The return of the digital warriors for 2016 #mosomelt

Our small law and ethics community of practice is back in business for another year of learning; learning about learning, about digital tools but mostly learning about ourselves. Over the summer our School has under gone some restructuring so we now find ourselves as a distinct discipline. I’m looking forward to continuing our relationships with public health but also recognising the opportunities to expand the profile of health law and ethics within our School, faculty and the wider learning community. 

This year I’m hoping to cement the learning stemming from #mosomelt ,last year and with more confidence start implementing more, more often. I particularly enjoyed using Bambuser to live stream announcements and information to my students. The ‘live’ element somehow appeals to me as I feel it most closely replicates the live, one take only nature of face to face teaching. I got pretty good feedback from my students – none accessed these live but did tap into the Bambuser links I gave them. I had used my iMac to make these recordings but now free Bambuser access is just limited to digital devices so I’ve bought a little tripod and will see how I get on broadcasting from my iPhone.

I’d also like to increase my use of Twitter. I read last week about a nursing course where setting up and using a Twitter account was an assessed part of the course – combining teaching ethics with helping students learn how to use digital tools in paratice and as professional development tools is very appealing. One of my students this year came to see me for help and said “oh my goodness, Twitter. Good grief, how am I supposed to do that”. Hopefully I can model some simple ways of using this tool to engage and share ideas and resources and they will feel better by the end of the semester. 

I’d also like to think about a shift away from Blackboard and perhaps consider using WordPress as the main site for content delivery. Again I feel strongly that students need to be able to access their learning experiences beyond their time at university plus learn about tools that they can then implement in their practice and everyday lives. 

Above all though, I’m looking forward to the further development of our community of practice, to have that safe space to learn, to do things wrong and to build confidence. Positive outcomes will inevitably stem from our time together this year.