6. Instructional Technology
Demonstrate effective integration of current and emerging technology into health professions education to foster active learning and employ innovative teaching strategies for today’s learner in both a classroom and distance education setting.
Artifact 6-A
SAMR Model Worksheet
Reflection
The purpose of this assignment in HPTT 803 – Integrating Technology into Health Professions Curriculum was to take two pieces of my own teaching that use no technology and rebuild each at all four levels of the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition (SAMR) model. The first was a student assessment, the informal presentation of a differential diagnosis to the attending physician. The second was content delivery, the talk I give on taking a medical history in liver disease. I selected this artifact to represent competency 6 because it separates the choice of technology from what that technology changes about the task.
Working through both tables clarified the difference between decorative use of technology and task redesign. Substitution produced a typed short-answer document in Microsoft Word and a voice-over PowerPoint, neither of which altered the learner’s task. Augmentation added the Cameo video feature and hyperlinked sources in Prezi. The task itself changed only at the upper two levels, where a Canvas discussion board opened the assessment to peer learning, a wiki broke the medical history into linked pages, and Mindmup and Powtoon were investigated as redefinition strategies to better engage learners. The two tables also cover both settings named in this competency, the classroom and asynchronous distance delivery.
One of the challenges encountered was resisting the pull towards simple substitution. Redefinition sounds the most impressive, but it takes more work to develop and more adaptation from the learner. Deciding where a task truly benefited, rather than where the technology was most novel, was the more difficult part. I intend to carry that judgment into the Enhanced Medical Education Track, where I am selecting tools for the didactic and asynchronous components and continuing to evolve the program.
Artifact 6-B
Mini Project and Video Creation Reflection Worksheet
Reflection
The purpose of this assignment in HPTT 803 – Integrating Technology into Health Professions Curriculum was to complete twelve technology mini-projects and three video projects. Each one had to be built, linked, placed on the SAMR model, and reflected upon after completion. I selected this artifact to represent competency 6 because it is the one place in the portfolio where I tested a range of educational technologies against my own content and recorded an assessment of each.
A wide variety of educational technologies were investigated through this assignment. A ThingLink augmented image of a Fibroscan device lets students explore the equipment before they encounter it on clinical rotation. MagicSchool AI generated pre-lecture worksheets for self-completion, and I chose it over Diffit because it held a graduate reading level rather than reducing the material to a secondary-school one. JeopardyLabs was used to produce a liver disease Jeopardy-style game. The video work combined Prezi with PowerPoint screen recording, Explain Everything for a three-dimensional printer demonstration, and Google Earth with ScreenPal for a virtual field trip.
One of the challenges encountered was accepting that some of the tools had several locked features behind paywalls. The free version of Prezi blocked audio recording and captions, and its fixed animations were constricting. Explain Everything dropped frames, desynchronized audio, degraded the quality of uploaded media, and capped collaboration at fifteen minutes. I would likely not use either modality (at least the free versions), while ScreenPal and ThingLink are much more promising for integration. I intend to apply the same build-and-test approach when selecting tools for the asynchronous components of the Enhanced Medical Education Track.
Download the reflection worksheet (PDF) (opens in a new tab)