Dear Future Students..

Dear Future Students,

You are all very lucky that I, as your educator, paid attention during grad school. The ways I have grown as an educator so far are innumerable.  Upon the completion of my most recent course, which focused on technology, I have gained incredible insight on how to optimize YOUR education using engaging, interactive and fun technologies! I have learned and really understood the NEED for technology in the 21^st century. I sort of viewed teaching as a one-dimensional sort of thing, and I was anxious about how I would “spice it up” for you all.

Our culture and society are constantly changing with advances in technology, it’s my due diligence to ensure that I keep up with that within our classroom. I need and want to connect you to the vast resources out there. My goal is to assist you in becoming as well rounded as possible. I will max out my potential as your teacher to teach you in a way that is exciting and memorable. This is such a unique experience for you and I hold in my hands the power to make it something special for you. With my knowledge of technology and my creativity and open-mindedness, we can get through the journey together, and you can expect me to give you the best opportunity to learn all that you can, in a way that makes sense to you.

Your Teacher,

Alyssa Kaczmarek 

Being Tech Savvy

The last 5 weeks have been a whirlwind. Here I was, thinking this would be an easier course (relatively). I soon found myself both overwhelmed and intrigued with the vastness that is nursing informatics.

Luckily, I was born in a generation that embraced technology and from a very young age learned the basics and beyond. I can navigate most any computer and feel comfortable and confident learning EMR and other computer systems. However, this course really made me realize I have to step up my informatics game. Technology is only going to advance farther, and with the help of the techniques and information I’ve learned in this class, I feel more prepared to facilitate the learning of my students. 

 

As with anything, continuing education serves to keep practicing nurses up to date on advances in health care, including informatics. As continuing educations is most often mandatory, I believe it is my duty to seek out specific courses and credits related to informatics. This article explains why technology is important in the classroom on all levels of education, an as mentioned in previous responses, I strive to be an educator who can appreciate each student as an individual. Technology serves as a way to engage with all different personalities, abilities, ages, and learning styles. I’d like to work on this as an educator, and I feel that the more opportunity I have to work different things, the better I will be at integrating them in to my teaching.

I’ll admit it. Even though I am somewhat of a technology native, I have a lot more to learn. I consider myself a “modifier” when speaking of competency in nursing informatics. I have a lot to learn and the good thing is that I am open to learning! The biggest hurdle (as with anything) is acknowledging that I don’t know it all and feeling comfortable with accessing resources to gain more knowledge.

Feed Forward Assessment

The concept of  “Feed Forward” is incredible in terms of education, and yet so fundamentally basic. Why haven’t we thought of this before? Where did we get lost in the mundane tasks of educating? I love this concept. I actually love the whole idea of evaluating myself as a teacher in the process of evaluating my students.  Where would I get if I just give feedback to my students without closing the loop? Their mistakes are my mistakes. 

This guy’s got it right. Although, he teaches middle school math, his whole process is what I wish to emulate. First, having the DRIVE and the PASSION to change the world (by teaching the younger generations).  Second, understanding the idea that teaching isn’t a one-way type of thing. It’s this crazy back and forth and back again of learning from each other. 

Being able to “feed forward” means to be flexible and humble; Level out with the students. Step away from the podium and engage.  Use their mistakes and opportunities to learn and use their mistakes as opportunities for THEM to learn.

I like Joe Hirsch’s concept of Description not Prescription, found here. Instead of the prescribed method correcting the wrong and moving on, we should be figuring out what we did wrong, how to fix it and how we’ve grown from it.

Basically, it’s about giving up the perception of Teacher Says, Students Do and joining their circle. As an educator, I bring the experience and opportunity and students bring everything else. I mean, they ARE the reason we teach, aren’t they!?

Explore the basics of assessment here. This webpage couldn't be more simple. It's bookmarkable. (ya like that?) Something I'd definitely reference in the future.