Educational Technologies

Education is an important aspect of life. It is the foundation through which most people will build their careers as well as their lives. It is sometimes what defines people as individuals, while also helping them belong to a group, helping them to connect to something. One such field of education is that of the world of science. The world of science is huge and deals with many sectors, including the medical field, which is home to many different areas and people all its own. With the many different programs and people within the medical field, it is important to be able to educate everyone with the same information and in a manner which can help to reach the masses. Some ways to do that are through virtual reality and simulation. 

For this post, I was going to try and find a simulation that I could use and post to educate people on that as a learning tool. I enjoy simulations because I feel that they help create a multi-learning environment, by working in a group you get several points of view of learning other than your own. However, in looking online I could not find a free simulation activity to explore and then came across a website for healthcare activities in second life, which is a virtual reality game (the website is http://medicalfuturist.com/top-10-virtual-medical-sites-in-second-life/). 

I created an avatar on second life and explored through the online gaming world that this site had to offer. In order to do this, I had to create a username and login with some of my personal information to create a person that I could use to represent me in this world. This wasn't too hard to do, however, the avatar options are not too close to life, at least for the free version. The website is easy enough to use if you are not afraid to click on buttons. For the most part, when you click on something a box pops up in the corner and asks if you want to keep or discard the box. Well, you need to keep the box to see the postcards inside which provide the information needed to make it through the virtual world. The one good thing about the website is that it drops you first into a learning world so that you can learn how to move the avatar and how to explore the world. 

Second life offers different regions which people can explore and I chose to explore a region that helped to explore genetics and how genetics work. This area had a multilevel lab which helps to guide students through DNA, genetic setups, and the process of making vaccines.  This area offered quizzes, fun facts, and even pictures of DNA. 

The area also had an aviary and flower gardens to help identify the likelihood of genetics and how it affected the offspring of these things. 

The area also had plenty more to explore.

3 Pros:

• Gets a lot of information to a large group of people at once
• Offers a way to keep information available to look back at it once a student graduates out of the class
• Allows for students to work at their own speed

3 Cons:

• Can be a lot of information at once
• Would be confusing to people who are not great at technology
• Not great for people who are audible learners and also requires the student to take the time to sit down and play in the virtual world when they might think of it as a useless game

I think that pros for this particular education method outweigh the cons, however, I like technology and don't mind to play around with it to see what it can do. This kind of virtual reality would be awesome for any medical school student. It is an easy way to be able to explore the information on your own and be able to take the time needed without holding anybody else up in the group. This particular area is linked up with a classroom where the instructor has held a scavenger hunt for the students to gather information and answer questions. I think this is a fun way to get the students engaged and helps the student learn the program as well. The scavenger hunt also allows for a guide for people to follow to help keep them on track since there is so much information to look at.

As a nursing informatics instructor, the use of virtual reality would be an excellent tool to help allow people to work through the programs that they will use for charting. The use of virtual reality would also be beneficial to allow for people to make mistakes in their practice to see what the outcomes would be, hopefully educating them on how to not make these mistakes in the future. It would also be a good idea for the nursing informatics instructor to set up a scavenger hunt or some similar game to help keep people on track with their learning.

All in all, virtual reality is an excellent way for students to be able to learn information, allowing them to attain the information at their own pace and be able to go back and refresh themselves on the information as needed.