Technology Tools in Nursing Education

Teaching-learning is a continuous and interactive process. It many instances it can be compared to the communication process. In the light of technology, they are a wide range of tools that can be used to make the teaching-learning process more efficient. Being exposed to some such as, WhatsApp messenger, Bubbl.us, Twitter, Flipsnack, MyeLearning and so on, I’ve seen how your student audience can be broaden and the teaching-learning process made very interactive. As a Nurse Educator, I need to be constantly on guard against falling into complacency. This means that there must be consistent effort in looking at ways and means to improve learning outcomes among students whilst providing fascinating teaching sessions that will leave long lasting impressions. Given the rise of 21^st century education – sometimes called the digital age; technology has become an essential component of most curriculum.  

The “go to” technology tool and its benefits

One that has really strike me as a potential tool to be used in the nursing education fraternity is the “Pole Everywhere.” This tool has been founded by three co-workers namely, Jeff Vyduna, (current CEO) Brad Gessler and Sean Eby¹. They had really revolutionized the use of cell phone services such as short message service (SMS) in the telecommunications facility². The utilization of Poll Everywhere does not require constant internet service by the person responding; they can also respond in the form of a text message from their phone known as SMS. This tool has been shown to be effective in gathering customers feedback on different services that a firm may be offering. Moreover, it can facilitate live analysis of as persons responses where are you are. What about this tool in the teaching-learning environment? Take a look at this video.

 

This tool is very useful in the teaching-learning environment also. As seen in the video above, it can be used to gather data and thereby assess your learners. By posting questions for students’ responses on a health topic, (for example, diabetes) the teacher can be able to assess their level of knowledge on diabetes which can thereon assist them in preparing the lesson. This is essential since repetition of content is a consumer of time that could have been allocated to other area of teaching. Also, Poll Everywhere provides teachers with an opportunity to involve students in class matters. Through this platform, students are able to share their concerns, issues and give opinions to matters that will affect them in some way or another³.

At times where confidentiality and privacy are important, Poll Everywhere is suitable for use too because it allows anonymity of respondents; so students may not feel offended or embarrassed when someone else is aware of their response. Furthermore, when teaching most health-related courses, teachers need to know how students are progressing before they can move on to another topic. By using Poll Everywhere, teacher can perform formative assessment during class sessions to determine students progress and understanding of the lesson³. Additionally, when facilitating a huge class, whether online or face to face mode of delivery and everyone cannot come to one consensus, teachers can utilize a poll to overcome that challenge. Hence, the need for a traditional methods of having students stick their hand up in agreement for or against an option is forgone⁴. This tool is equipped with a live reporting feature where the teacher and students can see the incoming results of the poll.

What about post assessment, can Poll Everywhere be use too? Most definitely! This tool is so versatile that it can be used as a form of evaluation of a course whilst still being able to capture students’ interest and keep things engaging and exciting. For instance, a teacher can post a scenario of a diabetic patient with a critical thinking question. Here students will be able to express themselves in written words because the tool is also capable of allowing open-ended questions. With the live feature that can be added to a PowerPoint, students will be knowledgeable of their correct incorrect answer. This will also ensure active participation of each student. The video below provides succinct information of how poll everywhere can be used in a classroom to encourage competition, evaluation and learning at the same time.

         

Disadvantages of Poll Everywhere

As a Nurse Educator, this will definitely be a handy tool online tool that can be incorporated into different lessons. However, its important to be aware of some of the shortcomings or cons towards using this tool. In fairness, there are but few disadvantages in using this tool given it's versatility.Nevertheless, one its shortcomings is that is requires constant internet access for teachers to be able to see live responses. Therefore, in areas where bandwidth is poor or network is unavailable, the tool may not be effective for use.

Another disadvantage of the tool is that teachers will be unable to tract students individually when they are doing assessments. The anonymity of the tool does not allow teachers to really identify which students exactly are weak or strong in a particular area. 

References

1.        Lynch B. Startup Poll Everywhere invented the technology to conduct real time polls through cell phones. 2008 May 1 [cited 2019 Jul 23]; Available from: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass-high-tech/2008/05/startup-poll-everywhere-conducts-polls.html

2.        Lynch B. Startup Poll Everywhere conducts polls through cell phones. 2008 May 1 [cited 2019 Jul 23]; Available from: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass-high-tech/2008/05/startup-poll-everywhere-conducts-polls.html

3.        Howe S. Pros and Cons - POLL EVERYWHERE TUTORIAL [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2019 Jul 23]. Available from: https://648polleverywhere.weebly.com/pros-and-cons.html

4.        Hoffman J. Speak Up? Raise Your Hand? That May No Longer Be Necessary. New York Times [Internet]. 2012 Mar 30 [cited 2019 Jul 23]; Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/us/clickers-offer-instant-interactions-in-more-venues.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0