Technology assessment and implementation of Blackboard for nursing education

Technology Assessment in Nursing

Changes in healthcare management are really requiring that nurses to become a little more technically knowledgeable and capable to rapidly familiarize themselves to by means of tools that are technical in their exercises. Educators that are nurse are acclimatizing to this obligatory capability by presenting technology into nurse education core curriculum as their finances will support and their technical services will allow. The instruments to support nurse education quickly change with new ones continually developing on the horizon, just as is arranged in nursing practice. So we have a double authorization: to bring ourselves up to speed with these technical skills as well as maintain our awareness of what technical potentials are obtainable to accelerate quality and constancy in the release of our nurse education curriculum.

Technology Assessment in Nursing

Introduction

Since the start of time, the growth of technology has assisted in advancing society in a lot of ways. From the creation of the light bulb by Thomas Edison to the creation and makeover of today's common vehicle, the continuous developments in technology have permitted the world to progress far past belief. One of the most significant features of life in which technology has made a change is education. When it comes down to nursing education, technology seems to erase the traditional limitations of time and space, which permits nurses to retrieve inventions in care, that have proven best insights and practices from academic exploration on the fly at the patient's bedside -- whether the patient is somewhere in some hospital, an outpatient service, a private home, or even a rehabilitation center Arranging nurses to be able to lead in this technology- empowered health care system demands sweeping improvement in nurse education, operation and progression. With that said, the following is a paper that will describe my decisions about acquiring technology for learning using a hypothetical scenario of introducing the WebCT or blackboard.

Blackboard for Nursing 101

Blackboard is basically the foremost vendor of curriculum management software and a vital player in the education administration systems area, overall. Blackboard was originated in 1997, and then it quickly rose to the top of the technology area, and ever since then dominated (Kent, 1999). It presently has an 80% market share in the course management position and is now offering into numerous connected areas. Blackboard is preserving its benefit through attainments, legal strategies, innovation of new mechanisms, and linking contributions in new parts to its essential systems. In brief, Blackboard has become the Microsoft of the instructive learning technology domain.

Additional reading matter from addresses in nursing and exterior nursing bases can effortlessly be enhanced to Blackboard for students in my classroom in order for them to approach together as pre-reading, in planning for the upcoming lectures and discussions, and for additional explanation and reconsideration after the official training (Guernsey, 2003).

As experts Lemery and Lemery (2002) propose, presenting such a method will not just advance paper management for students and teachers, with a successive decrease in procreation prices, nevertheless can likewise motivate pupils to take accountability for their individual education. The aptitude to be able to have notes printed from the lecture and slides from a power point were predominantly beneficial for students with debilities that could delay their aptitude to be taking notes and then follow the material that is obtainable throughout lectures. A link that is direct to online library facilities has also been presented, authorizing students to admission every university learning reserves that are learning throughout a portal that is shared.

Students

Each succeeding consumption of students from students in nursing has been listed and over 1,000 students are at present going to have some sort of entrance to be able to get to the resource. The blackboard is being accepted as the normal electronic knowledge stage throughout the university. In the beginning, there were anxieties that some of the students could possibly be underprivileged if they were powerless or reluctant in utilizing the Blackboard (Swann, 2005). This guided to replication of some materials, as some educators would provide documents that were hard copy also as printing the substance on Blackboard. However, it rapidly became obvious that Blackboard was very prevalent with a lot of students, and after a while the students started to the initiative to guide with problems like 'Is this information going to be on Blackboard?', 'Can you put on there extra references?' And 'Can the students have and issues area?' most students now have prospects of Blackboard and teachers are needed to achieve these prospects.

Ease of use and reliability

Extra reading sources from talks and outside bases can be easily added to Blackboards for students to retrieve both as pre-reading, in planning for seminars and lectures, and for additional revision and clarification after the teaching that is formal.

As Lemery and Lemery (2002) propose, presenting such a technique can not only advance paper organization for students and teachers, with a successive discount in reproduction prices, however this can also hearten student for them to take on the responsibility for their own education. Having the capability to print notes from lecture and slides from Power Points has been predominantly helpful for students that have a form of disability that could maybe stop their aptitude to take notes and then trail the material being shown during the lectures. A link that is direct to online library amenities has also been presented, allowing students to entrance to all the university studying material that is by a common portal.

Funds

In the process of cooperating in the procedure, the colleges are able to share the price and incomes necessitated for purchasing and handling an e-learning infrastructure, that frees up each distinct organization to completely distillate its resources on learning and teaching. For educational resources employing the blackboard, there are two initial cost drivers: supplementary software and development time (Educational Benefits of Online Learning, 2006). Development time will be determined in part by the difficulty of the interaction and the complexity of the whole system. Additionally, blackboard objects can service any of the following: sound, data, animations, graphics, and video. Developing each of these rudiments does add to the development time. Rich Internet functions regularly employ server-side software such as ColdFusion MX, Flash Communication and Server that also can possibly raise the costs.

