Friday, April 7, 2017

Interactive Use of Technology in the Nursing Classroom



Teaching in the 21st century is such an exciting time!  Regardless of the age of the student, the type of education they are receiving or where the student is learning, technology has pointedly transformed the traditional classroom style learning that we all remember so well.  Today’s teacher has the ability to come out from behind the desk, step away from the chalkboard and interact with students in ways that have long surpassed pointing out where a country might be on a pull-down map or demonstrating how to utilize the card catalog; and nursing school is no exception to this rule, in fact, nursing school is the one place technology is now embraced.


With statistics rising with regard to the rise in number of patients, as well as the high number of nursing school applications versus the low number of available placement slots, current technologies have afforded nursing programs worldwide the ability to open up classrooms on a whole new level.  Utilization of online courses, virtual classrooms, and laboratory simulation are all examples of high level technology that has been used to overhaul nursing programs over the last five to ten years.  These big picture innovations, such as the simulation lab used by the Duke University nursing program, allow students opportunities that were never even thought imaginable 15, 30 or 60 years ago, as well as provide nursing instructors with the ability to provide active, out of the box clinical instruction.  Other, less invasive, yet innovative technologies that have assisted in advancing nursing curricula include audio-video tutorials, clickers in the classroom, smart-board technology, and webquest. 


These types of large and small scale interactive teaching/learning tools and strategies continue to drive my desire to teach the technologically savvy 21st century student, as well as peek my curiosity regarding what type of radical, groundbreaking techniques we will begin utilize over the next five to ten years.  Much like the nurses of the late 19th and early 20th century, we are now the new aged pioneers of nursing. Via high level utilization of the internet and other technologies within our classrooms, laboratories and acute and post-acute patient care settings, we are swiftly blazing a trail of highly interactive, new wave, informatic and high-tech advances in nursing curriculum for future nurses and nursing students. 


The video below provides an excellent overview of the advances we are making in education and details the rapid growth in the utilization of technology in education.  With all of the technological advances, I look very forward to what the future brings me as a professor and the abundance of information and ways I can deliver information, provide resources and interact with my students!




1 comment:

  1. Shelly, anyone reading your blog (any teacher) would become excited along with you! I can see how much you are learning.

    ReplyDelete

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