Exploring Glogster and Learning Management Systems

Making a Glogster

 

  
For my second presentation, I decided to make a Glogster.  Glogster is an interactive poster format and provides the ability to share a large quality of material in one digital poster.  Glogster could be used in both an academic setting or workplace setting.  I could see using this in the future for poster presentations for education purposes.  A Glogster goes one step further than a simple poster by allowing links to videos, websites, and use of audio.  I really think if would provide an interactive and engaging way to present education or even research in the future.  This is a  link to website Technology meets Education, which discusses using Glogster in education.

Glogster in the Classroom

  
Below is a 90 second video on how to use Glogster.

Learning Management Systems

This past week also included the exploration of Learning Management Systems (LMS) for both academic settings and workplace settings.  I focused more on exploring the academic LMS, while it seems more of my fellow classmates focused on workplace LMS.  I really enjoyed reading the forum posts.  There were great conversations and input on the current use of workplace LMS at St. Francis and IU Health.  It seems for the workplace there was great discussion on accessibility of using LMS and the use of them at home versus work.  In exploring LMS for my forum post, I really began to think about how complex the process is of selecting an LMS.  Furthermore, trying to find an LMS which will uphold the constant changes in technology is also complex.  In my research, I found a great web article which discusses selecting an LMS and gives some questions to ask when selecting one.  

 Education Week: How to choose the right learning management system

As I have began to use various Web 2.0 tools during the class such as blogs, Wiki's, varoius presentation tools, integrating these into LMS is a necessity. The different LMS such as Moodle and Blackboard seem to be advancing and incorporating these into their LMS.  I also explored Canvas which is an LMS by Instructure, this is an LMS which was founded in 2008 and launched in 2011.  Below is the link to their website.  A couple quick features I liked about Canvas was the ability to audio/video record and the app center which allows integration of various Web 2.0 tools.  

Canvas by Instructure

Presentation #2

For this presentation I made a Glogster, which can be accessed by link below.

My First Glogster

Half-Way There!

As I enter mid-term for this semester, I'm continuing to learn and explore new technologies! More importantly, I'm finding that I'm still very interested in learning these technologies and how they can be used in education.  This blog post will highlight collaboration tools and digital storytelling tools.

Collaboration Tools
In my last blog post, I discussed using Google Drive and the advantages to this.  I had the perfect chance to test drive this while my partner and I worked on the group paper.  I was able to share my section of the paper with my partner over the drive.  We did encounter some difficulty in adding and editing the paper this way, probably from lack of experience.  One major advantage, is the ease of the drive to have access to my work from anywhere.  I would often email papers or put them on a flash drive if I was going to be working on a different computer, the use of Google Drive allows me to pull me work up anywhere I can log into my Google account. 


Wiki's are another tool that I explored.  Wiki's are something completely new to me and a tool which I new very little about.  I really explored the Wikispace site and found a great link to Columbia University site, which includes a couple YouTube videos on how they use Wiki's.  The videos are lengthy, but provide great insight into the use of Wiki's.  Unlike, some of the other tools we have explored, Wiki's are not something that seem easy to "play" around with to get practice using.  After reading and exploring how Columbia is using Wiki's they would be a great place for nursing students to collaborate.  I think they would be useful to use in clinical nursing settings, they could even take the place of post-conference following clinical days.  This would allow more time for patient care and then discussion following could take place on the Wiki page.

Columbia University Wiki Case-Study

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is another tool and teaching method which I have very little experience with.  The Prezi from University of Houston was very informative and a great introduction into Digital Storytelling.  In this Prezi, the author had a YouTube video at the end which included multiple educators discussing the future of education.  This short video was very eye-opening to me! Some of the quotes were so powerful regarding the use of technology in the classroom.  One educator stated that to connect students is to prepare them for life.  This seems so important as nurse educators, we should be preparing nurses to become life-long learners.

Back to digital storytelling, I was completely engrossed in the stories posted on this site.  I also realize that to make these stories took a lot of time and effort.  I think digital stories would be a great way to provide case studies to nursing students.  These case studies could be used to teach multiple disciplines, from simple pathophysiology to areas such as ethics which require critical thinking.  I could also see using them by having nursing students make a digital story at the end of the semester, perhaps highlighting one of their most teachable moments or patients.  I think digital stories have the ability to engage students and therefore increase critical thinking skills. 

A simple Google search on digital storytelling highlights is uses beyond education and it's growing popularity.  At Ball State University, a Masters degree is even offered in this technology.  Mercedes-Benz has used digital storytelling for it's ad campaign highlighting the safety of their vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz Digital Storytelling 

Beyond using digital storytelling to sell cars, I was also able to find some sites and great examples of using this in education and nursing education.  Patient Voices is a program in the United Kingdom which uses digital storytelling so patients can be understood.  The website details their work and also has many great examples of digital stories.  Nurstory is presented by the University of Colorado School of Nursing and also has some great examples of digital stories.  The website is actually developed following a workshop which was held there, one of the facilitators was a member of Patient Voices program.

Here is link to Patient Voices and a short video on Patient Voices program.

Patient Voices    

Patient Videos Intro Video 

Follow this link to Nurstory http://milehighstories.com/?page_id=21 to encounter some great examples of Digital Storytelling!

Finally, this week I began to explore tools for digital storytelling.  I found the following website very helpful for finding tools for digital storytelling in the classroom. 

Digital Storytelling

I did play around with Animoto and found it very user friendly.  It would be necessary to upgrade in order to make longer videos for digital storytelling.  I also did sign up for Metta account, but have not had to opportunity to play with this site much.  Overall, I find digital storytelling to be very engaging and allows for learners to be fully drawn into an experience by the use of pictures and audio.  I really think digital storytelling could be a powerful tool for nursing education and has the ability to challenge nursing students to use critical/clinical thinking skills.

Here is my first attempt at Animoto.

Erin's Animoto