1&topicID=54 entitled "Efforts Aim To Increase Health Care IT, Informatics in U.S. Nurse Training Programs". It featured comments from Connie Delaney, (University of Minnesota), Beverly Malone, (NLN) and Joyce Sensmeier, (HIMSS).

From the website: "The National League for Nursing says schools and colleges need to incorporate more IT training into their curricula. It's not enough just to train nurses in basic computer skills, nurses also need to be proficient in how health care IT works and be able to use the technology to its best advantage, the league contends."

I reviewed the presentations by Joyce Sensemeir, Carol Gassert and Mary Anne Rizzolo at the Rutgers Conference and it got me thinking a bit more about the whole issue of nurses and informatics competencies.

Multiple sources point to a need for “informatics training” but how can we make the definition mean something to the bedside nurse or unit level manager? “The intersection of nursing science, information science and cognitive science” is a wonderful phrase but still seems distant from practice. Some people describe computer literacy is informatics, some focus on the electronic health record; others concentrate on the electronic tools used to capture data. At one level it’s a matter of functional competency – how do I enter/retrieve data from a record or how do I create a spreadsheet. At another level it is about how to use technology to make sense out of data, how to seek technologies that will enable them to work, communicate and collaborate more efficiently.

I think we need examples relevant to nurses, students and faculty other than using PDAs as a mobile library and how to enter/retrieve data from an EMR. I see informatics as about collecting, storing and retrieving data; interpreting data to become information, and applying information as knowledge not only to patient care but also personal and professional development.

It seems that in the IS world we give our clients lots of wonderful tools. Office applications, Internet access, project management software, and hardware of all sorts are pretty much everywhere. The big disconnect I see is our customers often don’t know how to use these tools beyond a very elementary level. Many still use yellow legal pads to collect data, then enter it into a spreadsheet or database. Once it’s there they may still resort to manually counting because they don’t know how to use formulas and sorting. PowerPoint presentations get too big to email because they have added high resolution photographs and resized them to display a fraction of the original dimensions but did not compress the images or change the file size. Using RSS feeds to keep abreast of news and publications is a totally new concept to many.

It reminds me of the story about a hardware salesman who sold chain saw to a customer who wanted to cut firewood. After a month the customer brought the saw back to the shop and said the new saw made life harder than ever before. The salesman looked at the saw, started it up, and the customer said “What’s that noise?”.

Today I met with the director of the Staff Development Office and we chatted about a series of workshops on practical informatics (I call it guerilla informatics). The plan is to meet with a group of staff educators to brainstorm the need for short, practical modules directed at nurse managers with the goal they will become the champions of the concept who spread it to their staff. I can see modules on using spreadsheets, presentation software and databases to collect, analyze and display information. I can see modules on how to use CINAHL and PubMed effectively as well as other sessions on using electronic tools to collaborate, educate and create personal learning environments that draw on information from multiple sources.

Two sources to gauge informatics competency

Results of aA Delphi Study to Determine Informatics Competencies for Nurses
at Four Levels of Practice
Nancy Staggers, PhD, RN, FAAN
Carole A. Gassert, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI
http://www.nurs.utah.edu/informatics/competencies.doc

Nursing Informatics Competencies: Self - Assessment
http://www.nursing-informatics.com/niassess/index.html

More on Rutgers and a couple of very useful links

At the Rutgers Conference one of the outstanding presentations I attended was entitled: "Using Blogs and Wikis to Promote Community, Collaboration, and Creativity", presented by JoAnne Herman, PhD, RN and Vera Polyakova-Norwood, MEd from the University of South Carolina College of Nursing. They have incorporated both blog and wiki use into graduate and undergraduate nursing courses with resounding success.

Great visual to compare working by email and working by wiki is at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lafabriquedeblogs/2431125685/
It was posted on Beth's Blog associated with an article called "Working Wikily"
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/06/working-wikily.html

Another presentation that answered questions I have been dealing with was entitled "Reaching Digital Nirvana: A Paradigm to Automate Clinical Documentation and Transform Clinical Practice" by Jim Cato, EdD(c), MSN, RN, CRNA, MHS. His presentation dealt with the advantages of electronic documentation but what I found most interesting was his reponse to the question I asked about the prevelance of approved nursing taxonomies actually being used in the clinical setting. His response was that nobody was doing it well and that until a single standard is defined, and vendors actively incorporate those features in response to customer demands, it won't be a reality.

