Mobile Learning to Enhance Nursing Practice Education" and to participate in a panel presentation, “Appealing to Your Peers: An Editor\'s Forum on Publishing Your Research

Abstract

1) Session T2-1A, Research Stream Richard Kenny, Caroline Park, Jocelyne Van Neste-Kenny, and Pamela Burton, Mobile Learning to Enhance Nursing Practice Education Abstract

Wagner (2005) asks why, with the continuing expansion of wireless networks and improved capacity of portable electronic devices, this mobility should not apply to learning. Handheld computers provide affordability, portability and ready connectivity. Keegan (2002) claims that distance educators should develop pedagogical environments for mobile devices. While definitions of m-learning abound, Koole’s (2005) FRAME model perhaps best describes it as a process resulting from the convergence of mobile technologies, human learning capacities, and social interaction,

The changing context of health care delivery presents challenges for the teaching and learning of nursing students. There is a need to test the utility of new strategies and tools to supervise students' practice at the point of care, to support their professional development, and to ensure the delivery of safe and effective care to clients in acute care and community settings. In particular, the connectivity potential of mobile devices for practice and teaching/learning remains unexplored.

This paper will review the research literature on mobile devices in Nursing Education and report on the Stage 1 formative evaluation findings of a project to integrate mobile learning into the Nursing curriculum in a Western Canadian college program. Third year students and instructors will be using mobile devices with wireless capability and selected software, such as Nursing decision-making and drug reference programs, during their practice in a community-based course. Course learning activities will test the use of these devices to support students' access to resources at the point-of-care, to connect to web-based resources, and for peer-to-peer communication. The evaluation will focus on whether the use of mobile learning can be sustained in an independent learning setting, if its use in a real life instructional setting appeals to the target audience, and if it can help to enhance reflective practice in nursing students.

Keegan, D. (2002). The future of learning: From eLearning to mLearning. Ericsson Online. Retrieved June 19, 2006, from http://learning.ericsson.net/mlearning2/project_one/book.html Koole, M. L. (2005). The framework for the rational analysis of mobile education (FRAME) model: An evaluation of mobile devices for distance education. Unpublished master’s thesis. Athabasca University, Alberta. Retrieved September 21, 2006, from http://library.athabascau.ca/drr/viewdtr.php?course=thes&id=205 Wagner, E. D. (2005). Enabling mobile learning. Educause Review, 40(3), 40-53. 2) Session T3-11, Research Stream Michele Jacobsen, Mark Bullen, François Desjardins, François Pettigrew, and Richard Kenny. Appealing to your Peers: An Editors’ Forum on Publishing Your Research. ABSTRACT: Getting published in a respected academic journal seems like a daunting challenge, particularly for new researchers. Often the specific information that prospective authors want and often need in order to ready their work for submission to a peer-reviewed journal goes beyond general author guidelines. In this presentation, the editors of the two Canadian journals supported by CADE/AMTEC, The Canadian Journal of Learning Technology (CJLT) and the Journal of Distance Education (JDE) will discuss how their journals differ and what types of themes each is tending to focus on. They will also offer recommendations to authors who aim to publish their research in an academic journal. This session will enable participants (academics, technicians, graduate students) to rethink best strategies for preparing their current research in educational technology, new media, and distance and e-learning for publication in an academic journal.