Posts Tagged ‘ presentation ’

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-07-26

2010
07/26
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Michael Rowe
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SAAHE – Social networks and reflective practice in clinical education

Here is my presentation from the SAAHE conference.

Social networks and reflective learning

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2010
07/24
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Michael Rowe
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-06-21

2010
06/21
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Michael Rowe
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PLE: experiences in personal learning

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to be invited to present at the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Stellenbosch University. I chose Personal Learning Environment’s (PLE’s) as the topic, not because I knew very much about them, but precisely the opposite. Considering that my PhD research is inevitably going to make some use of this idea in some detail at some point, I used the presentation to explore the concept and to deepen my understanding of PLE’s.

Thank you to Francois and everyone else on the team for the warm welcome yesterday and for the opportunity to share my own experiences in this space, however limited they may be.

Here’s the abstract and presentation:

PLE: experiences in personal learning

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Note: The first part of the presentation tries to contextualise the conversation within the scope of current ideas around the changing nature of education and information technology. The second part of the presentation provides some insight into how I use certain services, devices and concepts within my own PLE. The final part briefly explores challenges within this approach and provides basic guidelines that may facilitate the implementation of a PLE nonetheless.

2010
06/09
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admin
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education
learning
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TEDx Johannesburg

I’ve been a longtime fan of the TED conferences and found out last night about the TEDx conference being held in Johannesburg in a few weeks time.  The theme is “Uplifting communities“, which ties in nicely with the project proposal I submitted to FAIMER last month (see previous post).  So I decided to apply as a speaker for the conference, using the same ideas on innovation in education using emerging technologies.

You can see my speaker profile here.

2009
10/25
POSTED BY
Michael Rowe
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Proposal presentation

In our department, we’re required to present our research proposals for comment before submission to Higher Degrees.  This allows the group to give feedback before final corrections in the hope that the proposal is accepted without having to make major revisions.

I’ve just shared my proposal presentation that I gave a few days ago on Slideshare.  The feedback I received, although mainly editorial, means that the structure of this presentation is not the same as it will be in the final submission e.g. the Method has received another step in the process.

Would love any feedback.

2009
08/08
POSTED BY
Michael Rowe
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education
physiotherapy
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Reflective blogging assignment – finished

Earlier this year I gave my final year physiotherapy students a blogging assignment as part of their Professional Ethics module.  The goal of the assignment was to read a selection of articles that were relevant to coursework that had been discussed in class, to reflect on those readings, and then to post a blog entry as a reflection.  Others in the class could then read those posts and provide feedback in the form of comments, hopefully stimulating further reflection and discussion.

In general, the assignment was a great success among the students, with many of them reporting high levels of satisfaction with the project.  For my own part, I’ve learned a huge amount, not only about the technical aspects of co-ordinating and supporting a project like this, but also in student behaviour and attitudes towards the use of blogging as part of the curriculum.

I presented the process we went through during this assignment at the SAAHE conference earlier this month, and you can see my presentation here.   I’m also currently supervising an undergraduate research group who are evaluating the results of the platform as a means of facilitating reflection among students.  Hopefully the results of that study will be published at some stage in the future.

Here’s a link to the project.  I’d love to hear any feedback you might have.  Please bear in mind that for many of these students, English is not their first language and prior to this assignment, none of them had any experience with blogging.  In addition to that, about a third of them didn’t have access to the internet at home, and another third only had a dialup connection.  In light of these challenges, I’m very proud of what they managed to achieve.

2009
07/24
POSTED BY
Michael Rowe
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My presentation at SAAHE 2009

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”.

2009
07/04
POSTED BY
Michael Rowe
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Disseminating research results

I attended a short seminar a few months ago that reviewed the academic publication process. At the time I thought it was reasonably informative and useful. Now, after having spent a bit more time thinking about the nature of formal, academic publication, I wonder if there isn’t a better, more efficient way to distribute new knowledge? The seminar seemed to revolve around an aging notion of what it means to be a credible researcher / author, with the main contention being that you must publish in accredited journals and that no other form of knowledge dissemination is as credible.