Teaching and Learning

As an instructor, the Blackboard will allow me to instructor to offer tools to progress the experience of learning that comprise practice exams, online quizzes, and perception reinforcement. Blackboard also decreases the quantity of housework that is needed.

Even though eradicating large masses of administrative work is practically impossible, Blackboard really does save time when it comes down to instruction and learning. Teacher, usually devote the first couple of minutes of each class passing out papers, making announcements, and picking up the assignments. Blackboard will be able eliminates these tasks (Philpott, 2006). All papers can be put into PDF format and then posted online, messages that typically take up time can be displayed online, and tasks can be handed in by a digital drop box.

Interactivity

Interactivity in my course among the nursing students will be an important issue to student gratification within the course, instructor and correlation with student retention. Interactivity will be vital in the course because it gives a social setting to an individual's learning for the nursing students. It will also be beneficial to them because it provides essential feedback in a timely and effective manner. The blackboard for the nursing students will foster a community of learners that will improve the learning practice by making it more energetic, appealing and enjoyable.

Novelty

One of the main things is making the black board and originality in the classroom. "a as being an original tool, the technology of this device is a wonderful innovation because it does not have to substitute classroom instruction, like a lot of other online schools have done in the past. Instead, Blackboard is designed to complement what happens in class" (Yang, 2004). What really makes this tool an adopted position is to improving the academic experience with Internet- facilitated technology that links faculty, students, researchers and the community in a cultivating network of environments that are being dedicated to communication that is better with in those realms. Blackboard mostly happens in two arrangements Networked Transaction Environment and Networked Learning Environment.

This black board in the nursing program had great novelty because it is a Networked Learning Environment (NLE) too that will be used enable any teacher or student to step out of the box of the traditional courses to an additional widespread online learning experience. The blackboard in the nursing program will be a utilized novelty because today's e-Learning encounter really does includes far more than just merely moving classes online. It is obvious that from labs and libraries to parents and alumni, the surfaces of an informative society are really juts across-the-board. In order to include each into an abundant, multi-dimensional nursing online learning involvement, it is going to be extremely essential to make sure that as great nursing provide and develop and maintaining an NLE. Way beyond the restriction of mortar and bricks, books, Blackboard's Academic Suite in the nursing program will provides an influential platform for all of the vital interdependent features, services and functions that make an accurate NLE.

Speed

It is important to understand that most mas' notification methods provide what is considered a wide assortment of eye-catching purposes, but above all everything else, there are two characteristics that those that will be using the blackboard in the nursing program basically cannot take for granted and those two things are: reliability and speed. Students and teachers in the program will need a notification service that transports messages rapidly, without any excuses or delays. In the nursing community cannot wait 24 or 36 hours for vital information about urgent circumstances? Blackboard Connect ™ will be able to meets the highest values of speed and dependability, based on the following three key criteria:

Capacity

Blackboard Connect for the nursing class will have telecommunications indentures that will be in place to lead at least 3.2 million sixty-second voice messages per hour and 1.8 million SMS and email messages per hour (D2L Universities and Colleges Clients., 2006). All communications are moved rapidly based on the local trade carrier's available bandwidth. This is very serious especially when you have a message that is vital that must reach all receivers in a matter of minutes.

Redundancy

In order for the blackboard to be most effective in the nursing class, a mass notification system has been available at all times (Philpott, 2006). The Blackboard Connect podium was constructed from the ground up with redundancy as an issue, so that your message is provided without a hitch. Here are some of the steps that can and will be taken so that we can avoid any single point of failure in our nursing class:

Multiple Network Providers: Blackboard Connect in the nursing class will utilize multiple providers for data and voice transmission to make sure uninterrupted message delivery, even in the situation of an important service disruption to one or more suppliers.

Multiple Data Centers: So that there will be uninterrupted data access provided, Blackboard Connect dispenses its information that is across multiple information centers. In the interior our data centers, data and applications will be housed across superfluous load-balanced servers, with backup systems that are redundant, network Internet uplinks and firewalls.

Sections Framework for the Blackboard

When seeing the possible use of technology gears in education, project teams are frequently encompassed of instructional inventors, technical experts, faculty members, and, perhaps, program managers. These people characteristically have extensively different type of know-how and viewpoints. For the reason that of this, project teams from time to time have trouble reaching a shared perception of the factors that are impacting the intention of educational properties. The SECTIONS framework seems to be able to provide a holistic approach that not only inspects media characteristics but also acclimatizes other important factors such as meeting student needs, educational approaches, and organizational ability. By applying the SECTIONS framework to guide the blackboard and technology selection at the start of a project, instructional expansion teams can move toward decision-making in a manner that is organized while placing a high priority on learning outcomes.