Hi. Since being very brave and setting up my blog I find I have been avoiding posting anything on it knowing that others are able to access to my writing. But I will venture onwards anyway...
I have been doing some reading this week around flexible learning and what it actually means. As my reading has progressed I have realised that while the BM programme I am involved in is delivered in a flexible manner to support the students learning, there is so much more to flexible learning/programme delivery in addition to what is being done already. The advantage of the flexibility of the current programme is that it offers an alternative to students having to relocate for three years to study as well as giving the students the ability to choose when they study in their own time, in conjunction with planned elluminate tutorials, intensive blocks and face to face sessions and practical experience opportunities, to support their successful completion of the degreee. There are constraints on the ability of the programme to be more flexible, for example course papers start and finish at a specified time and course assessments are required to be completed within this timeframe. However it would appear that this programme is certainly more innovative and in line with current models of education than other programmes of study in other disciplines.
The Acquisition and Participation (and contribution) educational models (Sfard, 1998) are ways of exploring an approach to the processes of teaching and learning. In relation to midwifery education and how the programme I am involved with is delivered I believe these models together contribute to an explaination of how these processes take place. I am a novice at all this however, so am interested in what I will discover in my ongoing reading surrounding the flexible learning topic. Maybe my not having had years of standing in front of a classful of students next to a blackboard teaching content has been an advantage in my adoption of this flexible approach to learning with which I am currently involved?
Wednesday 16 March 2011
Saturday 5 March 2011
Welcome to my blog!
Hi, my name is Christine Griffiths and I am a midwife. I have worked as a midwife for over 25 years in many settings -both community and hospital based. I have worked in midwifery management as well as practice but until last year had not worked in formal midwifery education. Since the beginning of 2010 I have been employed as a Student Practice Facilitator (SPF) and Lecturer within the School of Midwifery at Otago Polytechnic (OP), while remaining based at my home in Whitby, just north of Wellington. In addition I continue to have a small caseload of women for whom I am Lead Maternity Carer (LMC) for their pregnancy, birth and postnatal period.
I am responsible (with four other North Island SPFs/Lecturers) for a group of first and second year midwifery students in the lower North Island who are undertaking their Bachelor of Midwifery degree through Otago Polytechnic through a blended model of programme delivery. The midwifery degree programme is delivered via a combination of online tutorials (elluminate sessions), block intensive weeks, face to face meetings with their nominated SPF weekly, self directed learning and clinical placements within hospital facilities and with LMC midwives. The advantages of this is that students wishing to undertake their midwifery degree can do so without moving their families to Dunedin for three years. They also get to know and become known in the community they reside in and will ideally practice midwifery in their home areas once they are qualified. It is a wonderful degree programme and I enjoy being part of it very much. In addition to this I have responsibilities in several other papers both at undergraduate and post graduate levels.
I really love my job and am extremely happy working for the School of Midwifery at OP. This has been the most challenging and at the same time the most rewarding job I have ever had in my midwifery career. The learning curve has been huge, but it has at the same time been exilerating!
I have a MA in Midwifery through Massey University in Palmerston North. My thesis explored the care processes used by self employed midwives in their work with women living in areas of high deprivation. It is 9 years since I graduated now but one of my aims for 2011 is that my thesis comes off the shelf, gets dusted down and worked on and updated. One of my dreams is to write a paper based on the findings of my thesis and current evidence and have it incorporated into either the undergraduate or postgraduate midwifery programme.
I am also enrolled in the GCTLT through OP. Flexible Learning is my second to last paper for this qualification. I felt very motivated and inspired after attending the elluminate with Bronwyn and Roger earlier in the week, but more on that later...
Regards, Chris
I am responsible (with four other North Island SPFs/Lecturers) for a group of first and second year midwifery students in the lower North Island who are undertaking their Bachelor of Midwifery degree through Otago Polytechnic through a blended model of programme delivery. The midwifery degree programme is delivered via a combination of online tutorials (elluminate sessions), block intensive weeks, face to face meetings with their nominated SPF weekly, self directed learning and clinical placements within hospital facilities and with LMC midwives. The advantages of this is that students wishing to undertake their midwifery degree can do so without moving their families to Dunedin for three years. They also get to know and become known in the community they reside in and will ideally practice midwifery in their home areas once they are qualified. It is a wonderful degree programme and I enjoy being part of it very much. In addition to this I have responsibilities in several other papers both at undergraduate and post graduate levels.
I really love my job and am extremely happy working for the School of Midwifery at OP. This has been the most challenging and at the same time the most rewarding job I have ever had in my midwifery career. The learning curve has been huge, but it has at the same time been exilerating!
I have a MA in Midwifery through Massey University in Palmerston North. My thesis explored the care processes used by self employed midwives in their work with women living in areas of high deprivation. It is 9 years since I graduated now but one of my aims for 2011 is that my thesis comes off the shelf, gets dusted down and worked on and updated. One of my dreams is to write a paper based on the findings of my thesis and current evidence and have it incorporated into either the undergraduate or postgraduate midwifery programme.
I am also enrolled in the GCTLT through OP. Flexible Learning is my second to last paper for this qualification. I felt very motivated and inspired after attending the elluminate with Bronwyn and Roger earlier in the week, but more on that later...
Regards, Chris
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