Reflection+of+a+nurse+educator

Upon reflection of my journey as a nurse educator I am able to marvel at the amount of information and knowledge acquired during these two years of education. At the start I was a nurse that had been out of school for over twenty years without up-to-date computer skills. Since that time I have synthesized too many papers to count (because in graduate school the key term is synthesized), conducted and presented evidence based project. In addition I have learned to conduct an educated literature search via the use of the computer (what happened to all the books?), compose my papers on the word processing software (gotta love spell check and grammar check) and been exposed to technology in the 21st century (hello wiki spaces and blogging). To complete my journey to nurse educator I had on elective to complete and I chose to take “Concepts of Educational Technology”. My expectations of the course were to expand my weak knowledge base in regards to this new fangled computer business. Instead I was exposed to building and designing my own wiki space and Google search engine. I have learned what a blog is and how it can be utilized to further knowledge acquisition for our students. By incorporating technology into my role as a nurse educator I will be able to meet the demands and learning styles that the 21st century student nurse will present to the classroom. The new technology skills I have acquired will also be used to present didactic content in a manner that will capture and hold the attention of the students. For example, I may develop a search engine to assist the novice nursing student in the acquisition of critical thinking skills. The delivery of this course enabled me to utilize my personal learning style to acquire new uses of technology. I am from the old school of ‘see one, do one, teach one’. This course enabled me to acquire the didactic material and the actual skill of completing the assignment. The directions and web sites we were asked to complete and visit were appropriate to the content being presented. Over the past five months I have learned that I can learn and perform new skills. I feel more confident in my skills on the computer and 21st century technology. Through this knowledge it will enable me to become a leader after completing my journey to be a nurse educator.