Tag Archive | education
July 3, 2012  

#WhyIChosePT

This year, we added social media communication as a professional competency in our Doctor of Physical Therapy curriculum.  During their 5-week Professional Interactions course, our first-year students were required to complete a number of assignments on the social media sites Twitter and LinkedIn.  For their last Twitter assignment, students were asked to reflect upon their choice of PT as a career, and to participate in a tweet chat using the hashtag #WhyIchosePT.  I tweeted an invitation for other students and professionals to join in, resulting in over one hundred #WhyIChosePT tweets from physical therapy professionals around the country and the world.

With so much talk about our “broken” health care system, it is refreshing and inspiring to read stories about why so many of us chose (and continue to choose) PT as our profession.  If you’re a physical therapy professional, #WhyIChosePT will remind you why you chose the field in the first place.  And – if you’re not – I dare you to read these tweets without wishing that you chose PT, too

This is just the beginning.  You can view the entire #WhyIChosePT story on Storify by clicking here.

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April 3, 2012  

Kids these days, part 3

I recently attended a meeting for rehabilitation managers in my community titled, “New Graduates and Generation Y: Training for Emotional Intelligence and Face-To-Face Communications Skills.”  This is Part 3 in a series of posts on the themes of that discussion about the Millennial generation.  You may also want to read Part 1 and Part 2.

Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story about a kindergarten class that tweets 3 days a week.  After reading the story and viewing the accompanying video (see below), I couldn’t stop smiling.  With her class project, kindergarten teacher Jennifer Aaron is addressing the “technology gap” using a brilliant strategy, one I think we should model in our professional health care education classrooms as well as our clinics.   She has become familiar with the technology, has learned how to use it, and is teaching her students (and probably their parents) how to use it, too.

One of the themes that arose – and involved much discussion – during the area rehabilitation managers meeting I attended last week were concerns about students’ and new grads’ use of technology:

“Students and new grads are always texting, playing Words with Friends, and checking Facebook. They don’t have good professional boundaries when it comes to checking and using their mobile devices.  They know how to Facebook and text, but they struggle with “real-life” communication and relationships.”

These concerns are valid and often true.  We have some of these same frustrations with “kids these days” in professional education.  And why wouldn’t we?

Although there are many well-documented characteristics (stereotypes?) associated with the Millenial generation, what really sets them apart is their use of technology.  They are curious and fearless when it comes to technology.  They are constantly connected to their friends, family, and world in a way no other generation has before.  They enjoy mobility (smart phones) and real-time interaction (Twitter and texting).  They don’t want to be tethered to a PC (or even a laptop) or wait for email.  This technology has been around as long as they can remember, and they often identify as “digital natives.”  They are accustomed to using technology in every aspect of their lives – except education and practice.  The “head-in-the-sand, if-we-ignore-this-maybe-it-will-go-away” approach we’ve taken to technology (and – in particular – social media) in education and health care has not served our students well.  Suddenly, they enter professional education or a clinical internship (or even a first job) and they’re told they’re supposed to put their mobile device away.  But they don’t wear a watch, so how will they tell time?  And what about the anatomy app on their phone they use for quick reference?  They should hide their social media profiles (or at least make them private).  But what if they want to “like” the America Physical Therapy Association on Facebook?  Tweet a link for a new Physical Therapy Journal article they just read? Or start a blog and a Facebook page where they can (gasp!) friend their patients so they can share good, reputable health care information?

The truth is, many Millennials don’t know how to use technology and social media in a professional, appropriate way because no one is teaching them.  No one is modeling it for them.  They are figuring it out on their own, and when they make mistakes, us old folks wag our giant fingers at them and say, “I told you that texting/tweeting/Facebooking/smartphone app using wasn’t a good idea.  We should just ban it all.”  How’s that working for us?

