Title:  Incorporation of the use of Wiki’s into EMTC 128 curriculum. 

Target: Current students of EMTC 128.  

Learning Training objectives: Upon successful completion of this program track, students will be able to have a basic understanding of work on a Wiki project.  Students will learn how to complete a Wiki.

Materials needed:  Current EMT textbook and workbook. Computer is required; with a minimum of accessing internet.  http://emtc128kckcc.wikispaces.com/.  

Time Restraints:  Even though this is taking place during regular class time, we will only spend approximately 1 clock hour in class over this project each day.  The remaining time must be completed on your time.  The time that you have in class, please spend it asking questions or working with your group to spend the time efficiently.

Course Schedule:

Date	Lesson Plan	Handout
10/15/2013	Into to Wiki
10/17/2013	Group Assignment with Wiki
10/22/2013	Group Discussion
10/24/2013	Topic Selection	What makes a good topic?
10/29/2013	Topic research
10/31/2013	Topic research
11/5/2013	Practice on Wiki	Personal Interview info sheet
11/7/2013	Embed video information	How to embed
11/12/2013	Personal Interview info
11/14/2013	Group work
11/19/2013	Group work
11/21/2013	Group work
11/26/2013	NO Class Thanksgiving
11/28/2013	NO Class Thanksgiving
12/3/2013	Final Project Due
12/5/2013	Class Presentations
12/10/2013	Class Presentations
12/12/2013	Review of Project with Class

With this particular wiki, the students will be broken up into groups of four (4).  With these groups a group leader will be selected from the group.  After the group leader has been selected, the group will come together and pick a topic that they wish to research from the following topics:

• ·       OB/Gyn Emergencies

• ·       Trauma Emergencies

• ·       Respiratory Emergencies

• ·       Cardiac Emergencies

The goal of this project is to gain insight and knowledge of a particular topic that an EMS employee may see on a typical duty day.  With the presentation, the group must find one individual outside of the classroom who currently or had experienced what the group had selected to work on.

The overall Wiki project is worth 50 points.  The deadline for this Wiki is going to be due on December 12, 2013.

Evaluation:  This portion project is worth 20 points.  Even though it is worth 50 points, your participation is VITAL in order for the group’s success.  There will be two (2) grades for this project, the first one, which is 2/3 of the grade will be individual participation.  The remaining grade will be 1/3^rd of the grade it will consist of the group project participation.  Your group members will evaluate all members on that particular aspect of the grade.  Hence, it is important for you to be an active participant in the group.  

Wiki Content:  This portion is worth 30 points.   In order to be successful, a minimum of seven (7) sources are going to be required.  These sources must be a credible source such as books, journal articles.  Each item must be cited appropriately utilizing APA 6^th ed.  Please consider to use complete sentences and not abbreviations.  The standard of medical abbreviations may not be understood by the general public who also will be looking at your Wiki webpage.

Wiki visual appeal and interactivity:  This portion is worth 20 points.  In with the addition of the course work the use of graphic video aids, video and audio presentations work to bolster your presentation.  In addition to additional sources such hyperlinks which will give the readers additional material to review.  The additional material demonstrates to the readers that the group had completed their work and that they have a full understanding of the topic that was researched.

The Pros and Cons of Wiki

This week’s informative blog entry is titled "Wikis: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners." What are some of the pros and cons of adult learning while utilizing Wiki’s? 

I have never utilized Wiki’s until I started here at K-State.  My first class utilized it and I was blown away.  I had never seen a concept like this where we eventually worked and created a webpage for our discussion and informational view.  My first Wiki; I will admit did not go as well as I intended it to be.  I thought that I had enough material to be substantive; however, when I looked at the rest of the material that had been presented what I thought was good and well thought out was neither good nor well thought out.   Even as I grew as an adult student at K-State, I also grew to understand the basic fundamentals of how to use a Wiki for classroom purposes.  Today, I feel that I have grasped a good understanding however that is far from being a technological master in the use of Wiki’s.