Mary Anne Rizzolo, EdD, RN, FAAN of the NLN presented "The NLN 2006 Survey of Informatics Competencies: Findings and Implications". There are far too many nurses who are unprepared or underprepared in informatics competencies. This applies to nurses in practice, nursing faculty and nursing students. Read the NLN position statement: Preparing the Next Generation of Nurses to Practice in a Technology-rich Environment: An Informatics Agenda, Approved May 9, 2008 on the NLN site.

Via the Work Literacy Blog: http://www.workliteracy.com/the-crap-test

The Crap Test for Internet resources: Currency, Reliability, Authority, Purpose. Just the mnemonic to assist my informatics students to critically evaluate Internet resources for healthcare!

Patrick Scollin, EdD, MT, CLS from the University of Massachusettes at Lowell presented "Bridging the Gap Between the PDA and Tablet in Healthcare: the Ultra Mobile Portable Computer at the Bedside". He described a small study where nursing students were given a 1 lb pc with a keyboard and stylus loaded with several reference materials to use during clinicals. After using the UMPC they had an opportunity to use a PDA loaded with similar software. To my surprise they preferred the PDA citing ease of use, speed, and battery life.

For the past year I've been following the development of low cost UMPCs starting with the One Laptop Per Child program. These have a full qwerty keyboard for touch typing (not thumb typing), wi-fi and a full suite of software. Intially running on Linux, some are now appearing with Windows Home. Asus was the first with the eeePC http://event.asus.com/eeepc/microsites/en/index.htm. Now contenders are appearing from HP (HP 2133), Acer (Acer Aspire One), Dell and MSI (MSI Wind). All weigh about 2lbs, and range in price from $299 and up. These small notebooks have been dubbed "netbooks".

Free Microsoft eLearning System

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx

This is a newly released (May 2008 I belive) tool from Microsoft. I haven't worked with it yet, but it sure looks like something to try.

From the website:

"The Learning Content Development System (LCDS) is a free tool that enables you to create high quality, interactive, online courses. Virtually anyone can publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactivities, quizzes, games, and assessments—as well as Silverlight-based animations, demos, and other multimedia."

Work Literacy - A "Must Read" Blog

I have just found a new blog started June 1 that is on my “must read” list. It’s Work Literacy and is located at http://www.workliteracy.com/. Started by Tony Karrer and Michele Martin, this blog addresses issues of workplace information literacy, obstacles to developing new skills and learning new tools, and methods to encourage change. Two great posts to share:

“In a video presentation at Enterprise 2.0, two of the CIA Intellipedia folks mention a document on their Wiki that was put together by the OSS (precursor to the CIA) which describes how to best sabotage an organization” http://www.workliteracy.com/knowledge-work-sabotage

“…a new kind of illiteracy. And it’s worse, because it’s not a conscious illiteracy. You feel like you can still do your job. But you are slowly falling behind and as time goes by it becomes harder to catch up because you lack the learning skills that are part of this new literacy.” http://www.workliteracy.com/cognitive-age-illiteracy

This falls in quite nicely with the current initiatives in nursing to increase informatics literacy among nurses, nursing faculty, and nursing students. See the National League for Nursing newly published Preparing the Next Generation of Nurses to Practice in a Technology-rich Environment: An Informatics Agenda and The Tiger Summit Initiative. The 2007 Tiger Summar Report is at https://www.tigersummit.com/uploads/TIGERInitiative_Report2007_bw.pdf.

Of course the big question is how to accomplish those goals? I believe both clinicians and administrators want applications and education sessions they can use NOW, a "guerilla informatics" approach.

• How can I keep up to date with my clinical specialty?
• How can I use office productivity applications to decrease manual data recording and analysis?
• How can I communicate effectively with my staff or committe?
• How can I lean these things quickly with minimal classroom time or cost?

26th Annual Nursing Computer and Technology Conference

The 26th Annual International Nursing Computer and Technology Conference was held June 4-7 at Bally’s Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Good attendance, great speakers, and wonderful weather made it a delightful time. Ramona Nelson, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF was the recipient of the Recognition Award for the Advancement of Computer Technology in Healthcare. A well deserved recognition for someone who has been involved in informatics and touched many lives in her career. While Ramona will be retiring from active teaching, she will still be very busy consulting and writing.

There were four outstanding keynote speakers. All spoke of the evolution of clinical computing and the need for clinician education as well as the need to adapt technology to the workflow of nurses. MP3 files of their presentations and hopefully video to include their slides will be posted on the Rutgers CPD website. They’re not posted as of June 15, 2008, but please visit the site for more information http://nursing.rutgers.edu/cpd.