We all need to take a cue from Ms. Aaron and her kindergarten class.  Part of the professional PT education curriculum should be about appropriate, professional use of technology and social media.  Instead of telling our students to “turn off and put away” their mobile devices, we should be using them during class as an opportunity to engage students in education and the profession, all the while teaching them to be better digital citizens.  Schools and health care facilities should re-think broad policies banning mobile devices and social media.  It is time that we recognize that social media is part of “real life,” and that the next generation of health care providers will be expected to have technology and social media skills.  Their patients (and the public) will demand that they engage with them using social media.  They will walk into a clinic with no Facebook page, no Twitter feed, and no blog; see a physical therapist walk up to them with a paper chart and a medical reference book and wonder, “Is she practicing physical therapy like it’s 1995, too?”

It is time to stop approaching technology and social media in health care and education from a risk management perspective and start approaching it as an opportunity to educate, learn, engage.  An opportunity to elevate our practice and the profession.

If Ms. Aaron and her kindergartners can do it, we can, too.

April 2, 2012  

Kids these days, part 2

I recently attended a meeting for rehabilitation managers in my community titled, “New Graduates and Generation Y: Training for Emotional Intelligence and Face-To-Face Communications Skills.”  This is Part 2 in a series of posts on the themes of that discussion about the Millennial generation.  Part 1 can be accessed here.

“Students and new grads [Millennials] don’t seem to have the listening skills they once had.  And they don’t have the self-awareness to reflect and correct, and they often get defensive or emotional when criticized.”  This was one of the central themes of the rehabilitation manager meeting I attended last week.  Kids these days don’t listen, they won’t learn, and they get upset when someone with  little more experience tries to tell them how to do it better.  In other words, Millenials are immature and they don’t respect authority.

This is a common criticism of Millennials and one that – as an educator – I certainly understand.  But I think that, when we examine the characteristics of Millennials, it it clear that the problem isn’t that Millennials don’t respect authority.  It’s just that Millennials view authority differently than the generations before them.

It is true that Millennials are confident, and sometimes that confidence can seem arrogant.  It can appear that they aren’t listening or reflecting when they continue to do things “their way.”  Millennials are social and informal.  They get along well with their parents.  Similarly, they want to like their instructors and bosses and have casual, friendly relationships with them.  The boundaries between “work” and “play” are blurry, and Millennials may have difficulty hearing professional criticism from a colleague and not taking it as a personal attack from a friend.  Millennials like teamwork and value open communication.  They believe that others on the team want to hear their thoughts and ideas, and they share them freely.  When they are frustrated about a work situation or don’t agree with criticism, they aren’t afraid to express their feelings.  To a Baby Boomer or Gen Xer, this way of relating to coworkers can seem immature, unprofessional, and just plain uncomfortable.

Here are a few of my suggestions for improving the “authority gap” between Millenials and Baby Boomers or Gen Xers:

  1. Build time into the day for communication.  Allow time after a treatment session for a patient or family to provide feedback about home exercise program instruction.  Schedule time at the end of the day to communicate with a colleague or clinical instructor about an intervention technique.  These will give the student or new grad opportunities to practice receiving (and giving) constructive professional criticism.
  2. Millennials love technology  – use it!  Get permission first, then grab a video camera or smart phone and record a student or new grad conducting a patient interview or education session.  Allow him to view the video and reflect on his performance and communication skills.  Discuss what he did well, and what he should do differently next time.  Again, this gives practices with communication and provides an objective way to self-reflect.
  3. Position yourself not strictly as an authority figure, but also as a mentor and advocate.  Millennials value relationships and are fiercely loyal.  This can be a tricky one – you want to be a guide, not a friend – but once you’ve established a relationship of mutual respect, you may find the student or new grad listening a little more and accepting criticism without defensiveness or emotion.
Have you experienced the “authority gap” in your classroom or practice?  What strategies have you used  to close the gap?
[Creative Commons-licensed image by Flickr user xflickrx]
March 15, 2012  

Using the iPad for productivity: these are a few of my favorite apps.

