Goal #4 Atomic Learning Tutorial on Twitter

This was my goal #4, which in retrospect should have been goal #1. This tutorial was very user friendly with pictures and simple to follow instructions. I must say Connie a member in my cohort did just as good a job if not better in a shorter amount of time. I did learn how to update my profile and find different people or categories to follow. You can also type in specific areas of interest and it will find all Twitter accounts associated with that particular interest. I am still finding Twitter very busy and just something else to have to check, but it is growing on me. The Atomic Learning site has many options to help the student or educator with different learning tools. I plan on watching a tutorial on Camtasia for my next goal to assist with other course projects. If you have the opportunity check out Atomic Learning
Here is the link for atomic learning http://www.atomiclearning.com/
See D2L for user name and password.

Another Webinar (not really one of my goals) but Informative and job related

Listened to an interesting webinar today which provides more information on student health requirements for nursing school. We typically have to collect all the student's required health information place it on a spread sheet, send to appropriate facilities, and file in student's folder. As you know as educators this can be very time consuming. The college where I work is looking at using technology through a company to have students responsible for providing all the health information (student-centered) in one nice database. I am now getting aboard the technology train. This seems like a very user friendly and efficient idea. Would love to hear other comments on how your health information data is collected?

Goal #3 Subscribe to a Newsletter

For my third goal related to my distance education course I subscribed via email and twitter to Ed Tech review. One of our classmates recommended this newsletter last semester. Since my technology is limited I thought this would be a way to keep up with the new concepts in technology. This newsletter also provides valuable information to educators who wish to utilize technology in their course. I personally prefer the email route notification. Twitter sends out large volumes to read on a daily basis. I feel this will be a wonder resource when I have enough time to review are the great articles they are posting. Would recommend this to nurse educators. Subscription is free. http://edtechreview.co/subscribe.html#top

Goal #2 Webinar on the use of MERLOT

Webinar #2
1/21/2014

This webinar was a continuation from my first blog. This webinar is located at http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm. this tutorial walked the viewer through the main functions of Merlot which is a community type learning process. It has a place for faculty comments noted to be the "Faculty Lounge". Is is free for students and faculty to use. Students may try www.merlotx.org to see information from the viewpoint of students. Merlot also has the capabilities to have a plug-in with D2L. One can become a member which requires membership fees, with a wide variety of useful membership perks. You can search your individual discipline under the discipline community tab. They did provide an example related to nursing. Merlot has access to over 33,000 resources with access to other repositories as well. It discussed a pedagogy portal on how to teach, it provided great simulation activities in a variety of disciplines.  It reviewed a mobile learning portal. This portal discussed how to find apps, teaching with apps, and how to use different apps in your teaching pedagogy. It adds in narrowing your search to only articles of interest. It provides information on what has been peer reviewed and the relevance to your search. This webinar provided useful information on the use of Merlot and I will explore this new technology in the future. My college where I am employed is looking to form a committee to discuss both faculty and student benefits with the use of Merlot. I plan to attend those informational sessions.

From the actual site:
MERLOT is a free and open peer reviewed collection of online teaching and learning materials and faculty-developed services contributed and used by an international education community.

Goal #1 Webinar on Open Access and Affordable Learning

Webinar #1

My first goal 1-14-14 was to watch a webinar entitled: Faculty Development Online presentation, Affordable Textbook Solutions in the USG: E, Free and Open with the Affordable Learning Georgia committee. This can be viewed through http://itunes.usg.edu  or through www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org. This webinar provided statistics related to student's use of textbooks: 26% of college tuition is spent of textbooks and 30% of the students do not even purchase a textbook. This webinar was designed to generate awareness of open access resources. UWG supports the use of Lib-guides which help create reading lists to support learning. This is a one stop open access for faculty and students. The main goal of this webinar was to develop a collaborative effort to encourage dialogue and the use of affordable learning. Yes it will create some opportunities for the bookstores on campus that is why there should be an open discussion. The use of Open Textbooks was discussed and emphasis was place on that fact that theses were free to use. OER: Open Education Resources has a variety of tools other instructors may use in their course: syllabus, assignments, quizzes, and tutorials. The concept was for faculty to rethink the design of their course and not to design a course around the textbook. Many of these textbooks being utilized were actually written by USG faculty. In the courses that have been piloted in the use of open access it showed an increase in retention and progression. The next concept for 1-21-14 will be a continuation of this concept using MERLOT.  I found that these resources have benefits for both faculty and students and will plan on exploring in more detail.

I feel like I am going to slide off the deep end. This is the beginning of my blogging career for my course entitled: Distance Learning Professional. My journey will involve discussing my 7 goals for this course which include webinars, Atomic Learning ( the use of Twitter and Camtasia), technology newsletter,  AWHONN webinar and view films on demand. I hope everyone enjoys the ride. Hang on tight it could get bumpy.