Learning via RSS

I'm getting better at this. Using the goggle reader to research feeds on nursing topics has really helped. I've found information on simulation labs which is the up and coming thing for nursing students due to limited availability of clinical sites for experience. This is really exciting to see what Mayo Clinic and big university schools are doing. I hope to share this info with all faculty in the fall. I'm also looking into mentoring programs for new faculty and/or students.

http://faculty.une.edu/chp/tdadaleares/index.html

Seals Helping Humans with Heart & Lung Disease?

Polar Science 2006, http://www.polarob.yesican.projects , is an Antaractic expedition that allows about 100 schools throughout the world to participate and see real time experiments, logs, photos from the scientists there. The YES I Can! Science Project is provided at no cost to schools. It is funded by some corporations and McMaster University. The school science teams answers challenging questions from the scientists, and keep reports pertinent to what is going on with their experiments. Students then have opportunities to ask their own questions and communicate their results in their own classrooms. The expedition is trying to understand how seals can prevent the harmful effects of hypoxia and low blood flow during diving. Their hope is to transfer their knowledge and utilize it to discover new therapies that can be developed to assist humans that have heart and lung diseases. I can use this an example of research to better mankind. I'm wondering if nursing and medicine in the future will be able to utilize something similiar from the standpoint of teaching new nurses and MD's about different diseases/procedures in real-time without them physically being present. As we speak, there are hospital units that are computer and video linked to physicians thousands of miles away that diagnose and treat the patient without ever physically touching them. Clinical sites for nursing experiences are overbooked and this may be an alternative opportunity for some of the experience. Obviously, the privacy issue would need to be addressed. It may not be that far off. I also found an interesting article at www.informationweek.com that indicated that the Nursing Institute of West Central Ohio would begin using the Remote Presence Robotic System (RP-7) to allow nursing faculty to teach from remote locations. Over 100 have been deployed in hospitals around the world.

Students have opportunities to use the Read/Write web to promote critical thinking, synthesis and provision of information on assigned topics such as ethical issues. All students would be able to participate and express their opinions as well as communicate in a social atmosphere. Students get to know other class mates viewpoints or even those of the author. In a traditional classroom setting, few students participate due to motivation, fear of public speaking, and/or time constraints in the class. Students that excel at writing have an opportunity to exhibit their work and receive a grade for it. The process encourages self-reflection on social issues that otherwise may not have been addressed.