Developing Cultural Competence in an Occupational Therapy Program in a Border Institution in South Texas

While strong consensus exists for preparing culturally competent occupational therapists as the national minority population grows, scholarship in this area continues to evolve. Conversations and explorations of best practices and perspectives add the practical component related to this phenomenon. Perspectives will be shared for leveraging culture to promote respect within communities from asset-based ideologies from the vantage point of a Latino clinician in a predominately Latino underserved community. The authors provide a brief review of the related literature, unpack the definitions of cultural competence, and discuss the pedagogical approach used by an occupational therapist educator. Framing the conversation from an asset-based pedagogical perspective, the use of culture as resources will be depicted. By honoring community values, beliefs, and assets for developing cultural competence, the authors explore the use of culturally relevant pedagogical approaches in a Hispanic-serving university graduate program situated in the border region of South Texas

Enhancing outdoor learning through participatory design and development: a case study of embedding mobile learning at a field study centre

Outdoor learning seeks to engage and enthuse students through authentic practical inquiry lessons. This article explores how participatory design and development can enable outdoor learning organisations to introduce sustainable technological innovations within their teaching practices. A case study describing a collaborative project between university researchers and an environmental education charity is presented, which highlights the challenges and issues regarding the usability, scalability and sustainability of mobile technology at a residential outdoor learning centre. It is argued that participatory research with education service providers is a contributing factor to the diffusion of mobile learning and a necessary foundation for sustainable technology-enhanced learning

E-learning

The evolution of an Information Society has transformed many activities in our everyday lives, including how we work, communicate, entertain, teach and learn. More recently widespread Internet connectivity together with the development of new Web-based multimedia technologies, has strongly encouraged educational uses for Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Activities that require network technologies to deliver learning and training programs can be considered forms of \u201ce-learning\u201d. In the not too distant past, before broad use of Internet-based learning technologies became commonplace, a variety of technological solutions had been used to support teaching and learning activities, generally referred as Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI). With CAI people started using a computer as a means of teaching, providing tutorials, simulations, or games. CAI was generally learning activities that did not require network connectivity. E learning today more often refers to systems and activities that go well beyond interactions with a single computer