Lucy Haagen, Program in Education
This session will provide an introduction and overview to the m-learning - that is, teaching and learning using cell phones and/or other mobile devices. Haagen will draw on examples from her experiences working first in Durham (with Duke students and Southern High School students) and then in Vietnam (with Duke students and students in Hanoi schools).
Linda Goodwin, School of Nursing
With federal initiatives pushing health information technologies (HIT) into a reluctant health care system, decision-makers in health care find themselves without research and evidence that defines best practices. A March 2008 PubMed search yielded approximately 150,000 hits; this illustrates a problem for decision makers trying to sift through evidence for HIT results. A problem exists in that it has historically taken about seventeen years for health care to implement research findings into practice. It is imperative that we find more rapid methods of evidence/knowledge development, dissemination, and adoption if we are to leverage HIT to accomplish needed improvements for safety, cost, and quality in patient care. This project involved students in evaluation of four “netbook” products and then provided online nursing informatics graduate students (n=11) with an Asus ee. The devices were supposed to help them critique, summarize, and disseminate available HIT studies and evidence reports. We utilized mobile technologies and remote (virtual) teamwork that enabled both synchronous (Skype.com) and asynchronous (Blackboard) collaboration. Some students are using their netbook, but for mobile productivity purposes rather than the project goals and most students found the device too slow for efficient web access. There are newer Asus netbooks that may be faster.
Giuliana Perco, Romance Studies
What are the possible educational advantages and/or disadvantages of teaching in a MUVE (multi-user virtual environment)? While not trying to answer such a broad question, this presentation will discuss a hands-on exploration of the educational potentials of “Second Life” in enhancing foreign language learning. The aim of the project, that took place over two consecutive semesters, was both to appeal to students’ familiarity with virtual social networks and to make them come into contact with virtual cultural resources and artifacts and with native speakers met in the “Second Life”. Works and responses by students will be presented to discuss how and to what extent activities and assignments to be completed in a MUVE could (or could not) enrich language learning and whether the outcome was worth the time and energy needed in the endeavor.
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