According to yesterday’s post from The Chronicle, tablet ownership has more than tripled among college students in the past year.  Approximately one quarter of college students report that they own a tablet, up from 7% just one year ago.  I haven’t seen such a drastic a shift among my students, but I have noticed more students bringing iPads to class this semester.  I would estimate that at least once per week I have a student question me about my iPad because she’s thinking about purchasing one herself.  For the first time, many of my students are showing an interest in purchasing eTextbooks instead of paper books.  Like it or not, iPads are in our classrooms and more are on the way.  This provides educators a wonderful opportunity to guide students in learning how to use the iPad as more than an email reader or gaming device.  But the first step for us faculty is to learn to use the device ourselves.

I’ve only had an iPad about a year, so I am hardly an early adopter.  But I was one of the first people in my professional and social circles who began using the iPad as a primary device for work and productivity.  Part of that was timing – just a few weeks before I received my iPad, my personal laptop stopped working and I was determined to avoid another big technology purchase.  I was told by many iPad-owning friends that the device would never be suited for true productivity, that it was more “for fun.”  However, I quickly learned that – with a few key accessories and a couple of good apps – I was able to use my iPad to do anything my laptop could do (and sometimes more).  When I traveled to a conference for the first time this year with only an iPad in my luggage (no bulky laptop and charger), I felt so free!

I am in health care education, and it seems that – when we start discussing apps for faculty – everyone immediately mentions discipline-specific apps: medical reference, anatomy apps, and apps that can be used in clinical practice.  Those apps can be very useful, but I think we should start more broadly.  The best way to help faculty learn to really use iPads is to focus on apps that everyone can use (regardless of discipline) to manage productivity and workflow.  Once we’ve discovered how to use the device for day-to-day tasks, we can add specialized apps for teaching and research or apps that are specific to our discipline or area of expertise.  As frequently happens in teaching, students may model themselves after us and discover how they can also use the iPad for productivity, learning, and practice.

In that spirit, I’d like to share how I use my iPad in my role as a faculty member, as well as some of my “go-to” apps.

