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The Role of Educational Technology(3:53) The use of technology in the classroom has had a profound effect on the way that teachers teach and students learn...[view this segment] Life @ Harvard Medical School(5:07) The Harvard Medical School community is wide and varied and also increasingly mobile...[view this segment] Pedagogical Evolution(7:34) Dr. David Roberts often reminds his students that it was only ten years ago that he himself was a student. In those ten years, though, much has changed...[view this segment] Multiple Teaching and Learning Styles(6:47) Human Systems Explorer interactive modules are just one in a host of educational tools that professors use to teach Harvard Medical School's varied student body...[view this segment] Interactive Teaching Tools(6:00) The genesis of the Human Systems Explorer project can be traced to 1999, when web-based tools were becoming more prominent...[view this segment] Creation of the Human Systems Explorer(9:07) Though each Human Systems Explorer diagram is attractive and functional, this graceful simplicity belies a rigorous development process...[view this segment] Human Systems Explorer Technology(3:21) One of the most important features of the Human Systems Explorer is its wide availability for members of the Harvard Medical School community...[view this segment] Student Usability Testing of Modules(4:31) A vital part of any module's design process is testing its functionality with the students...[view this segment] Human Systems Explorer: Student Tutorial Integration(3:05) The flexibility to integrate the Human Systems Explorer modules into a wide variety of learning environments is one of the project's many great successes....[view this segment] Interactive Teaching Diagrams: Clinical Applications(5:39) Ultimately, the hope is that this technology will help train bright, flexible, intuitive doctors, who are comfortable applying medical principles to patients in a hospital setting...[view this segment] Future Human Systems Exploration(4:08) The great success of the Human Systems Explorer project at Harvard Medical School has set the stage for the development of additional tools that harness the capabilities of web-based multimedia technologies...[view this segment] |
The Role of Educational TechnologyThe use of technology in the classroom has had a profound effect on the way that teachers teach and students learn, and Harvard Medical School is at the forefront of this sea change in teaching techniques. Leading the charge is the school's Center for Educational Technology, created in 2001 to help students, faculty, and IT experts collaborate to create new forms of digital content. A vocal proponent of Harvard's work in this field is Dr. John Halamka, Chief Information Officer at the Medical School and widely recognized as an expert in crafting technology systems that streamline the delivery of information. The World Wide Web has become ubiquitous and, for Halamka, is an essential means of delivery for any school's educational technology. Under his supervision, the Medical School has developed a web portal called MyCourses, which allows students and faculty to access basic information about the school's entire curriculum from any web-enabled device-such as desktops, PDAs, and laptops. This portal also features the Human Systems Explorer modules. Of course, using technologies to provide such wide access to content is just one piece of the puzzle, according to Dr. Richard Schwartzstein, a professor at Harvard Medical School. It's just as crucial, if not more so, to ensure that the content available is accurate and presented in such a way that it enhances the educational experience. Dr. Schwartzstein says that one of the pitfalls of education technology is that people often focus too much on the technology - the "bells and whistles" - at the expense of the actual content. In practice, technologists must work with teachers to assess the educational objectives at hand before they begin designing new programs. For example: What are the difficulties of teaching a specific physiological principle and how can the technology help in new ways? The challenge, says Dr. Halamka, isn't the technology itself, but making sure that the technology adds value to education: "At the Center for Educational Technology, not only do we create content but we change process. We change the way that teaching is done, assessment is done, and learning is done." |
