Someone wants to set up a facebook study group - isn't that an oxymoron? For me, study needs to be focused, and fb is one big series of distractions, thoughts popping up all over the place like rabbits in a paddock.
My evolution has not taken me yet to the paperless office. I prefer to have important stuff in my hand, on paper. My office is set up with a good printer, and the best I can do in saving trees is to print double sided.
Paper copies
I need paper copies - should I say 'hard' copies?
I have copied the study plan module for week 1, and *of course* printed it out.
The 'assumed knowledge' and 'learning objectives' are pretty much what I expected.
Students are told we need to set aside 18 hours per week for work on the course.
Time
That's 18 hours of reasonable brain activity time, preferably before lunch for me, which would be 3 hours a day, 6 days a week. That's 18 hours fitting into a midwifery practice, in which babies often choose to be born in the early morning, as the new day gets started. The weary old midwife often returns home mid-morning, with another episode of her life-long learning quest bubbling up in her mind!
For example, the three mothers in my caseload who gave birth over an eight-day span this month have been the focus of my life/practice. When I am with woman everything else is forgotten - placed in another part of my brain, and retrieved when needed (or completely forgotten).
18 hours is a lot of time! I wonder if it includes all the time I know I will need to simply learn how to do the online process for this particular course?
For example, I have been trying to access the e-readings for the first week's study, using the library process provided. Here's one e-reading listed in the notes:
McKenna, L & McIntyre, M 2006, ‘What over the counter preparations are pregnant women taking? A literature review’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 636-645.Perhaps I am expecting something that is unreasonable! I would like to click the title and be given a .pdf file of that paper. But that doesn't happen. After jumping through several hoops I am given a bit of information about the paper - not the paper itself! I have spent a considerable amount of time and still don't have what I want. Although I have spent time I have learnt nothing about pharmacology for midwives, and I don't think I am any the wiser about what I should have done.
Oh well, I hope that by the end of this course I will be able to navigate a university library system. In the meantime, I'll hope some other student who works out how to get the .pdf will take pity on me and send it to me.
e-speak
I am constantly amused by the language of the online sphere. Today I have
- followed the "breadcrumb trail"
- set up a "pebble pad"
- found ways of "docking a block"
- watched a tutorial on using and making a "wiki"
- and worked out what "toggle" means in the online context
In conclusion,
I will be happy if, through this course, I can consolidate a good body of knowledge about drugs in pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, so that the women and babies in my care are in good hands. It is possible that I may never prescribe most of the items on the PBS formulary for midwives. The one class of drugs I want, oxytocics, are not listed, so that's a hurdle for the future.
I do not want to learn everything about electronic storage and retrieval systems; I don't want to become more of a granny-geek than I already am; I don't really care about the electronic culture of universities.
Thankyou for your comments
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thankyou for your comment, which will be emailed to me for moderation.