  • File storage and management.  Dropbox is probably my #1 app for file storage and management.  Many (if not most) of my productivity apps sync with Dropbox, which means I can pull documents from Dropbox into other apps to edit, read, etc.  Then I can put them back when I’m done.  Dropbox syncs across all my devices and computers, which is convenient, efficient, and eliminates the need for a USB drive.  I have the free version of Dropbox which includes 2GB of storage.  That’s plenty for me (so far).
  • Presenting.  I’m trying to get away from traditional lecture-style teaching, but when I have to create some slides and give a presentation, I use Keynote for iPad.  It’s very easy to use and even a little fun to build a presentation using the app.  While I understand it is lacking some features compared to Keynote for Mac (which I’ve never used), I prefer to keep my presentations clean and simple so it seems to have everything I need.  It includes a handy little laser pointer (just touch the screen and hold) and nice slide and notes views when in presentation mode.  Keynote for iPad converts presentations to and from PowerPoint with little to no loss in formatting.  When it’s time to present, I just plug into the projector with my VGA adapter and use Keynote Remote for iPhone to advance my slides.  At about $10 it is a little pricey for an app, but well worth it for me.
  • Writing.  I do most of my heavy-duty writing on my laptop.  If I wanted to do a lot of writing on my iPad, I’d probably just use Pages.  I wish I lived in a totally Apple world, but the truth is that my work computer is a PC (not by my choice) and most of the colleagues with whom I collaborate use Microsoft Word, so it makes the most sense for me to stick with Word.  I know many faculty who use an app like QuickOffice to access Word files and others who workaround by editing documents using Google Docs.  But I’ve decided that, for my purposes, my iPad is better used for simply writing.  I save the “word processing” (formatting, headings, bold, italic, etc) for a program on my computer (Word) that’s designed to do so.  For the limited amount of writing I do on my iPad, I usually use Simplenote, which is just as it sounds.  Simple.  Simplenote can be used to write anything – lengthy documents, lists, quick notes, etc.  Notes are organized by tagging and can be shared and emailed.  When I want to convert a Simplenote to a Word Document, I just open the web-based version of Simplenote on my computer or email myself the note and cut and paste into Word.  Of course, a wireless keyboard is a critical accessory if you want to do much writing on your iPad.
  • Organization.  I’ve recently fallen in love with Evernote.  My life is now organized into Evernote notebooks (I have one for each of the courses I teach, one for each of my research projects, one for technology in teaching, another for the renovations my husband and I are doing to our house…you get the idea).  Within each notebooks reside individual notes.  In Evernote, I can type in text, embed files and images, link to videos, and record audio notes. I can also email a note to my Evernote email address.  By @ mentioning a notebook and # hashtagging the subject line, Evernote tags and files the emailed note into the correct notebook. I now use Evernote for keeping track of projects, keeping my lesson plans for each of my class sessions, and have discovered the handy feature of sharing notes with students using a url generated for each note (the link can later be broken if I want to “unshare”).  Evernote syncs with many apps, and the Evernote Trunk features apps that support and enhance the Evernote experience.  While the Evernote iPad app is useful, I have to say that I much prefer the desktop version.  A major weakness of Evernote for iPad is the inability to write handwritten notes using the app, which bring me to…
  • Notetaking.  Although I know there are many other apps with simpler interfaces, I love Notetaker HD for handwritten notes.  I will admit that it isn’t always intuitive to use, but it has tons of features and I love the ability to zoom for smaller, more legible handwriting.  Notetaker HD doesn’t sync with Evernote, but I use the emailing feature as a workaround to put my Notetaker notes into Evernote notebooks.  I’ve tried a couple of different styluses (styli?), and think the Bamboo stylus by Wacom is worth the $30 price tag.
  • Reading.  For reading books, I have the Kindle app as well as the OverDrive app for books lent from my local library.  I have recent downloaded the VitalSource app for use with Elsevier eTextbooks.  But for reading documents (usually in PDF format), I use Goodreader.  Goodreader allows me to read documents in almost any format and mark up/annotate PDF documents.  It syncs with Dropbox and folders and files can be downloaded to Goodreader for offline reading.  Goodreader costs $5, but it’s file management capabilities put it ahead of other free PDF readers in my opinion.
  • Whiteboard.  I don’t use a whiteboard very often, but I do like Airsketch for teaching or meetings.  It allows me to use a url on another computer on the same WiFi network to display my iPad whiteboard in real time.  This means I can project my iPad onto my laptop and project it without being tethered to the projector, or students/meeting participants can actually pull the whiteboard up on their own computers.  I can use a plan white background or import images or PDF files (i.e. PowerPoint slides converted to PDF) as a background.  There is also the capability to record a video of the Airsketch session.  I have the free version since I’m not a heavy user, but I know others who have the much more feature-rich paid version and use it often.
  • Reference management.  When I was working on my PhD, I used EndNote faithfully.  But I always felt like it was a bit clunky and buggy, and it never seemed to do what I wanted it (or thought it ought) to do.  About a year ago I discovered Mendeley and never looked back.  I love the web importer and the watch folder and file organization features.  The Word plugin makes citing easy.  I’m intrigued by the social aspect, although I haven’t really used that feature yet (mostly because few of my colleagues are users).  Like Evernote, I much prefer the desktop version of Mendeley over the iPad app, but it is handy to have my reference library and article links or PDFs at my fingertips.

So that’s just a snapshot of how I use my iPad to manage my faculty workload.  I’m sure there are many more great productivity apps and endless opportunities to model professional tablet use for our students.

I’d love to hear from you.  Are you ready for iPads in your classroom?  Do you have your own iPad?  If so, how do you use it for work?  What are your favorite apps?

(Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user FHKE)

March 1, 2012  

Why teachers should consider “friending” their students

Earlier this week, I posted a Facebook link to a New York Times story on the Ohio school shooting:

Image

The post generated some interesting discussion on bullying and teacher-student interactions, but one comment in particular really got me thinking.  One of my friends posted a link to an article describing a disturbing Facebook post written by shooter TJ Lane back in December, ending with the phrase, “Die, all of you.”  My friend commented that the shooting “maybe could have been prevented if the grown-ups paid attention to social media.”

