Connected students = Connected alumni

I have been thinking about the debate about social media in higher education. I appreciate the concerns about individual versus group assessment.  But I wondered about something else. 

Alumni Development

Does participating in professional communities of practice while a student lead to improve alumni connections, networking, and relations?

I could see this benefitting the university and its members in a few ways. 

1) Students can connect to alumni and practitioners on a regular basis for authentic learning. Also they can continue those connections in a separate space if agreed upon. 

2) Students see how they can remain connected to the university, or find their way back.

3) Stronger connections may lead to improved job placement.

4) Practitioners can be connected with some of the latest resources or research.

5) Alumni who are connected may be more likely to make financial contributions to the university. 

I am thinking about the possibility of this type of activity for my produsage assignment.  Stay tuned. 

Evaluating and Creating Blooms levels

 I have been facilitating some workshops this summer with other faculty.  One of the topics that has come up is what types of assessments match different Blooms taxonomy levels.

The 2 levels of the revised Blooms Taxonomy that has come into question the most is evaluate and create.  It has been a bit challenging to explain why evaluate and create are not able to be assessed on a multiple choice examination.

In an article by Williams (2017), there is a discussion about the alternative assessment. The article suggests that assessment be used for learning rather than an asssessment of learning.  

I reallly like this idea and I had already been thinking about how the rapid fire tests currently being offered may not get to the level of learning desired for health care providers.  Of course the challenge is that most health professional licensure examinations are multiple choice.

This made me think about how produsage may fit with Blooms and in health professional preparation. Which comes first?  Should students complete produsage "for" learning before they are assessed with a multiple choice test for assessment "of" learning. Or should students complete produsage after a multiple choice test to improve higher order cognitive skills.

Consider a health care provider learning about diabetes?  Should they first be tested on the diagnostic criteria and treatments? Or should they first evaluate a patient case and respond with a course of action?

Williams, P. (2017). Assessing collaborative learning: Big data, analytics and university futuresLinks to an external site.. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42(6), 978-989. doi:10.1080/02602938.2016.1216084

Is digital citizenship an implied positive?

 I appreciated reading the Digital Citizenship Education Hanbook (Richardson, 2019).  This handbook from the Council of Europe's Digigital Citizenship Education Expert Group provides an introduction and guide with three sections.  The three sections are being online, well-being online, and rights online. 

This resource defines a digitial citizen as "someone who, through the development of a broad range of competencies, is able to actively, positively and responsibly engage in both on- and offline communities..."

I immediately paused when I read this.  To me it seems this statement assumes a positive connotation that a digitial citizen is automatically positive, thoughtful, and responsible. 

Is there no such thing as a good or a bad digital citizen? 

What do you call a person who is online or digital but not these things? 

It also made me think about country or community citizenship.  Especially after some circumstances in my neighborhood, it seems clear to me that not all citizens in my community are positive, thoughtful and responsible. 

The article discusses the 20 competencies for democratic culture which includes items such as valuing cultural diversity, civic-mindedness, conflist-resolution skills, knowledge and critical understanding of the self."  

The article ties these compentencies to 10 digital domains.These domains are:

Access and inclusion, learning and creativity, media and information literacy, ethics and empahty, health and well-being, e-presence and communications, active participate, rights and responsibilities, privacy and security and consumer awarenss.

Reading through each of these, I agree they are all very important when learning about digital citiizenship.  What do you think? What is the likelihood that all online produsers are digital citizens? How do we refer to those produsers that aren't so we can support them?

Richardson, J., & Milovidov, E. (2019). Digital citizenship education handbook: Being online, well-being online, and rights online. Council of Europe. Available at: https://rm.coe.int/16809382f9

Larger scope for the PLN assignment?

 I had been planning to use the topic of digital accessibilty for my PLN assignment, if you noticed, this is what I picked for the knowledge sharing and tracking assignment. However, the more I get into these communities, the less I feel a part of them.  

I really love the detailed information I have been gaining, but unfortunately it is too detailed.  Much of the conversation is around detailed HTML editing and technical savvy that I, unfortunately, don't have. Learning HTML is on my list but not something I can likely add on in the next few months. 

So I am thinking about how I can scope out.  What topic might I choose for the PLN project that is connected, at least tangental but less detail focused. This way I can feel more a part of the community. 