The Opening Plenary Session speaker was Joyce Sensmeier, MS, RN, who is VP for Informatics at HIMSS. She spoke on the Tiger Initiative: Implications for Nursing Service and Nursing Education. Two websites of note are the Tiger Summit https://www.tigersummit.com/ and the accompany SIG wiki http://tigercompetencies.pbwiki.com/. Joyce spoke of the need to codify and promote informatics competencies in nursing students, faculty and staff.

Janet Grady, DrPH, RN, spoke on “Using Innovations in Technology to Advance Nursing Practice and Education. She presented a number of education initiatives and examples from the Nursing Telehealth Applications Initiative . Two of special interest were a program to help teenage diabetics visualize variations in their blood glucose levels and a “Virtual Clinical Practicum ® ” between Mount Aloysius College and Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well as Brooke Army Medical Center.

After the networking dinner there was a bus tour through Las Vegas to see the lights and sites that included a stop at the light show on Freemont Street. This was the main gambling area of “Old Las Vegas” and is now a pedestrian only area with nightly light shows on a huge screen running the length of the street. Very impressive!

On the second day of the conference the opening keynote speaker was Carole A Gassert, PhD, RN, FACMI, FAAN who presentation “Technological Solutions to Nurse Workflow Inefficiencies” addressed the study by the American Academy of Nursing supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The study involved a “drill down” approach to determine clinical technology needs. The data is still being analyzed and will be published soon. The Academy website is at http://www.aannet.org/ .

The endnote speaker was Judy Murphy, RN, FACMI, FHIMSS from the Aurora Health System in Wisonsin with her talk entitled “What Nurses/Students/Faculty Will Need to Know When Practicing in an EPR Envirioment: Future Predictions”. Judy spoke of the challenges and barriers to adopting health information technology in the clinical environment and the types and prevalence of technologies being fielded. A key point was the need to appropriately plan and educate before implementing technology and to always remember that technology is only a means to improving quality patient care, not an end unto itself.

My presentations were well received and a couple of the attendees have begun to create a Personal Learning Environment using Pageflakes and have begun investigating social networking sites.

Next year’s Rutgers conference will be in Washington, DC. Check the Rutgers website for abstract submission information, dates, and a final venue location.

Brain Rules, Pecha Kucha, and Age +2

Beth Kanter's blog is a definite read. Today's posting is "Brain Rules for Presenters" with a embedded slide show entitled "Takeaways and Quotes from Dr John Medina's Brain Rules: What all Presenters Need to know". John Medina's website is at http://www.johnmedina.com/.

One point John Medina makes is attention span drops off sharply after 10 minutes, so every ten minutes, break up your presentation with a story, exercise, etc. Pretty much in harmony with the Age +2 approach (although that would make each block 20 minutes for adults) and the Pecha Kucha approach of about 6.5 minutes.

I do like the idea of the fixed time format of Pecha Kucha although I haven't tried to incorporate it into my classes yet. Sad to say I'm still bludgeoning with PowerPoint and waaay too many bullet points. It is important to remember that the format was designed not so much for teaching but as a way of limiting time so multiple presenters would have a chance to show their stuff and consists of 20 images displayed for 20 seconds each.

So if we average 6.5, 10 and 20 we get a little over 12 minutes per unit and given the normal 50 minute class time there would be time for 3 or 4 units depending on how long the "change gears" section lasts.

He also talks about exercise as good for the brain as well as the rest of the body, and the use of images in presentations. All designed to get attention, keep attention, and stimulate the potential to recall information. Kathy Sierra, who sadly no longer blogs, called it "getting past the brain's crap filter". There is a wonderful archived post called "Crash Course in Learning Theory" at http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/01/crash_course_in.html.

More on grasshopper minds and a few resources to check more closely

My daughter in law replied to the posting on "Grasshopper Minds" and the reference to "age +2". She said:

"The "age plus 2" is based on Sousa's research on the primacy/recency effect of memory. The following link has information regarding this. Centre for Teaching and Educational Technologies".

A few days ago I received the latest issue of Techology in Education from Edutopia. There was a article entitled. "Multimodal Learning Through Media" with a link to a white paper by Cisco Systems called "Multimodal Learning Through Media: What the Research Says". One of the major points of the paper was clarification of the Cone of Experience Theory (we retain "10 percent of what we read, 20 percent of what we hear, 30 percent of what we see, 50 percent of what we hear and see, 70 percent of what we say or write, and 90 percent of what we say as we do a thing"). Incorporating interactive elements are more important when addressing applied skills than with basic information. How many times have we seen interactivity thrown into a class (academic or workplace related) that seemed to be rather useless as tool or means to reinforce learning?

