Abstract
Mobile technologies are becoming commonplace in society and in education. In higher education, it is crucial to understand the impact of constant access to information on the development of the knowledge and competence of the learner. This study reports on a series of four surveys completed by UK-based medical students (n=443) who received tablet computers (iPads) from their medical school during their 4th year of study. Students were surveyed prior to receiving the iPads and again regarding their usage and experiences at 2, 6 and 12 months post receipt of tablets. Findings indicate that students differed in their use of iPads but that the majority felt that tablets had impacted on their learning and the majority were using them frequently (at least once a day) during learning. Almost half of the students reported that clinical supervisors had raised the possibility of tablets changing patient care. These results, although only descriptive, raise important questions about the impact of mobile technologies on learning.Keywords: clinical learning; just-in-time technology; mobile technologies; survey; tablet computers; undergraduate medical educationCitation: Research in Learning Technology 2015, 23: 25653 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v23.25653
Highlights
The use of mobile technology is growing
Medical school in the UK typically involves a 5-year course, in which the first 2 years are mainly focused on learning the underpinning sciences and the subsequent 3 years are spent immersed in clinical environments
We found that many medical students used their iPads frequently, that they used them to communicate, and to use previously wasted time and in clinical learning environments
Summary
The use of mobile technology (mtechnology) is growing. In the UK, OFCOM (the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries) reported in 2013 that 51% of adults owned a smart phone, using it to connect to the internet, and 80% of smartphone owners owned a tablet device, such as an iPad. Students have reported that, due to the nature of clinical learning, they feel that their time is sometimes wasted, e.g. waiting for clinics to begin, waiting between patients, travelling to and from placements. Some of their learning takes place in lectures and small group learning, typically in education and research centres of hospitals. There have been reports and concerns, from PBL tutors, that students could use their iPads to participate in the closing of PBL cases without having done the private study, since they would have ready and easy access to information about the case through their iPads, with use of search engines and medical applications
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