Happy Summer!

Last student comments to the blogs of Elaine and Regina! I hope that everyone enjoys the rest of their summer!!!!!

Foundations Final: Tablet-Based Collaborative Learning

Unfortunately, the Blogger video capabilities are lacking.

I posted it in 1080p at the 'appellation' website that I emailed to you all yesterday afternoon.

Its much better there!

Last Blog of the Semester

Last week's non-traditional barrage of wiki postings, as a final exam, was both new and illuminating. After eight days of blogging in a collaborative posting, our semester's authors have received at least their 15 minutes of fame.

I have blogged, argued, illustrated, and dissected collaborative medical learning and its implications, or rather its lack of complications, throughout this summer. By no means should this suggest it to be a perfect science, pardon the pun, but rather, simply, to suggest that it may be slightly more organized than collaborative freshman composition exercises. Student maturity, experience, and general acumen may be the reason. However, for a last post, I wanted to highlight clinician to patient collaborative learning.

A 2008 article by Martinez-Sarriegui et al. in Spain, illuminates a "shared care" (1) system that allows patients to log-on and perform the following tasks:

1. upload blood sugar readings and receive physician-lead medical support,

2. mentor new patients/be mentored to,

3. participate in group support,

4. change appointments,

5. chat about questions and other related interests.

Their conclusion is that "patient intervention for data retrieval and communication" are optimized (17). It sounds wonderful; however, the interesting part is that this is based on 'pre-iPad' technologies!!!! Telemedicine is looking even brighter!

Staying Organized

Blogging/wiki final for Mon. 25th through Monday Aug. 1st:

Final wiki posts: #9

Additional comments: #9

Citation Info: #2

Blogging for Finals

Blogging/wiki final starts Monday, the 25th!

A Toolbox of TC Theory! (Week 7)

If we, as rhetoricians, can't agree on a cause, then how can we reach a collaborative solution to our educational short comings. We, and many of our authors, agree that 1.) collaborative learning is a valuable pedagogy, and 2.) our general educational system is deficient in some ways. However, Bruffee, Trimbur, Harris and others can not completely agree on the etiologies of our educational struggles. Brooke's comments on the changing 'underlives' that we implore for power of identity. Bruffee identifies immediate social discourse and each participant's interpretation of those interactions, while Trimbur compares and contrasts Bruffee's narrowed view of 'situation' and Myers shotgun view of 'society' (734). Rorty examines 'communities' and the joining and re-joining of them, a notion that suits Bruffee (Timbur 737). While a treatise on the various ideologies of our concepts today, and that of the Norton author's concepts of yesterday, is beyond the scope of a blog, I wonder if each theory, or if any theory, should be accepted has broad-sweeping. Instead, I would like to see each author's criteria applied, and tested, against a specific field of study or expertise.

For example, Bruffee's social-constructivist ideals, more narrowly focused on a given situation, is best applied to medical learning in a traditional problem-based setting, while Harris' discourse communities, where words with opposing and antagonistic foes garner more meaning, might be better suited to legal venues. Brooke's theories, of course, would likely fit well within the educational system's discourse, and Myers (through Trimbur's description) may better analyze the world of politics.

Perhaps using the proper analytical tool to study and evaluate each profession's nuances may expand our inquiry in different, further reaching directions, while at the same time focusing more tightly on specific fields of study. Just a thought!-R

Staying Organized

Sixth blog, Fri. 7-15 -Status: On-Time

Sixth comments: 7-22 -Status: On-Time

Comments were to: Melanie, Dan :) , and Steve.