Working towards putting the 80:20 rule into practice

"effective teaching and learning activities comprise 80% student activity, 20% teacher activity"

On 11th August, the Nurse Assistant students had access to the computer learning suite in A302.
They were able to take more responsibility for their own learning.
The topic we were looking at was "Respiratory conditions." They were divided into groups of three. Each group was given a respiratory condition to research, e.g. asthma, emphysema. They were asked to find information on the condition, using computer websites.  They needed to research the topic under the following headings: a definition of the condition, its pathophysiology, signs & symptoms, and treatment.

They then presented this information back to the class. A couple of the groups even did powerpoint presentations. One of the groups had found an excellent animation of the lungs from "you tube," to illustrate what happens in a pneumothorax:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMRdAhPLWQ4

At the end of class, one of the students commented to me that she enjoyed learning like this.

I was intrigued by a couple of students' creativity. They had made a pair of lungs out of two empty coke bottles rubber banded together. One bottle was half filled with water, to demonstrate fluid in lungs. The other one had little balls of polystyrene, to demonstrate alveoli.

Also, because students have to present back to class, it gives them a chance to have practice at talking in front of people and presenting something. The quiet ones who don’t usually participate in class are propelled along to take part.

When the students are using the computers, they seem very focussed and to be interested in what they are doing. So far, they have researched and presented back to the class on respiratory, cardiac and nervous system conditions.