I considered universal design for learning which incorporates accessibility but more at the level of design than technology.  However, I am not sure about different communities.  CAST, that I have previously shared on twitter, is the primary group.  There are also lots of resources at individual universities but it appears the community is for those teaching at that university. 

This makes me think that perhaps the topic I am interested in is inclusive online learning in higher education. I wonder if this topic is too big or too populare a teram right now. But I suppose this is what I can learn from the assignment. 

What do you think? What ideas do you have?

Transferring my collection Draft email to Diigo

This past week I started doing some cleaning both of my physical and digital spaces. I realized I had 165 draft emails in my work email account.  Why?

Because I use my draft email to collect resources.  If I see an article, I want to go back and read, I attach it to a draft email. If I find a link I might want to visit later, I add it to a draft email.  

No bookmarks, no repository, just draft emails. 

So I am making a change!

Yesterday I added 13 new items to my Diigo library with tags. I still wish the free Diigo was a bit more visually appealing to me. I think I miss having a file based approach. But I am getting better as using tags. 

And I am thinking about upgrading to premium for unlimited storage, reading and RSS feeds. 

What do you think, are you using Diigo or something else to collect your resources?

Legitimate peripheral participation

I have appreciate the opportunities to consider communities of practice in a Web2.0 environment this semester. In an effort to organize my materials, I went back through previous class files and found information on communities of practice.

Today I am thinking about legitimate peripheral participation.  Is this the same as a lurker?

This wiki suggests the definition of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) as the way a new individual would interact with a community.  It suggests that this is an important step in becoming an experienced member of the community. LPP suggest activities that are low stakes and simple. 

This makes sense to me when considering an apprenticeship. An individual will start with providing small, supportive tasks and work up to being more involved. However, what are low stakes and simple tasks for an online community. 

For individuals who are joining an new online community what tasks are low stakes and simple?  I believe this relates both to the participation in the discussion and the topic.

For example, in a vegetarian online community.  LPP might be considered responding to others posts about recipes.  Perhaps, they start by commenting on what looks good. The next level may mean to comment on what they liked after they make the recipe. Moving up to posting one's own recipes and futher on to critique and offer detailed feedback on recipes. 

This also seems different than lurking. Lurking suggests there is no participation or that the participation is not legitimate such as maybe an occasional like or follow.

What do you think, what is legitimate peripheral participation in an online community? Do experienced members play a role in defining and supporting legitimate peripheral participation?

Actions

CE versus CPD versus CPL?

A bit more than 15 years ago, I was involved in a national project to look at the use of continuing education (CE) versus continuing professional development (CPD) for US pharmacists. For this discussion the difference was that continuing education was directed by others and continuing professional development was directed by the learner.  Also, instead of tracking hours attended, learners maintained a portfolio that included both formal and information learning. Here is an image of continuing professional development by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE, 2014).

Today I checked back on the association that oversees continuing education for pharmacists. There is a new set of resources listed, dated March 2, 2021. This list provides information about CPD use outside of the US.  This blog about pharmacists in Ontario reports the results of a study by Austin et. al. (2003),  "the results show 86% of pharmacists were able to self-direct their learning versus 14% requiring guidance." 

As someone who served as a continuing education director for many years and who had to enforce time in the seat at continuing education events, a butt in a seat has little value. To me formal learning - through participation in a synchronous event, doesn't seem necessary. While we can make someone attend a synchronous program to get credit and maintain their license. We can't make them pay attention.  

Through our readings we have read about the self-directed nature of professional learning. This made me consider the title of professional development versus professional learning.  Perhaps the movement should not be from cotinuing education to continuing professional development. It should be to continuing professional learning.

A quick literature search focused on CPD suggests development is the dominate word.  This makes me think that CPL would likely have a long journey of its own. 

What do you think, do you want health care providers to completed continuing education, continuing professional development, or continuing professsional learning?

Austin Z, Croteau D, Marini A, Violato C. Continuous Professional Development: The Ontario Experience in Professional Self-Regulation through Quality Assurance and Peer Review. Amer J Phar Educ (2003); 67 (2): Article 56. http://ajpe.org/aj6702/aj670256/aj670256.pdf