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(via 6 Ways to Build Lifelong Learning Skills With Your Learners)

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Chat with Dave

I had a great time connecting with my learning partner Dave this week. Cant explain how reassuring it is to hear some of the same struggles we both have with online learning. Mainly TIME. Being adult learners with full time jobs, and other commitments and responsibilities , it becomes very overwhelming  at times. Personally, the assignments seem to be more manageable for me than the reading of the textbook. In our almost 30 minute conversation, I learned a few important things about Dave. He seemed to almost stumble into a teaching career and found a great interest for it. We discussed how much we’ve gained from this class so far and how it has made us look at our own learning styles as well as Dave’s interactions and delivery of information with his students. Using humor for example, and recognizing the different challenges of the students. Because Dave teaches a fairly technologically involved course, he needs to make sure that he is able to deliver a learning plan where the more tech savvy students aren’t bored, but also that the less tech savvy students don’t feel lost. I really enjoyed talking to Dave, at first i was a little bit concerned that it was going to be uncomfortable and filled with a lot of awkward silences however we had a great connection and seemed to almost talk over each other in our excitement.

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12 Trends (Still) Disrupting the Market Place...The Review

This article really captured the essence of some of the current and future trends in adult education. Adult learners have different needs not just from adolescent learns but also from other adult learners so it is so crucial to be able to identify what your needs are as a learner , and also to identify what the needs of your students are as an instructor. Once again technology plays a big role in our pursuit of higher education. It makes it much more convenient access classroom material through online courses, lectures, blogs and forums. Personally, online courses have made it much easier to fit my education into my daily life. At this point in my life with a full-time job, pets, family and friends , there isn’t a large amount of free time that can be spent to physically get to a classroom. I find that with online courses, I am able to spend my time more wisely, and sometimes instead of spending 2 continuous hours in a “classroom” , I can utilize any small increments of time during my day, my lunch hour at work for example, to catch up on my course. This, along side the fact that we can generally access most material through our smart phones, makes online education much more accessible for us.  The number “10″ trend discussed in this article really resonated with me. They referred to self-directed learning as “The Empowered Learner.” Wow.. what a powerful word to attribute to yourself. I never thought about it like that. Now I see how much power you are truly giving yourself when you are self directed with your learning. YOU choose what you want to learn, YOU choose when to learn, YOU choose how to learn and essentially YOU choose the outcome of your learning experience. What a great way to empower yourself but also give yourself accountability for your decisions. Now from an instructor’s viewpoint, what can we do to encourage self directed learning as well as meet the needs of the students. I think getting to know your students a little bit initially and get an understanding of their challenges, whether it be time...teaching methods etc, and offering more than one way of teaching. For example our current tour (3100) offers various methods of teaching within it’s framework. We are doing a blog, forums, podcast, essays... these different methods of learning allows us to excel at the ones we are familiar with and good at , but also to learn the new ways of learning. Most adults in most learning situations are present because they are choosing to be there. Unlike kids, it is usually not mandatory to be present at the “classes”, so therefore i believe most adults will have the internal need to learn more and will hopefully identify their best method of learning and teaching.

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Review of the Change in Dental Trends

This blog post was short but very to the point. Every single “trend” stated is of the daily occurrence for my office and I. First off, the internet. Oh how the internet has made our lives harder and easier at the same time. Any time a new patient calls our office to book an appointment, we inquire about how they heard of our office. This has two purposes. One being we can track our “source” of new clients (website, drive/walk by , referred by another patient) and two , if they were referred to us by another patient we know we are providing excellent care to our clients. We spend tons of money each month on the upkeep of our website, and that is not one penny wasted. From personal experience I can confirm that when I'm looking for any kind of service, whether its medical, home improvements, hair salons etc, the first place I check is their website. I can get some background knowledge of the establishment, staff, hours, reviewed and so on. As time goes by we continue to develop in our technological advances and it has, for the most part, made our business life much easier. The “online” trend and the “client experience” go hand in hand. One thing that we’ve noticed with our clients is that their experience seems to be more enhanced and customized when they can communicate with us through email, website, and texting. This has been such a change for us, especially in the last 10 or so years. Clients can book appointments online, leave us private or public feedback, customize their scheduling needs and even let us know of their personal preferences and dislikes (dental anxiety) about the office. The internet and the customization of the client experience has allowed us to provide our clients with the best care possible. 

Another two really good point of the blog were the group based practice and the gender shift. My office is a single dentist, single hygienist practice. This means that every single client that comes in has the consistency of seeing the same person each time. This has allowed me to form relationships with most of my clients rather than having a rotating door concept. Now , even though we are a single dr/hygienist office, we are a part of 123 Dentist, which is community of dentists owned by a corporation. This allows us to share some of the overhead costs and helps us with referrals/appointments with other offices in our “community”. This is where the gender shift comes in. Even though over the years there has been an increase in female dentists in the field, there is still a shortage present. We have patients calling requesting to see a female doctor, whether it’s cultural or just personal preference, and we actually find it more difficult to find offices with female doctors. Not impossible but more difficult. The same goes for my field of dental hygiene. I believe there was a statistic made by the College of Dental Hygienists of BC that approximately %97 of hygienists in BC are female. Now thankfully I haven't been put in the position of needing to search for a male hygienists but I can assure you that would be a near impossible task.

I think these trends will continue to withstand the test of time for the next decade or so as I think we’ve reached out full potential of drastic changes for now but its amazing to see just how a few years of changing trends impacts our professional lives.

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A little about myself... Hi! My name is Hengameh (Hen- Gaa-Meh... you’re welcome in advance :) )  I have been a dental hygienist for the last 8 years. I have had the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life, and have learned so much from my patients. I have always wanted to be involved in both the clinical and educational aspect of my field. I am starting to prepare myself for what teaching has in store for me, and am excited to offer what I have learned and experienced over the years. I am looking forward to what this new journey holds for me.