I was led to a 2001 article on "Information Literacy in the Workplace" by Jan Oman from eLearning Technology . There is a quote from the article defining information literacy:

"The definition that is most widely accepted, and that forms the basis of subsequent definitions, comes from the Final Report of the American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, 1989 ([Online] Available: http://www.ala.org/acrl/nili/ilit1st.html.):
"To be information literate an individual must recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the information needed. Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to learn. They know how to learn because they know how information is organized, how to find information, and how to use information in such a way that others can learn from them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning, because they always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand." "

Sounds to me like an excellent reason to develop a Personal Learning Environment!

Grasshopper minds

A colleague sent me the link to a wonderful article from ReadWriteWeb called "Why Gen Y Is Going to Change the Web" at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_gen_y_is_going_to_change_the_web.php

I especially like the line

>No more long boring text! Thanks to constant media input, Gen Y has shorter attention spans and their "grasshopper minds" leap quickly from topic to topic.

Got me to wondering whether the "Pecha Kucha" approach might be a useful teaching tool?

• http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog//2008/04/a-primer-on-pec.html
• http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-09/st_pechakucha
  

One of my sons was a commercial radio DJ and said they divide up their ratings blocks into 15 minute segments to meet listener attention spans. His wife, a Jr High School science teacher, said there is a teaching technique called "age +2" (they don't go higher than age 18) to determine approximate didactic time before switching to discussion, break, funny story, assignment, etc. The goal is to adapt teaching time to meet optimum attention span. A typical hour long class might have 2 or 3 shorter blocks interspersed with an alternate activity.

Might be a worthwhile approach for both academic as well as workplace presentations.

Finding Flakes

The default Pageflakes page has a dozen "flakes" or predefined containers for content:

1. Local Weather
2. Local News
3. "Pageflakes Central"
4. Local Flickr photos
5. Video feeds
6. "Mother of all Podcast feeds"
7. Local TV listing
8. Local events
9. Calendar
10. Local movies
11. To do list
12. Email viewer

If you are looking at Pageflakes as a potential container for your PLE, you might consider replacing/adding or creating a new page (and I believe you can create unlimited new pages) with the following flakes:

1. RSS feeds - You can add multiple rss feeds.
2. Box.net - Provides 1 Gig of free online storage for files.
3. Notepad - A place for ongoing notes.
4. Blog - Have your own blog based in Pageflakes
5. Bookmarks - You can add multiple bookmark flakes.
6. "Anything flake" - Allows you to enter your own html or use the embedded wysiwyg editor.

Search the flakes and pagecasts section. Pageflakes pages can be personal or shared. A pagecast is a shared Pageflakes page. There is one by "mlx" (a staff trainer according to her profile page with a special interest in librarianship) with the title "Personal Learning Environments" at http://www.pageflakes.com/mlx/14579658

My PLE Presentation

This is the working presentation I'll be delivering at the Rutgers Twenty-Sixth Annual International Nursing Computer and Technology Conference in June.

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PLE Resources

Here are some of the resources I've used so far in investigating PLEs. There are many, many more, but these have been an introduction and stimulus as to how I can use them personally and introduce them to health care colleagues.

Graham Atwell

• http://www.slideshare.net/GrahamAttwell/personal-learning-environments-46423/
• Personal Learning Environments - the future of eLearning?
  http://www.elearningpapers.eu/index.php?page=doc&vol=2&doc_id=8553&doclng=6

Stephen Downes

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Downes
• Stephen’s Web
  http://www.downes.ca/
• Stephen Downes on Personal Learning
  http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/813

Robin Good - MasterNewMedia

• Personal learning environments: what they are and how to implement them
  http://www.masternewmedia.org/learning_educational_technologies/learning-environments/PLE-personal-learning-environments-present-future-20070615.htm

Michele Martin – The Bamboo Project Blog

• Exploring Personal Learning Environments
  http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog/exploring-personal-learni.html
• The Personal Learning Environment Starter Pack--What Would You Include?
  http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog//2008/02/the-personal-le.html
• 5 Uses for a Wiki at Work
  http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog/2007/06/5_uses_for_a_wi.html
• Seven Strategies for Supporting Personal Learning Environments at Work
  http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog/2007/08/supporting-pers.html

George Siemens:

• Connectivism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism
• Connectivism: A learning theory for today’s learner
  http://www.connectivism.ca/
• Connectivism: Rethinking learning in a digital age
  http://www.elearnspace.org/media/connectivism_Web_2/player.html

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Learning_Environment

Potential Information Sources for my PLE

Made with MindMeister (http://www.mindmeister.com) a free web mindmapping tool.


