Medical students are required to possess the knowledge and skills for basic clinical diagnoses by the completion of their sophomore year. Therefore, a focus in medical education is to promote problem-based learning and encourage independent acquisition of information from web-based resources. To achieve this goal, a current trend in medical education is to supplement the traditional didactic lecture experiences with small group, collaborative learning. However, due to large class sizes it would not be possible to meet the changing demands in medical education without the implementation of technology-enhanced instruction. Medical school educators have a responsibility to train future physicians to become skilled using the latest technologies for access to current content and communication. Wayne State Medical School is in the process of digitizing course content and implementing the use of wireless personal digital devices (PDDs) into the undergraduate medical curriculum. The wireless PDDs will be used for the delivery of digitized course content, interactive classroom sessions, small group problem-solving exercises, faculty-student communication, computer-based testing, real-time faculty evaluation, and the collection of patient information during clinical clerkships. A goal of these initiatives is to facilitate the transition from a passive to an interactive learning environment and to establish a collaborative learning community amongst educators, students, and clinicians. This workshop provided a hands-on demonstration of these initiatives. Prior to the workshop, the presenters from CampusMobility© established a wireless environment in the spacious foyer of the EduCon center. Toshiba® model e570 Pocket PCs and wireless network interface cards were distributed to the session participants. This permitted the session leaders to demonstrate applications pertinent to medical education. Digitized lecture outlines, images, and videos were downloaded during the session. The group participated in an interactive learning session by responding to a series of questions in a multiple-choice format downloaded onto the handheld devices. A graphic presentation of the audience response showing the number of correct and incorrect responses was displayed. During the meeting, the application of software that permits wireless proctoring of exams was demonstrated. Session participants also had the opportunity to test applications developed for real-time course evaluations and the collection of clinical clerkship data using wireless PDDs. This focus session provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate
the versatility, ease of use, and functionality of the wireless PDDs. It
was a unique opportunity for the attendees to actively participate in a
demonstration of the hardware and applications. A consensus among the session
participants was that this technology has broad applications in undergraduate
medical education. A discussion of the requirements for laptop computers
by some schools ensued permitting the session leaders an opportunity to
describe the benefits of handheld devices. Adoption of PDDs and a
wireless infrastructure is more cost effective and versatile than laptops
with a standard local area network. PDDs have the capacity to access large,
server-based medical resources. Expansion slots on the handheld devices
permit storage of volumes of text and images. The final outcome of
this focus session was to generate enthusiasm among the medical school
faculty and administrators.
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