“It’s like Christmas,” said one student as she and her fellow first-year classmates opened the boxes containing their new iPads®.
The gifts were the result of a five-year, $2.3 million Health Resources and Services Administration grant awarded to Jim Boulger, Ph.D., head of the Medical School, Duluth campus Department of Behavioral Sciences, and Ruth Westra, D.O., chair of the Duluth campus Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. The grant calls for integrating electronic learning into the curriculum as more faculty members develop online learning tools.
Three iPad-compatible programs created by UMD faculty are being used this semester: Histology Time, designed by Steve Downing, Ph.D., and NeuroTime®, a neuroanatomy program developed by Donna Forbes, Ph.D., and Arlen Severson, Ph.D., and Radiographic and Sectional Anatomy, an interactive learning program also created by Severson.
First-year student Anna Lindsey started using her iPad® immediately, converting the PowerPoint presentations from her anatomy class into flash cards. She also downloaded Grey’s Anatomy and other textbooks, noting that a 1.5-pound iPad® is a lot easier to carry.
“iPads® will make our educational materials more portable, and that will help move students out of the classroom and into rural clinics for longer periods of time,” says Boulger, who coordinates medical preceptorships for the Duluth campus. “And we’re making sure that our students are being exposed to cutting-edge teaching technologies.”
By Michelle Juntunen, director of medical advancement for the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus
