'Technology in Health Sciences Education during COVID-19: Gains, Loses, and Transformations' - a follow up IAMSE Cafe Session conversation to 'focus session' at IAMSE 2021 on this topic

'Technology in Health Sciences Education during COVID-19: Gains, Loses, and Transformations' - a follow up IAMSE Cafe Session conversation to 'focus session' at IAMSE 2021 on this topic 

Sol Roberts-Lieb and Poh-Sun Goh

16 November 2021, 10am - 11am EST (Eastern Time - New York) 

11pm - 12am Singapore Time 16 November 2021, Tuesday

The COVID-19 pandemic which is still an ever-present reality in our professional and personal lives has accelerated and transformed the adoption of Technology in Health Sciences Education. 

The IAMSE Cafe Session format is an ideal opportunity for our Community of Interest (COI) and Community of Practice (COP) to informally engage with and have a deeper and wider ranging conversation on what we feel we have gained, lost, and been transformed - to share our individual experience, 'aha' moments and insights from reflection and practice, and take part in a collective sense making and even intentional design process for our future.

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Opening thoughts: to build on IAMSE 2021 session on this topic

the theme and message is still, and even more, relevant : Gains, Losses and Transformations 

- we are coming to the 2 year anniversary of COVID-19 pandemic onset

- for many TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) was an enforced, default option/fallback

- whether belonging to 'haves', or 'have-nots' (less resourced - tech, bandwidth, faculty ready etc), as a community, and members of the human race, we have 'coped with', 'managed', even thrived sometimes

- lets drill down on our experiences of our IAMSE community at this IAMSE cafe session (gains, losses, transformation)

- we will also share what Sol and I have personally learnt, as well as from our wider engagement at our institutions, and through participation in faculty development at conferences and other institutions

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- clearly the EdTech 'Matthew effect' applied - for those who have more, gained more

'... Two of the most reliable findings from the history of education technology are that educators use new technologies to extend existing practices and that new technologies tend to accrue most of their benefits to already advantaged learners.' - Justin Reich, Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education (quote from Conclusion Chapter, page 236-237).

'... New Technologies can contribute (to stepwise incremental, rather than radical transformation) ... in two important ways ... the technologies themselves can aid learning ... in informal contexts or in formal settings ... stepwise ... rarely transformative .... (and) the novelty of education technologies opens space for new conversations about the practice of teaching ... ' - Justin Reich, Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education (quote from Conclusion Chapter, page 245).

https://failuretodisrupt.com/

https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/matthew-effect-educational-technology

https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/why-digital-poverty-deserves-greater-attention

https://news.nus.edu.sg/why-digital-poverty-deserves-greater-attention/

https://www.nus.edu.sg/newshub/news/2021/2021-10/2021-10-15/POVERTY-st-pA18-15oct.pdf

https://news.nus.edu.sg/

https://telmeded.blogspot.com/2020/12/tel-in-meded-during-covid-19-looking.html

- yet human ingenuity and bootstrapping worked too - working with what is at hand, and available, in less well resourced, and resourced challenged settings

- we, individually, and collectively, pushed the envelope of what is possible through use of existing tech, in our local settings

- we are now integrating hard lessons learnt in our own local practice, sharing experiences, planning for, and envisioning futures

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For me, COVID-19 has turbocharged the global widespread adoption of TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) - in majority of settings at 'emergency' engagement levels, using what is available, to reproduce existing teaching, training and learning activities, using TEL to widen access - to content and opportunities; and connect us to each other. I have been pleasantly surprised with the relative ease to build engagement and 'trust' using the live video feature of online platforms (like Zoom), with individuals and groups I have never met in person before. Literally feeling the person or groups I am interacting with are sitting opposite me in the same space (having a face to face live discussion, or cup of coffee!) - in undergraduate, postgraduate, faculty development, and even professional individual and group 'coaching' settings. Building and maintaining 'engagement' however requires much more effort online, compared with the 'effortless' live face to face interactions we have in person, where catching non-verbal cues, and reading 'the whole person' or group is much easier. 

Widespread adoption of telemedicine will be a game changer (building on above).

Building the pedagogy and evidence of good practices, and rediscovering the pedagogy (and theories) of peer learning particularly in postgraduate and lifelong learning / faculty development settings in COP (Communities of Practice) using TEL is an ongoing scholarly exercise.

Widespread digitalisation of healthcare at both local small scale and system wide levels (including informed progressive use of AI), increasing adoption of wearable technology, and consumer technology (AR, VR), as well as incremental increase in use of robotics and automation; to free bandwidth for us to double down on our humanity and being human, the human connection and human touch will be transformative.

 

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Focus Session blog at IAMSE 2021 on this topic below

https://telmeded.blogspot.com/2021/03/technology-in-health-sciences-education.html

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Dr Poh-Sun Goh

吳 宝 山

Short Bio:

Associate Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSOM), National University of Singapore (NUS), Senior Consultant, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, National University Hospital and Associate Member, Centre for Medical Education, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Member, AMEE TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) Committee (since 2011)

Poh-Sun (MBBS(Melb) 1987, FRCR 1993, FAMS 1998, MHPE(Maastricht) 2012 and FAMEE 2017) practices on the clinician educator tract (80/20 time allocation clinical/education) augmenting his education and training time allocation with technology, and regular cumulative early morning focused scholarly efforts, spent developing and evaluating the use of open access online digital repositories in clinical training, and medical education faculty development, under a mastery training and deliberate practice framework. He focuses his efforts on the challenge of transfer to practice, in the widest possible settings, through use of reusable comprehensive digital content, iterative low cost proof of concept implementation combined with collaborations and partnerships to scale, all anchored on a solid foundation of theory and evidence. Am a certified Newfield/YLLSOM Associate Coach, successfully completing The Coach Partnership/Newfield Coach Training Program for NUS YLL SOM (2021).

More here https://linktr.ee/PohSunGoh

Two relevant recent publications below

Goh, PS. 'The vision of transformation in medical education after the COVID-19 pandemic'. Korean J Med Educ. 2021;33 (3): 171-174. Publication Date (Web): 2021 August 27

https://doi.org/10.3946/kjme.2021.197

Goh, PS. 'Medical Educator Roles of the Future'. Medical Science Educator. Online publication 30 September 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-020-01086-w