Thank you
Posted on: May 4, 2011
In the middle of a week that is busy and full of solid science, this class came as a BRAIN-saver for me. Each time I go to this class i remember many things, first that I live in a normal society, second, there are many P.h.D students who share many problems, concerns and ideas like the ones i have. Thirdly and most importantly, it also reminds me that I wanted to be a teacher in the future. Why is this important for me? Every week, I have certain level in of energy and enthusiasm peaking on Monday. With all frustrations and disappointments during the week the level goes down, then this class comes and as i said reminded me of my goal in the future, which recharges my level of motivation toward working on my research and classes.
I think this was a well-taught, fun class which each VCU academic should consider..
BIG thanks to Mr. Jeff & Britt 🙂
online education and pharmacy
Posted on: April 27, 2011
- In: Education
- 2 Comments
I can think of many ways where online education can be utilized in the field of pharmacy in both undergraduate and
graduate education. Having a bulk of basic knowledge which one has to gather and comprehend, online video or audio lectures serve as a very valuable tool to offer lectures of basic knowledge topics online at students’ convenience. Chat or discussion boards can enhance active learning and encourage online student communication. Online assessment for oral presentations is small-scale classes is also a time saving option. For some areas in pharmacy however the online education cannot work. For example, in classes or research including experimental and laboratory work, you need to be there at the lab. facility and perform the experiment yourself. In the later example, online education role can come where you can see the techniques demonstration online or the the online resources can be used to support the theoretical part.
In general, online education is an important emerging tool that can be employed in all fields. It helps very much in achieving many of the seven principles we discussed in earlier classes. Nevertheless, face to face education or traditional educational is indispensable in many settings and subjects and is an important part of student’ educational experience in terms of socializing and communicating.
- In: Education
- 2 Comments
Last class we have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of blackboard for both faculty and students. I think blackboard is a great way to display the courses material effectively, flexibly (in various forms and at different times), and paperlessly. At the same time, Blackboard cannot be a stand alone tool and is not the best technology to use in all occasions. However, a distinction should me made between the unsuitability of blackboard and the ineffective use of blackboard. Instructors themselves could use blackboard in a way that reduce its usefulness. For example, instructors might have technical limitation that prohibit them from posting a good material or organize this material in an effective way. Moreover, instructors could overlook the interactivity role of blackboard (such as chatting or discussion boards) and use it solely for posting papers and assignments to students , while forgetting their instructors function to provide feedback, assessment or direct students to alternative and additional resources.
So, blackboard is not without disadvantages, but the effective use of it will lead and had already contributed to the advancement in education.
Pecha Kucha
Posted on: April 7, 2011
I was really impressed by the discussion about large classes. Previously I couldn’t think of any advantage for doing that. I realize how much dedication, patience, solid teaching abilities and communication skills you need to have. One of the things we have discussed about the inability to do lots of presentations. This was my thought until I saw what technology has done for us! Two words …Pecha Kucha or 20X20! . Pecha Kucha ( yes, it’s not an English word ..it’s Japanese) is a short presentation format where you present 20 slides, each for 20 seconds. The slides moves automatically and you should follow them while you present your talk. I think this type of presentation is very useful in a large-class setting. You can talk about a topic of your interest in 7 minutes, you talk about most important things and do a big favor for your colleagues by saving them from boredom! I might consider this Pecha Kucha in my Grad606 presentation next week..i like it 🙂
- In: Education
- 2 Comments
From our class discussion, I concluded that summative assessment is more encountered in formative assessment especially in undergraduate education. Also, there was some sort of consensus the formative is better to achieve learning outcomes. Nevertheless, I believe that a successful education depends on balancing both forms of assessments. The contribution of each, however, depends on the subject taught, classroom settings, and the educational stage. For example, summative assessments in some stages or programs are tools to help evaluate the effectiveness of programs, school improvement goals, alignment of curriculum, or student placement in specific programs. While summative assessment depends on grade and provide a mean of sorting of students, we it also give an indication of student effort. We don’t have this nice bell-shaped distribution of students’ grade curved because of merely their learning ability, but also because students differ in the effort they put in learning. A student doesn’t necessary get (A) because he grasps everything in the class, but it also means that he puts more effort in memorizing, trying to understand and read the material, preparing for the exam, attending classes and paying attention.
On the other side, summative assessments can only help in evaluating certain aspects of the learning process. Because they are spread out and occur after instruction and happen too far down the learning path to provide information at the classroom level and to make instructional adjustments and interventions during the learning process. It takes formative assessment to accomplish this. Formative assessments therefore somehow unite or equalize the effort a student makes to learn. Because this pattern of students’ evaluation emphasizes on active learning and student involvement. In conclusion, i believe that after we make sure a student has mastered or at least gained a standard knowledge, then we can move forward to formative type of assessments.
