Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007
273
Finding a Place Where Technology and Caring Pedagogy Meet for Faculty and Students
Linda Diaconis, PhD, MSN, BSN, RN, Division of Nursing, Villa Julie College, Stevenson, MD, USA
The lived experiences of nursing faculty and RN to BS students as they seek to sustain and nurture a caring environment in the classroom that moves to a distance modality are described in this symposium. Students and faculty gather in two geographically separated locations and become united through the technology of interactive videoconferencing. Pedagogical challenges are revealed in the creation of an innovative place of authenticity through a highly technological environment. In interactive video classrooms, the usual boundaries of classrooms are removed as students discover new connections and develop relationships. What does it mean to be involved in distance education? Etymologically, the word distance means "standing apart, being separate, a sense of intervening space, and remoteness." Standing apart is antithetical to a pedagogy grounded in caring. Yet, in a classroom that is made physically possible through the use of technology, we stand apart, yet share, a virtual space.