(click the image for a larger view)

Notes to date

Personal Learning Environments (PLE)

Information R/evolution by Michael Wesch-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM

“This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.” http://mediatedcultures.net/mediatedculture.htm

Knowledge is constantly growing and evolving

• no single repository
• no single best medium
• resides in multiple human and electronic networks
• expert is becoming blurred - individual vs consensus

Meet Charlene by Janet Clarey - http://www.slideshare.net/jclarey/meetcharlene

Slide presentation of a Web 2.0 learner working in an Enterprise 1.0 environment.

Janet Clary is a Senior Researcher at Brandon Hall Research.
http://brandon-hall.com/janetclarey/

Continuing professional development/workplace learning

• more electronic resources
• electronic tools
• searching
• synchronous/asynchronous communication/collaboration
• learning is an ongoing process to recognize, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate patterns from multiple sources
• how can organizations facilitate this learning style

Because information is changing rapidly and located in so many places, the ability to find, collect, connect and sort information among a multitude of sources and networks is a critical skill.

Technology is a reason for information proliferation AND an information management tool.

What tools and techniques can we provide users to achieve this goal?

What is a Personal Learning Environment?

A PLE is not

• a specific software application
• a substitute for institutional or regulatory agency required documentation of education/training compliance
• a method for creating e-learning applications

A PLE is a concept rather than specific software; a group of techniques and a variety of tools.

to gather information

• explore/develop relationships between pieces of information
• browser based (potentially)

A PLE helps a learner to:

• view the subject as a landscape as well as individual pieces of information
• create a personal repository(s) of materials and relationships clustered around a unifying topic or concept
• document, reflect, communicate, collaborate

A PLE supports adult learning characteristics

• autonomy
• practicality
• relevancy
• building on prior knowledge
• goal directed

Key attribute is a central container or map (whether defined or conceptual) for files, links, notes, documents, and connections. Could be Internet based, Intranet based or stand alone.

Sources of Information – potential content for your PLE:

Non-electronic

• Books & journals
• Classroom based courses
• Professional meetings
• Live interaction with colleagues & contacts

Electronic

• Locally produced files & notes
• Internet/Intranet
• E-Learning courses
• Reference” sites
• Text, audio, video, graphics files
• Shared presentations
• RSS Feeds
• Blogs
• Journals
• Communication/Collaboration
• Discussion boards and email lists
• Social networking sites
• Social bookmarking sites
• Blogs
• Wikis

Personal Start Pages are a useful tool for consolidating Information sources into a single web based application.

• Pageflakes http://www.pageflakes.com, iGoogle http://www.google.com/ig

Tools to consider

• Blogs
  Tumblr - microblog http://www.tumblr.com, Blogger http://www.blogger.com/
• Ecto Learning - http://www.ectolearning.com/ecto2/Default.aspx
• Diagrams - Gliffy http://www.gliffy.com
• Mind Maps
  Mindmeister http://www.mindmeister.com, Mindomo http://www.mindomo.com
• Multiple tool sites
  Zoho http://www.zoho.com, Google Docs http://docs.google.com
• RSS readers
  Google Reader http://reader.google.com, Bloglines http://www.bloglines.com/
• Social bookmarking - http://del.icio.us
• Social networking - http://facebook.com/
• Shared presentations - http://slideshare.net
• Wikis
  WetPaint http://www.wetpaint.com, Wikispaces http://www.wikispaces.com

First steps

Over the past year or so I have been exploring and trying to understand the concept of Personal Learning Environments. First exposed to the term via blogs (I think it was Michele Martin’s The Bamboo Project Blog), I’ve not found any references in healthcare literature. This is an attempt to collect my thoughts and understanding of the concept, potential tools, resources, notes, etc, especially how it can be used by clinical folks.

Why the name? A hornbook is a neat device; a durable and portable learning tool of the 16th century. “A constant companion to beginning readers in Colonial America, the hornbook was a popular teaching aid in England during the sixteenth through the eighteenth century. Typically, hornbooks were composed of a printed alphabet sheet tacked or pasted to a wooden bat-shaped board and covered with a thin sheet of translucent horn, but there are specimens in ivory, silver, leather and even gingerbread. Printed sheets usually included both lower case and capital alphabets, vowels, and numerals, accompanied by a cross ornament, the Benediction, and Lord's Prayer. ” (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm178.html ). Since I’m a beginning blogger, Digital Hornbook seemed an appropriate title.