Communication Tools

General comments

Communication tools vary from simple texting to complex audio-visual conferencing.  Tools include, and are not limited to: social networks, social bookmarking, blogging, discussion boards, teleconferences, and online chats. A variety of methods may need to be used to assist the learner with concepts in nursing.

Social Networks

General comments.  Using social networks as a method of communicating with learners can be tricky as the boundaries between professional and social relationships can become blurred. It needs to be very clear how communication should occur between learners and educators. The ANA has a good article on guidelines for social media that might be of interest by Nancy Spector and Dawn Kappel called Guidelines for Using Electronic and Social Media: The Regulatory Perspective.  The National Education Association has an article called "Social Networking Nightmares: Cyberspeak No Evil" by Mike Simpson gives hints to young teachers and though it discusses secondary schools, it applies to college and our health care institutions.  I'm sure most nurses know of strict use of social media in hospitals.  Finally, an article that is from 2012 addressing nursing education and social media: Social Media Use in Nursing Education by Terri Schmitt, Susan Sims-Giddnes and Richard Booth.  There are many examples and so only some that are relevant to nursing education will be discussed below. A site that contains 50 tools including communication tools can be found here, 50-free collaboration tools.

Facebook 

Facebook has become more than a place to post pictures, it's used for messaging and communicating events. It's the world's most popular online social networking service. Educators in the university setting have had some success with this with the younger generation.  Assignments are posted and forums can be set up.  But, I only know of one faculty member at UIndy that has used it with success. When I have taught the nurse ed. tech. class in the beginning we tried to to use it because only about half of the students had Facebook accounts as so it was a learning experience for them.  As a teacher of grad students, when I've become Friends with some of I felt uncomfortable seeing pictures of grad students in some social situations. On the positive side for personal use I enjoy the connections with family and friends.   

Twitter

Twitter

Some of the same issues with social media can be found with Twitter. One successful use I have seen was at a professional meeting.  There was a group of 10 of us and we were at a conference and we would Tweet if there was an interesting presentation.  Also, we could easily decide on a restaurant during breaks in the conference. One interesting article lists the top 40 nurse educators to follow.  The article is by Health-O-Rama and blog site. Twitter is discussed in the above article under the general comments with an explanation of how Twitter works using hash tags, and etc. Could Twitter be used by learners in clinical to communicate to the educator? I used to have students text me when they needed help.  Twitter could be used the same. 

Google Plus

Google + screenshot

 This Google feature is competition for Facebook but has some different features.  The pages look more like a website and more customization can be done.  Supposed to be more "real world" focused. Within Google+(plus) are Circles, and Hangouts.  Circles is similar to Friends in Facebook but with a Group.  Hangouts is similar to Skype in that you can talk with  groups of people or just one person over the web. Hangouts is in early development and should include more capabilities over time.

Social bookmarking

Delicious

This is a social bookmarking site that several faculty at UIndy use and have their students use.  Obviously, the name indicates that many users are cooks who can save recipes from websites but certainly other uses can be seen. https://delicious.com Lately, other social bookmarking sites have become more popular. 

Diigo

Diigo is a social bookmarking site allows easy storage of information about a website along with categories or tags for searches.  The advantage of Diigo over possible other bookmarking site is that you can share with groups which allows for much larger databases of website information. 

Other social bookmarking sites

Some consider Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus social bookmarking sites but they do not have the features such as commenting, groups and easy search capabilities. 

Web Conferencing

The difference between web conferencing and video conferencing relates to using the web.  Video conferencing was designed for high quality video and reliable connection.  Usually video conferencing is expensive and technical assistance is usually needed. Web conferencing is highly variable in that quality and reliable can be highly suspect but no technical assistance is needed.  These area haven't seemed to grow as well as other technology. 

Skype

There are free sites such as Skype and the quality and reliability is adequate if individuals have headsets and faster connections. Video capability or just audio allows for two or more people to talk for free anywhere there is an internet connection.  Sharing screens between users is also free for two people.  If you have a group and want to share screens someone will have to have the Pro version which is not that expensive.  Sharing screens allow for editing between individuals.  One could also use Google docs with Skype so that all individuals on the conference could edit a specific document at the same time.

Adobe Connect Pro

Adobe Connect Pro is a site that will need to be purchased.  Virtual "rooms" are purchased which can be accessed 24.7.  The advantages include: recording sessions, allowing access and sharing screens, and multiple participants.  The disadvantages, from my experience, is that participants must use a headset.  Sharing documents does not work well.  Documents can, however, be uploaded to prevent problems but only certain formats are allowed.  Connectivity seems to be inconsistent and participants have a difficult time with first setting up their computer to configure Adobe Connect for a meeting.