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In the enthusiast's view, computer-based environments promise a revolution in schooling of the same magnitude as the revolution in our culture set in motion of the Industrial Revolution. Technology enthusiasts favor a constructivist approach to learning, where students, rather than teachers, do most of the work. . . . Technology enthusiasts envision schools where students are working on realistic tasks and adults play a supportive role to guide them to new activities and help them when they encounter problems. (Collins and Halverson 2009, 27-28)Wake me when it's over.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
stop the multiverse, part XVII
Beverlee Jobrack (Tyranny of the Textbook: An Insider Exposes How Educational Materials Undermine Reforms) quotes Collins and Halverson on the subject of technology enthusiasts:
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4 comments:
As a student in an occupational therapy assistant program I have to take a class called Interprofessional Education. The class is taught in a constructivist manner and is by far my most frustrating class. Before a class meeting we are told to get on the internet and research stroke, or obesity, or diabetes and be ready to discuss it. Then, during class, we're presented with a vignette (and I wish the "facilitators" would learn how to say that word properly) to discuss. We're supposed to talk about things like how the various medical professionals involved in a case can communicate and coordinate the patient's care. The answer is - I don't know. I'm not in medical care yet and I don't know how information is or could be shared. As a group of students we can come up with various blue sky ideas, but in the real world time and money constraints exist whereas in our class they don't. I would find the class more valuable, and less frustrating, if they would just tell us the best way to coordinate a patient's care among a handful of professionals in the real world.
You're absolutely right; you need graduate-practitioner-level experience in order to do what you're being asked to do. Years ago, I was a doc student in a practice discipline, talking with one of the profs I'd had in master's, and she said that they'd taken in a new bachelor's grad from the same school and they'd never do it again; they wouldn't waive the 2 yrs professional experience req. He was very bright and had an outstanding undergrad record, but he simply didn't have professional experience; he had nothing to contribute to seminars and their pace had to be slowed to allow others to try to fill gaps in his (lacking) experience.
The ed world does this all of the time, starting in kindergarten. They expect novices to think and function like experts and it's impossible. Experts have much background knowledge/experience and they think/act differently because of it. The knowledge/experience enables different actions; not the reverse.
I don't even see how this class is going to have its intended effect - to improve communication among medical practitioners so patients won't fall through the cracks. It's a worthy goal, but they're starting with the wrong people. There's a consortium of schools involved in the program and I'm in classes with students studying nursing, diagnostic imaging, pharmacy, and others. What's missing, and the reason I think it won't have its intended effect, is administrators and physicians - the people at the top who set policy and culture.
I've worked in medical offices and admins just tend to create more paperwork and more roadblocks. The last thing they want is for physicians to control the parameters of their practice; admins want all the control. EMRs will probably make it more difficult to take care of patients and collaborate with others (even if different EMRs could talk to each other and they can't), because there will be reams of permission forms etc. required and a paper trail for all that. In practice, left to clinicians who actually take care of patients, there are lots of short cuts - like hand-carrying some records to an office to which patient is being referred (based on lab/rad results), even though the required Privacy Act form hasn't been signed. It hasn't been signed because the patient lives 100 miles away, doesn't have fax or email and doesn't drive, so going on phone permission makes SENSE and improves patient care and satisfaction - but admins don't tend to see it that way.
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