Pros

·       The use of Wiki’s can “empower the student by giving them a chance to express their views” (Hazari, North, and Moreland, 2009).  By allowing students to give their own viewpoints it shows that the students are actively engaging in the learning process.  It also assist the students in some aspects of “reading, writing, reflective and collaborative learning process” (Hazari, North, and Moreland, 2009). 

·       The use of Wiki “documents are available for editing and commenting to all members at all times” (West and West, 2009).  For members of a Wiki this is valuable because members are not subjected to a hour to hour where a person can comment on the Wiki. 

Cons

·       Wiki’s need to have some sort of secure lock down.  One of the biggest fears is to have someone from outside of the class to come in and “insert random span or graffiti messages into their Wiki projects” (West and West, 2009).  While most Wiki have features already built into the system to protect from this it is something that needs to be thought about it.

·       Evaluation of Wiki can be on the negative side if the information does not match the purpose of the Wiki. For example; “Is it accurate?  Does it include an extensive amount of detailing? Is the language accurate enough to be understood easily?” ( King & Cox (2011). 

Overall I feel that the use of Wiki’s in the educational process is mainly a positive approach to the educational value.  I have only shown a couple of the pros and cons of the Wiki project.  If you look at any project, you will have pros and cons for every project that needs to be completed.  Wiki projects need to be looked with the open eyes and arms and not wanting to pull your hair out screaming when assigned one.

West, J.A & West, M.L. (2009) Using Wikis for Online Collaboration  Jossey-Bass.

King, K.P & Cox, T.D (2011) The Professor’s Guide to Taming Technology. Information Age Publishing Inc.

Hazari, S., North, A., & Moreland, D. (2009). Investigating pedagogical value of wiki technology. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 187-198. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/docview/200157232?accountid=11789

Blogging assignment #1

The question was posted for our first blog experience: “Is blogging the same as discussion board activity?”  The answer is mixed.  Yes and no.  From the reading this week there is lots of positive issues related to blogging.  One of the handouts discussed how the teacher couldn’t get a child to engage in the classroom.  But when talking to parents they were amazed at what the teacher was saying because their daughter was doing beautiful poetry on a blogging website outside of the classroom.  Our textbook gives the example of using blogging as a “medium as a portal for organizing class content in lieu of a LMS” (King and Cox pg 91).  Some pros and cons for blogging in the classroom include:

Pro

·       “Blogging exposed students to more diverse viewpoints” (Ellison and Wu, 2008).

·       With the blogging concept, students have the ability to “develop a robust, coherent, and conceptual understanding” (Xie and Sharma, 2011).

·       Blogging encourages instructors who “wish to engage their students in reflective learning” (Xie and Sharma, 2011).

·       To explore more blogging concepts one could use a mind mapping technique to incorporate more of a complete thought process.

Con

·       Students spend much time in front of computer screens “upwards towards 8.5 hours a day of different media” (Ellison and Wu, 2008)

·       Blogging can start problems socially and professionally

·       From a media standpoint, “Blogging and bloggers are killing journalist” (Petersen, 2004).

·       Adult learners do not understand current technology, and blogging is just one more fear for the adult learner to overcome.

Blogging is not a new overnight sensation.  It has been around for many years.  More course instructors  are starting to incorporate blogs or  blogging activities into their normal daily teaching plans.

Ellison, N. B., & Wu, Y. (2008). Blogging in the classroom: A preliminary exploration of student attitudes and impact on comprehension. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 17(1), 99-122. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/docview/205847595?accountid=11789

Xie, Y., & Sharma, P. (2011). Exploring evidence of reflective thinking in student artifacts of blogging-mapping tool: A design-based research approach. Instructional Science, 39(5), 695-719. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11251-010-9149-y

Petersen, S. (2004). Another blog on the fire; blogging is red-hot, but just how constructive is it? EWeek, 21(22), 34. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/docview/198489515?accountid=11789

King, K., & Cox, T., (2011).  The Professor’s Guide to Taming Technology Leveraging digital media, Web 2.0, and more for learning. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub.

Always willing and trying to try out new materials for class.  So far this looks interesting since I have never kept a blog before.