Graham Attwell on ePortfolios

 

 

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Graham Attwell on ePortfolios

via eFolio in the UK and Europe by Ray Tolley on 29/01/11

Graham Attwell makes a masterful presentation (25 mins) describing the whole ePortfolio panorama. He starts by stating the classic opinion that there are just four different types of ePortfolio. However, he does not appear to come to the same conclusion as myself, that all these types, and more, can all be contained within the one system. Later on he does argue that there are many different uses of an ePortfolio which tend to contradict his arguments for four separate systems.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I argue for a single system with all artefacts uploaded once only but that they can then be re-purposed for several different and concurrent audiences. He raises the important question of ownership as an unresolvable conundrum: should the institution, the Local Authority or even Government own and supply the ePortfolio? Or should employers be required to provide the ePortfolio? And, as I have raised before, what happens when a learner is attending two or three concurrent institutions or is working for more than one employer? Graham continues to ask more challenging questions but without presenting the listener with constructive solutions.

My arguments for eFolio are quite simple. The ePortfolio should be learner owned and not embedded within a single institution. By being externally hosted it is freely portable - wherever the learner may go, and whatever various works they are doing. He hints at the possiblity of cloud-based systems but does not give any solution as to where the non-techie can get support. In contrast, eFolio has both excellent context-sensitive help designed for the young or inexperienced learner and also professional help-desk services - and all at extremely low cost.

 

 

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"The Visions of Students Today" 2011 Remix One (trailer)

Personality and academic success in med school

Personality and academic success in med school: "

If you can predict academic success by personality factors, then med schools should consider including measures of these personality factors during their selection process. Mental toughness and stress tolerance are just two that came up. A recent systematic review looked at prospective cohort studies since 2000 on the subject of medical students’ scores on valid personality tests and objective measures of performance and stress.

In all seven relevant and selected studies conscientiousness was the most important personality factor to predict long-term success in medical training.

Furthermore, the evidence from these seven studies also suggests that social traits such as extraversion and levels of self-esteem and sociability may be important mediating factors in the clinical years.

In short “getting ahead” or conscientiousness is the critical personality factor during the first years in Med School and is necessary in the whole career but “getting along” (extraversion and openness) predicts success in the setting of the later years such as during clerkship and residency.

Those who’re doctors or med students will certainly recognize these findings.

Doherty, E., & Nugent, E. (2011). Personality factors and medical training: a review of the literature Medical Education, 45 (2), 132-140 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2010.03760.x

No related posts.

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Main Page - AcademicBlogs

Main Page - AcademicBlogs - a list of academic blogs by subject

Fwd: UK Centre for Bioscience 2011 Professional Development events: Call for Contributions - International Conference and Graduate Attributes Event

Please share the following events with your community (one of which has an approaching deadline):

UK Centre for Bioscience 2011 International Conference

 

Effective Learning in the Biosciences: Equipping Students for the 21st Century

30 June & 1 July 2011, Edinburgh, UK

 

Call for Contributions

We invite offers of Short Presentations (15 minutes), Interactive Presentations (30 minutes), Workshops (60 minutes) and Posters. Offers of contributions must be submitted on the conference abstract submission form by email to bioconf@leeds.ac.uk by Wednesday 19th January 2011. Please refer to the conference website for full details at www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/bioconf

 

Conference Outline

This international conference will provide a platform to consider how we nurture and inspire all bioscience students to realise their full potential, and will:

·         showcase and disseminate evidence informed practice in the biosciences from the UK and overseas;

·         explore how we can most effectively engage bioscience students to maximise their learning and achievement; and

·         provide networking and professional development opportunities for participants.

 

Registration now open

We are now taking bookings for the Conference. Places are limited to 120 so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Lead presenter, early bird rate & students: £200 (until 1st April 2011). Full delegate rate: £255 for bookings from 2 April - 10 June 2011.

We look forward to seeing you in Edinburgh!

