Social media, the democratisation of knowledge and physiotherapy. Can they play nice together?

• the lost art of solitude http://zenhabits.net/2010/04/solitude/ #
• @dkeats I use #hootsuite almost exclusively because everything I tweet is from the browser, so its already open. Besides, #AIR sucks #
• RT @openended: Ubuntu 10.10 to be codenamed Maverick Meerkat – http://arst.ch/hyt #
• RT @barrykayton: Just uploaded nine short video interviews about Cognician: http://bit.ly/9NIv77 #cognician #
• The Teaching Profession. A comment in what makes teaching “professional” http://tinyurl.com/yk7z8mr #
• Grades: An Acknowledgement That Schooling Is Insufficiently Rewarding http://tinyurl.com/yar4zet #
• The scientist and blogging. Short post from Downes on why you should blog http://tinyurl.com/yhrgy9w #
• The Difference between Lecture & Textbook? http://tinyurl.com/y8v66qp #
• Just upgraded to #afrihost uncapped ADSL, so impressed with the service from these guys, would recommend if you’re unhappy with #Telkom #
• @cristinacost Is there another platform we can use to share notes? I’d like to know more about how you’re using it, & share what we’re doing #
• @cristinacost loving it, going to run workshops with 2 classes next week, & assignments for the rest of the term, we can chat #
• @WhatAboutRob thanks for the tip, but I’m using Chromium almost exclusively now #
• @mpaskevi thanks for that, it works well, just what I need #
• Blown away that Print Screen + Paint is still the suggested method for screenshots in Windows http://ow.ly/1sYko. Any other suggestions? #
• Attitude Affects Learning. Students with low self concept in subjects don’t do as well as those with high concept http://tinyurl.com/yg8at25 #
• Just installed #WPMU and #buddypress for dept social network. Impressive apps, can’t wait to get students registered & assignments running #

A little while ago I was wondering what platform I could use to aggregate my various online properties (Flickr, Delicious, Twitter, etc.) in a so-called “lifestream” and someone suggested that Friendfeed might be feasible. I looked into it for a while, but couldn’t commit to it because something didn’t feel right about using one service to point to all the other services.

With the recent Facebook acquisition of Friendfeed, I figured out what I didn’t like about using Friendfeed as a gateway, and that is that it’s not mine and never will be. It’s unlikely, but what if Facebook decided to kill Friendfeed? That in itself wouldn’t make a huge difference because Friendfeed would only be aggregating my content that is hosted elsewhere. But the principle is that building on a platform I don’t control just seems like a bad idea.

Which brings me to the blog…or at least, the self-hosted blog. With all the plugins available nowadays, it’s possible to incorporate virtually any content from most of the popular services, directly into the blog. I’ve had my Twitter and Flickr streams on /usr/physio for ages, and in the last few months have included additional content from Slideshare and Scribd. My blog is not going to go away anytime soon because I control the platform, down to the version of the software I run. No matter what services crop up that I decide to make use of, it’s only a matter of time before someone writes a plugin that I can use to incorporate that content into my site.

Of course there are issues with interaction on the blog, with most commenting systems incapable of integrating with each other (i.e. my Twitter feed is displayed on my blog, but any reader can only respond via Twitter, rather than directly from the blog…and the same goes with any other services that I’m using). But this problem would exist with any current “lifestreaming” platform.

So, is the blog going to make a comeback?

My presentation at SAAHE looked at the use of blogging as a tool to facilitate ethical and clinical reasoning among final year physiotherapy students in my department. The abstract is available here, and I’ve shared the presentation slides on Slideshare.

You can either view it online, or download it. I’ve shared it under this Creative Commons license that allows you to do anything you want with it under the following conditions:

• You may not sell it
• If you share or adapt it (and you may), you must tell people where you got it from
• If you share it, you must share it under the same conditions that you received it

I should also mention that it’s available in the OpenDocument format. OpenOffice is a free office suite (similar to Microsoft Office) that’s capable of working with this format.

Full URL to access the presentation on Slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/theboatashore/the-use-of-blogging-as-a-tool-for-reflection

Note: I also took the opportunity to upload some of the other presentations I’ve given recently (also in OpenDocument format). See the tab, “More by user”.

This term has been a bit mental so far, which is why I’ve cut back considerably on the blog. Between clinical supervision, preparing for exams, extra courses and research, I’m finding it hard to keep up. It’s not permanent and once things have slowed down, I’ll get back into it.  Here’s a brief update on what’s going on with me:

• My abstract for “Blogging as a reflective tool in physiotherapy ethics” (or something like that) has been accepted for presentation at the SAAHE conference.
• A quick review of the Ethics blogging assignment has been very positive and I’ve received some great feedback from students, who really enjoyed it.  This is the project that the presentation mentioned above will be based on.
• The Mozilla Open Education course continues with minor technical problems. It’s difficult to stay on track with everything else that’s happening but the course participants are fantastic with documenting what’s happening, so I can always follow the main themes.

That’s it for now.  I’m hoping to get back on track with the blog soon and in the meantime I’ll try to keep up with short posts like this that don’t need much research.

Here’s the abstract I submitted for SAAHE ’09.  It was submitted for consideration in the Innovations and work in progress category.

Title
The use of blogging as a reflective tool in physiotherapy ethics.

Context
The use of social software in higher education facilitates collaborative learning practices and mirrors the social constructivist principles of education by encouraging deeper engagement with both content and individuals. Reflection promotes higher order cognitive skills that promote critical thinking, and together with ethical reasoning has been shown to contribute to professional development and clinical practice. A blog is a service that allows a user to post ideas online, as well as solicit feedback from others that serve to contribute to an ongoing discussion. This allows for a rich, diverse stream of ideas that provide further inputs into the reflective process.

Aims
The main aim of this study is to evaluate the use of blogging as a tool for enhancing physiotherapy students’ reflective practice during an ethics module. By participating in an online, networked conversation on human rights in healthcare, students will discuss some of the problems inherent in the South African healthcare system, as well as recognise and acknowledge the different viewpoints of others.

What was done
A blogging environment was created to allow only students and the lecturer access to post, read and comment on reflections. Articles relevant to the ethics module were provided for students to read and to inform their reflections. They are required to read and comment on the reflections of their peers, facilitating an ongoing conversation around the topic. On completion of the assignment, students will be asked to evaluate the process.

Impact
With the move towards a more networked society and the increasing use of online tools in education and practice, educators must take cognizance of new approaches to teaching and learning. The use of blogging as a tool for reflective practice has shown positive results in other disciplines but has not been evaluated in physiotherapy education.

Take home message
The use of blogging as a tool for reflection brings significant advantages to the process that are not easily leveraged with any other medium. The characteristics of the platform allow for collaborative discussion, immediate feedback and encourages deeper engagement with the content, all of which facilitate more meaningful interactions and stimulate professional development.