Taxonomic levels and technology
Posted on: March 7, 2011
When I saw education taxonomies, few questions occurred to my mind: should these thinking levels of education applied all the time or are they subject- or educational level dependent? Is it necessary to complete one level to step-up to the next or can we just start already with one of the upper levels of thinking? For example can we read information and then start applying them in our field without the need to memorize it. What is the role of technology in modifying or even skipping one of these steps? For example I thought of the availability of medical information in computers or hand-held I phones which can provide you with all what you need about drugs or surgeries. This technology might contribute to minimizing the need to remember stuff. Also, the availability of statistical analysis software which can perform thousands of tests can make some aspects of the analysis part just much easier. I am not saying that technology can do the entire job, but it can make reduce the burden of some of these levels especially remembering part. Other levels, however, like understanding, applying, evaluating or creating are almost entirely human-dependent.
RSS ..the web comes to you!
Posted on: February 22, 2011
- In: Education
- 2 Comments
I am currently in the process of writing a review paper. The usual procedure is that i will submit it to my advisor, then she will read it, modify it and then having me (most probably) re-writing it.. From that time to the time it’s sent for publication_which we can say about 2-3 months, how many articles would be there every day writing about the topic I am doing my paper on?? too many of them..which means that everyday i have to go to pubmed or other databases and re-enter my search terms and see if there is/are new article (s) with this regard, or even to know if any one took the idea of my dissertation 🙂 When the invention of RSS was discussed in the class..i was thinking..WOW amazing..i can just rss the pubmed with my search terms and the articles come straight forward to my Google reader. Also I found a cool way to do that..please follow this link: Pubmed + RSS + iGoogle = Easy Lit Updates.
Enjoy the power of RSS+Pubmed+iGoogle !
- In: Education
- 2 Comments
While I was reading an article about the general advantages of social bookmarking Social Bookmarking Even When You’re Not Social: Why I Use Delicious in the Chronicle of Higher Education, I thought what are the benefits of using bookmarking in teaching or in a course? In other terms, which of the seven good practices_discussed in yesterday’s class_ can be achieved through social bookmarking?
In my opinion, and as can be taken from the term SOCIAL bookmarking, this feature develop reciprocity and cooperation among Students. Considering the availability of online resources , students are not confined with what is said in the class, or what’s in their textbooks. They can have other resources and different points of view. Social bookmarking allows them to organize websites to these resources and SHARE them with other students in the class. Moreover, the tagging feature makes it easier to organize and categorize your saved websites. One thing we should pay attention for is the tagging terminology, many people tag websites with terms which they think relevant for them but not necessarily relevant to others. This may waste some time when trying to go to a tagged website with some term you think relevant but you read the whole thing to discover it was not what you were looking for. In addition to that, one should always keep in mind the validity and credibility of shared websites.
I cannot think of another principle which can be achieved through social bookmarking! Can you?
- In: Education
- 6 Comments
One of the good practices in undergraduate education is to exploit multiple ways to assess student performance. This will give chance for different students to be evaluated differently. For example, a student who scores low in an objective exam in a biology course, doesn’t necessarily means he is not good in biology. He might perform better in an oral presentation or higher level thinking problems. So a teacher should understand these diverse abilities of people thus, using different methods of students’ evaluation. Applying technology in education helps effectively to serve this purpose. For example, blogging can allow interaction between student and teacher in addition to student-student interaction which allow students to express their ideas, and ways of thinking. An article
The Chronicle of Higher Education about the use of web-cam to fine-tune student performance is a good example of the use of technology in education Using Web Video to Fine-Tune Student Performance which help students to look for a new perspective to self-evaluate and practice oral communication skills and open the opportunity for abroad, long-distance education.
Blogging in education (Teaching)
Posted on: February 1, 2011
Blogging makes teaching more interactive such that it will not depend on a certain time or a place, which makes the educational process much more effective. Blogging also give students a chance to be reflective. In a classical class setting, where there might be hundreds students, teachers are not available to hear students’ feedback or questions, blogs can make this process more effective and student-centered rather than being teacher-centered. Moreover, this process will enhance the participation of some group of students who are smart but shy, not confident, or not comfortable speaking on public. Students could learn from each other; however, great attention should be give to false or biased information. Another thing I thought of while I was complaining to my friend about the need to write weekly in my blog, in fact, this will end up to be very useful at the end. Think of a class where you have to take daily material and then only study at the end of the year for the final exam. You could get high grades but how much information will be retained in your brain? Almost none! Blogging in teaching allows you to continue learning all over the semester/year in which the course is offered. Blogging helps track students’ development and change over time. It teaches you how to be collaborative with your colleagues especially in individualistic societies, and can attract external parties outside the classroom from which teachers’ as well as students can gain different experiences and thinking methods. From the economical point of view, blogging can reduce the cost of teaching; it cuts off your transportation cost or even the cost of building new classrooms. Finally and You might not agree with me with this last point, but as a person with poor writing ability, I think of blogging of a way to enhance my ability to express my ideas by writing and force me to keep working on my writing skills!
