Extreme MakeoverTM: “Entry-Level Physical Therapist Education” Edition

Abstract

When my nieces and nephew started kindergarten, I started a tradition of calling them after the first week of school to find out what they thought about their new teacher, their new classroom, the new school year, etc. In September of 2012, in keeping with tradition, I had a conversation with one of my nieces in which she told me that she would be spending part of Saturday afternoon skyping a friend about a PowerPoint presentation that they were putting together for a class assignment. For the remainder of the afternoon, my niece was setting up her own blog. She told me that she would e-mail me the link so I could sign up to be a blog follower. My niece is 10 years old.Without a doubt, students of today and those of tomorrow are and will continue to be the beneficiaries of the ever-changing advancements in education and technology, and the resultant vast array of resources and plethora of information readily available. Cloud-based computing, mobile connectivity, e-books, open-source course ware, high-quality streaming video, and just-intime, in-place information-gathering have led to the re-examination of university missions and the role of the university within a networked society.1 Educators and institutions are striving to capitalize on these advancements to enrich students' experiences.In 2011, n% of college presidents surveyed reported that their institutions offered online courses, and half of the respondents indicated that within the next 10 years most students at their institutions would be enrolled in some online classes.2 A survey of 1,021 Internet experts, researchers, observers, and users found that almost two-thirds (60%) agreed with the following statement:By 2020, higher education will be quite different from the way it is today. There will be mass adoption of teleconferencing and distance learning to leverage expert resources . . . learning activities will move to individualized, just in-time learning approaches. There will be a transition to classes that combine online learning components with less-frequent on-campus, in-person class meetings . . . assessment of learning will take into account more individually oriented outcomes and capacities . . . relevant to subject mastery.1 'p4'Based on the overwhelming and extremely positive response to the special issue call, it is clear that innovation, experimentation, and transformation are taking place in physical therapy education. The special issue includes a variety of papers with various methodologies, all with an underlying theme of enriching teaching and learning. I had many manuscripts to choose from, and making the choice for a select few to be included in the special issue was difficult. With the number of manuscripts focused on networked or web-based instructional approaches, we have begun a continuing section on the use of technology in each issue, with 3 technical briefs that describe the use of technology in the classroom and clinical setting in this issue. For this issue, they are: What's All the Hype About Skype? The Effectiveness of Video Calling in Clinical Education; Student Perceptions of the Use and Value of Wiki Technology for the Creation and Dissemination of an Orthopedic Physical Therapy Assignment; The 3R Method Optimizes the Use of Student Response Systems in Physical Therapist Education.Two Method/Model articles (Adams; Dal Bello-Haas, Proctor, and Scudds) focus on the use of hybrid learning and blending learning for teaching physical agents and ethics content. Both articles describe the benefits of course redesign, combining traditional face-to-face learning with web-enhanced and web-based instructional strategies- mirroring what is occurring in basic science, social science, humanities, and health professional programs in higher education institutions across the globe.Buccieri, Pivko, and Olzenak investigate the dynamic process involved in the development of clinical instructor expertise, with personal characteristics and reflective self-assessment as keys to the acquisition of expert teaching skills. …