In the healthcare setting, mobile devices have become a useful tool for clinicians/students to look up information/terminology they are not family with on-demand. The issue is whether clinicians/students will take less time to try to problem solve the question in their own minds before seeking the opinions or answers from the internet.
In terms of who should be allowed to use mobile devices it is not clear cut. In the hospital setting it seems managers are the first to be provided with them. Although, currently I see much more often clinicians bringing their own smart phones where ever they go at work to surf the internet or text friends during weekly patient rounds if they are not discussing their own patient at that particular time. I am wondering what would the response be if managers prohibited the use of mobile phones in team rounds except for doctors and managers. There are many co-workers with young children and their rationale for keeping their phones so close by is for emergency situations with respect to their kids or elderly parents. I feel that is reasonable to allow; however, many of us managed before without mobile phones. With respect to the use of tablets/Ipads they have become more popular tools for rehabilitation. In the our patient and family resource center they have Ipads that can be used by patients and family. The trained medical librarian and volunteers assist visitors with using various health related apps that may augment the therapy they are doing in clinic. For example, more apps on brain games and stress/relaxation techniques are being used so that patients have more choice to find activities that are more interesting to them. I make a point to introduce the patients to the patient and family resource center so that they can search out additional information based on their own level of curiosity. The applications on the mobile devices provide patients with a level of both sensory and cognitive curiosity (Ciampa, 2013).
Only a few years back I recall a patient care manager who was notorious for having her buried in her Blackberry during patient team rounds and only looked up when the mention of “delayed discharge date” was mentioned. She did eventually get let go from the organization but the reason is not known to anyone. This example goes to show that if a patient care manager is suppose to be seen as a leader to direct reports they must lead by example. Do these devices make people less present and focused mainly getting through all their emails?
Teachers and students should be allowed to use mobile devices but the issues is how to you monitor what students are actually doing when they are on their devices. In the education or healthcare setting it must be relevant to their current work. Another obstacle is choosing the manner in which the mobile device will be used such that the student/patient that has the oldest device can still participate fully in the learning. If this is not considered careful then a wider digital divide may become evident.
I think the biggest change in the use of mobile devices for learning purposes for the MET program personally has been the flexibility to log into this course wherever you are and quickly find out what the discussion questions are for the week, save it in a notepad offline and have it available to revisit anytime. This flexibility allows greater time on task and one to reflect greater on their responses. Mobile devices have also advanced with so many different mobile applications that are multi-modal with sounds, tactile interaction and high definition videos. These variations allow the device to reach more learners who have different learning styles and physical/cognitive abilities.
Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation.Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82–96. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcal.12036/epdf