 

Please feel free to share this opportunity with your colleagues and community. A conference poster is available at www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/ftp/publicity/bioconf2.pdf

 

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UK Centre for Bioscience Professional Development Event

 

Bioscience Graduate Attributes for the 21st Century,

Edinburgh Napier University, Tuesday 8th February 2011

 

The Bioscience graduate of 2011 will have been asked to absorb an enormous amount of subject-specific information and acquire a very wide range of specific and generic skills. Many would agree there is a need to prioritise and identify key, desirable attributes for our students. During this event we will consider a number of graduate skills and qualities from a range of perspectives. The weighting placed on these by participants should help inform future work for the Centre and colleagues with publications and other resources.

 

To view the programme and register please visit www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/events/napier080211.aspx

Please feel free to share this event with your colleagues and community. We look forward to possibly seeing you in February.

 

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Please contact me (s.a.meskin@leeds.ac.uk) if you require any further details.

 

Sheryl Meskin, Ph.D.
Academic Advisor

UK Centre for Bioscience
The Higher Education Academy
Room 9.15, Worsley Building
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
Tel:   +44 (0)113 343 3438
Fax:  +44 (0)113 343 5894
E-mail: s.a.meskin@leeds.ac.uk

http://twitter.com/smeskin

(0.6 FTE Office Days - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday)

 

David Andrew,
Head of Academic Practice
 

The Learning Institute at Queen Mary, University of London

Mile End, London E1 4NS

02078822803

02081446753

Role models in academic medicine, December 2005 - The British Medical Association

Role models in academic medicine, December 2005 - The British Medical Association: "Role models in academic medicine"

Barriers to use of Social Media in Medical Education

 

 

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Barriers to use of Social Media in Medical Education

via Technology in (Medical) Education by Neil on 12/14/10

I just came across 2007 this study - an online survey- of UK medical students, house staff and physicians regarding their opinion regarding use of social media in medical education.  Invitations were sent by e-mail to 6000 people and 21% responded.  The barriers identified by the responders were:

1. Would like to use social media for my education but don't know how
2. Don't like to use technology for my education
3. Lack of awareness of quality resources - don't trust the content
4. Lack of access at workplace and lack of time.

These were 4 themes that emerged from 60 free text comments in the survey responses.  That's a pretty small percentage of people from those who responded who bothered to enter a free text comment.  Combine that with the 21% response rate and it suggests that we have to interpret the results with a degree of caution.  Unfortunately for studies like this (email invitations to large number of people) these types of numbers are not unusual. The authors need to be commended for the effort they made to get this data.  

The authors commented that respondents appeared to be generally interest in Web 2.0 tools including social media. 

Do these 4 themes cover all the reasons why doctors don't use social media?  In my experience, I think there are even now (in 2010) a lot of physicians who think that using social media in healthcare is a waste of time (different than not having time to use it) and that apps like FB and Twitter are used by a bunch of narcissistic mutual back slappers.  There are numerous ideas and examples of how social media are, or can be, used in medical education (examples).  The problem is that these discussions about uses of social media occur in the blogosphere or on Twitter or FB.  The Average Joe physician is unlikely to get exposed to these, unless it reaches the mainstream print journals.

Measuring true outcomes (Kirkpatrick Level 4) from educational interventions is difficult  but it will probably take a study that shows an impact on outcome measures that is published in a reputed journal to change some people's minds.   To make matters worse, the print journals are constantly publishing case studies and guidelines regarding professionalism (or the lack thereof) and social media and this scares away some of the physicians who might be interested in this medium.  Physicians have already been burned by adopting clinical practices without sufficient good evidence and then having to go back when these were proven wrong (e.g. hormone replacement therapy).  So one can understand why some will "look" before leaping!  Even with educational practices we have seen the rise and fall of Learning Management Systems.  How can medical educators and physicians be sure that social media is not just another fad?  

It reminds me of a talk I gave in 1995 titled "The Internet and Medicine: Why Physicians should Pay Attention" and later wrote up for a medical journal.  There is a great The New Yorker cover by Edward Sorel which shows Whistler's Mother looking skeptically at a telephone.  I had referred to this cover when I gave that talk in 1995.  Maybe it is time to bring out that old issue of The New Yorker!

 

 

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