Thursday, April 22, 2010

PB Wiki

Most of my day was spend developing a PB Wiki for the Internet Based Lesson on Multiple Intelligences and Emotional Intelligence. The Wiki also contains a collaborative work space for the PSPBL Level III Instructors. I am optimisitic that the Wiki can be developed to fulfill the needs of both projects. It was an easy process....just as the PB (peanut butter) indicates.

Visit the wiki at http://innovativepoliceeducation.pbworks.com/

Monday, April 19, 2010

Emotoscope – Find, Understand, and Express Your Feelings to Develop Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Literacy – From Six Seconds

6seconds

While searching for "learning objects" associated with emotional intelligence, I located the "6 Seconds" web site, http://www.6seconds.org/.

The Emotoscope is a free applet that could be used as a fun and meaningful way for students and instructors to record their emotions. My feeling word right now is "content". I was able to link my Emotoscope results to Facebook and Blog.

Emotoscope – Find, Understand, and Express Your Feelings to Develop Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Literacy – From Six Seconds

Friday, April 16, 2010

Empathy or Apathy? A Question for Emotional Intelligence


Daniel Goleman on compassion Video on TED.com

Daniel Goleman's discussion on compassion solidifies yet one more reason why police officers need to learn and develop competencies in emotional intelligences. As Police Officers, are we really paying attiontion to the individuals we serve? Have we become narcississtic and self focused in a career that was created as a service occupation to keep the peace and promote safety for the quality of life, liberty and happiness our forefathers pursued? Can we find the altruistic joy that the default wiring in our brain would naturally promote if we hadn't become "too busy" in our daily work to stop and pay attention? What are the consequences of an apathetic police culture?

How do we use education to support socially conscious policing?

Emotional intelligence demands self awareness not self absorption. Mindfulness of emotions and behaviors requires daily individual reflection. The U.S. Department of Justice and COPPS Police Training Officer Program (PTO), teaches journaling as a process for self awareness whereby trainers and trainees take time to pay attention and write about their daily experiences. Through awareness and critical analysis of thoughts and actions, behavior can be changed. Individual life long learning is promoted through the reflection of action followed by the personal challenge to break past habituated responses.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

WebQuests for Learning Activity Packages (LAPs)

As I continue to learn more about creating WebQuests and begin designing quests for integration into Learning Activity Packages (LAP's), I have been amazed and inspired at the availability of WebQuests on the Internet and the "no cost" tools for their development. This morning, my research into WebQuest design lead me to the Filamentary web page through AT&T. Although it appears the site is undergoing some rennovation, it provides a guided process for creating and sharing WebQuests.



AT&T Knowledge Network Explorer: Filamentality WebQuest Teacher Guide

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Welcome to Blogging IDEAS

Today, this blog, is only a few days old, and I am realizing that its development will be yet another process of learning. This afternoon, I continued my ongoing search for educational resources on the topics of problem based learning, multiple intelligences and emotional intelligence, my thoughts are bursting with ideas about what this blog could offer.

While exploring a webquest about webquests and then reading through other webquests on a variety of topics, I began designing a webquests in my mind for topics relevant to innovative police education. The idea, thus taking form that a blog posting could contain an actual webquest for learning and could actually be used in conjunction with my course instruction.

Learning to blog, by using the blog has been my first learning journey. I have found that the creators of the blogger from Google have made it a user friendly process. Yesterday, I added the "Add" buttons to my dashboard and tonight, I used the mail to send an invitation to a friend. After adding a few more posts for areas of interest, I am planning to invite all of my training cohorts to blog on this spot. Also, I have began adding sites that I have visited to my draft posts. Having resources on reserve will help me to keep current blogs posted and will function as scaffolding for further learning.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Technology

For the past few weeks, I have been engaged in learning about the many educational tools and resources available on the Internet. Many of us use Internet programs for social networking and fun. A whole new world is open to us as police officers, recruit trainers and academy educutors when we take command of the Internet as a powerful network for learning.

Introduction

As a police officer with 20 years of experience, I have experienced the rapid change that has occurred in my own community and have advocated for police officers and individuals in communities to work together for solutions to end problems that plague our neighborhoods.

As a Certified Problem Based Learning, Police Training Officer (PTO) Training Instructor, and board member with the Police Society for Problem Based Learning, http://www.pspbl.com/, I have committed the past six years to learning, and teaching the police officers of the future. My personal journey of life long learning continues to fuel my passion for reform in police education.