Before I go on, I want to point out that it is easy to say – in hindsight – that this tragedy could have been prevented if someone had been “paying attention.”  For the most part, I think we all make the best decisions we can with the information we have.  Sometimes we don’t do enough, do nothing when we should have done something, or do what turns out to have been the wrong thing altogether.  My heart goes out to all the students, teachers, and families who have experienced this nightmare, and I can only imagine the innumerable conversations among them beginning with the words “If only I would have….”  I myself have experienced a situation with a tragic and irreversible result, and I understand the depth of that kind of  guilt.  I am heartbroken for all involved and – simply put – no one is to blame except for one very disturbed young man who did something to ruin the lives of many, including himself.

But I do think this tragedy and the events leading up to it illustrate the need to re-examine the conventional wisdom that teachers should never “friend” their students.  Last summer, my home state of Missouri passed a law preventing teacher-student “friendships” on social networking sites.  The ill-thought-out law was designed to “protect” students from inappropriate interactions with teachers, and was repealed a few months later.  I think what happened in Missouri is a perfect example of how social media (and teachers for that matter) tend to get demonized, usually by people who’ve never logged onto Facebook themselves.  It is easy to fear what you don’t understand, and I’m sure Missouri lawmakers thought that “protecting the children” would be popular with voters.  But we have to realize that social media isn’t a whole new world of communication.  It is simply another way to communicate.  A teacher who would interact inappropriately with a student (and – despite what the media would have us believe – I don’t think there are many) is not going to be deterred by a law preventing them from “friending” a student.  And, frankly, there are a lot of positive interactions that could occur between students and teachers on Facebook and other social networking sites (not to mention the growing body of evidence, including some of my own work, that social media can actually be an effective part of education).  When teachers aren’t allowed to “friend” students – whether because of State law or simply an unwritten “rule” dictating that it’s inappropriate or creepy – there are missed opportunities for meaningful interactions in a space where kids today are doing a whole lot of interacting.  And what about the student like TJ Lane, who uses social media as a place to write things he can’t figure out how to say out loud?  As a place to cry for help?  If no one’s listening, then no one can reach out.  No one can intervene.  Nothing can change for TJ.  And we saw the absolute worst outcome from a situation like that this week in Ohio.

I don’t mean to pretend that there aren’t serious considerations for teachers who “friend” their students.  As an educator myself, I’ve done a lot of soul-searching on the subject (although, admittedly, it’s a bit less messy for me since I teach graduate students who are all adults).  I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m okay with “friending” my students and former students, but I don’t ever make the request.  I understand the privacy settings on all my social networks, and I use the lists feature on Facebook.  I monitor my accounts closely.  I don’t pose with alcohol and never post or allow myself to be tagged in any picture that could be viewed as questionable or suggestive.  I am certainly not afraid to share my personality and am not shy about my parenting philosophies and political leanings, but I strive to also post content that is relevant to who I am as a professional.  I abide by the “front door” rule: if I wouldn’t post it on my front door, I won’t post it to social media.  By letting my students into my social media “world,” I hope to serve as an example of how social media can be used to develop an online identity that is honest yet thoughtful, and that matches who you are and how you want others to see you.  Social media can help you meet people, brand yourself, learn new things, make connections, and get ahead.  And that’s probably the most important lesson that can be taught to a student on Facebook.

Social media are the way the next generation of students are communicating, like it or not.  A lot of bullying and cries for help are now occurring in the form of posts, tags, tweets, and uploads.  We are inundated with stories of young people posting inappropriate and damaging things on social media, and I’m convinced we have to do more than just “pay attention.”  We have to act when we see something troublesome and teach kids how to use social media thoughtfully and responsibly.  And I’m not sure how to do that without us grown-ups taking a deep breath and hitting the “accept friend request” button.