Over the past few months however, my own ideas of what constitutes a reasonable contribution to the body of knowledge have shifted from that older model to one in which a more informal method plays a central role. Is it really necessary to publish in “acceptable” journals to be taken seriously, or can one use other forms of publication, for example blogs? I’m not sure yet. Can you generate new (or modified) ideas and put them out there to be judged by your peers? Will the good content / ideas rise and evolve (through user input), while bad ones get relegated to the pile of fossils that didn’t quite make it? I think they will and yet, in order for me to be taken seriously as an academic (at least for now), I’m encouraged to avoid alternative forms of distributing academic content.

Anyway, those were a few thoughts that went through my head while I re-read my notes. We began by looking at the differences between a conference presentation and journal publication:

Conference presentation:

  • “Soft” review – one person reads your abstract to decide if you can present
  • No referee feedback – the abstract is either accepted or it’s not, there’s no suggestions to improve
  • No quality control – who decides if the study was well conducted?
  • Therefore presentations have little value for an academic
  • Note: only invited keynote speakers have real academic relevance, as they’re recognised as leaders in the field

Journal article:

  • Strict refereeing (one or several) means that the survey must contribute to the body of knowledge, can be extended / strengthened through feedback and is seen to be based on evidence through appropriate references
  • Only accepted after attention has been paid to reviewers comments
  • There is strict quality control

It was advised that only works in progress be presented at conferences, and that if the study is complete, results should rather be written up as an article.

In terms of selecting a journal, consider which publications cover your area, and give preference to international journals or those approved by the university. Review the authors guidelines for publication in that journal and follow them strictly.

As far as choosing authors, they must be involved in the academic content of the article. In other words, research assistants, data capturers, field workers, etc. should not be given authorship. Authors should be listed in terms of the greatest contribution.

In terms of addressing reviewers comments:

  • Remember that comments are not personal and that they’re there to strengthen your paper
  • Re-read the comments when you remember that they’re not personal (they won’t seem nearly as bad)
  • Address every point the reviewer made, bearing in mind that once addressed, you’re done with them. They can’t add new comments when it’s sent back.

And finally, ownership of the copyright must be transferred to the journal. From then on, you may only use your own paper for personal use.

Some links on blogging in academia:

2009
06/01
POSTED BY
Michael Rowe
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Results of a reflective blogging assignment in physiotherapy ethics

Earlier this year I gave my 4th year Ethics class an assignment in which they were required engage in a reflective exercise that not only encouraged interaction with others, but allowed them to see that their own perceptions of the world were different to others’.

Reflection has been shown to be a significant factor in developing clinical and ethical reasoning skills, so the initial requirement was to read two articles and then post a short reflection on each. Other students would then comment on your reflections and you would have to respond to that comment, hopefully having considered your colleagues comment. The learning objectives of the assignment were to:

  • Understand some of the ethical problems inherent in the South African healthcare system
  • Be able to discuss some types of ethical dilemmas in healthcare, even if they are not directly related to physiotherapy
  • Understand the role of reflection in your professional development, especially in the clinical and ethical reasoning process
  • Have participated in an online, networked conversation with your peers
  • Acknowledge the differing perspectives of others who may experience the world in different ways
  • Understand some of the advantages and disadvantages of using new technologies in healthcare education

I set up a WordPress blog on my own server because I wanted the students to have full control over their data (and it was surprisingly difficult to get access to a university server), created an author account for each student and then gave a tutorial on blogging and the blogging environment. The 47 students then had about a month to complete the assignment before the blog was closed to everyone.

Here are some quick stats:

  • 94 posts (2 each)
  • 222 comments (some students made more than the 3 that were required)
  • 109 tags (the main ones being MDR-TB, Apartheid and Torture)
  • 3983 pageviews (pretty impressive for 47 students)

While the initial results seem to be favorable, I have to say that anyone who assumes that all students in higher education are tech-savvy, needs to rethink that idea. One of the biggest challenges I had was trying to get students to understand what a blog is. And I don’t mean the deeper meaning of what blogging is, I mean the concept of a website that they could edit. Forget about RSS feeds and blogging software clients. The notion of digital natives does not apply here, and if the use of technology in education is going to move forward (in this country, at least), this is one major challenge that’ll have to be overcome.

You can download the content of the blogging tutorial here (2.4 MB ppt). I’ll be opening up the blog to the public once I’ve graded them, and will be presenting the results of an evaluation at the SAAHE conference in July.

2009
05/24
POSTED BY
Michael Rowe
CATEGORY
physiotherapy
research
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