Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Connected Classroom
April 7-9, 2002
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions: A Model for Selection of Mobile Technology in Health Professions Education
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By: Anita Crockett |
Abstract
Cost and length of utility inform the selection of mobile technology. But are those the only considerations? Within the health professions, technology is being used in both student-based and school-based formats. Exploring the options of mobile technology calls for a process that also entails educational needs of the students, educational needs of the discipline, geographic considerations and programming preferences. A devised model for selection of mobile technology will be presented highlighting the latest in mobile technology for health education learning.
Description
Mobile learning technologies are being created and refined faster than the knowledge for which it was designed can be acquired. Typically we ask the "bottom line": How much does it cost and how long does it last? But other considerations may need to dominate. How do students learn? What do students value? What does each discipline need to teach? Personal digital assistants are no longer optional in some health education programs. School-based formats allow connections between students and faculty and enhance generation of clinical data in a timely format. Whether personal-based or school-based, the programs for each technology must accommodate the language, values, and operations of the discipline and programs it serves.
For instance, the Nightingale Tracker (FITNE, Inc.), an example of a school-based format, allows form community-based nursing health care education data generated in the homes of clients and electronically delivered to storage and downloading capacity at the school through wireless communications. The uniqueness of this approach lies with the operating format designed with the Omaha System, a standardized nursing diagnosis classification system. This approach combines comprehensiveness with efficiency. There is a match with the discipline, program, and needs of health care.
What do we know about the health professions? Are all members and potential members of the same stripe? Do they learn in the same ways? Do we, as educators, want them to learn in the same way? We know critical thinking is a necessary component of health professions learning. Do our choices reflect our values and our critical thinking processes? A model of selection created by the interplay of personal temperaments, discipline values, program needs, and pragmatic considerations will be discussed.