LearnMedImage
Technologies for seeing and technologies for knowing: learning and medical imaging
The general background of the project is an interest in the role of new representational technologies in learning and in the development of expertise. Our interests are both theoretical and practical, and they concern how students and professionals appropriate knowing and skills when interacting with dynamic representations of the kind that are increasingly made available through digitized media and sophisticated imaging techniques.
The basic research issue of the project is to what extent new media afford learning practices that have identifiable advantages over those that may otherwise be offered on a regular basis. In the medical context, where this work is situated, such advantages may be of many different kinds and relate to issues such as costs, ethics, and the possibilities of engaging more in-depth with the learning materials. It is also interesting that these new imaging techniques, designed on the basis of advanced computer programming, raise basic issues regarding the nature of knowledge and representations. Even though such images may be seen as exact copies of substrates of the human body, they are of course constructions and must be interpreted with some kind of awareness of how the technology functions.
The purpose of the project is to study learning, instruction and the development of expertise in relation to two different situations; learning through imaging technologies a) in the context of medical training at university, and b) in the context of qualified physicians undergoing specialist training. The particular technology that is studied is called WebMicroscope. This technology, which has been developed in Finland, makes it possible to study and manipulate images of samples of human tissues in order to derive diagnostically relevant information. It has several advantages. For instance, it reduces the need of real human tissue in instruction, and it is possible for students to interact with samples and document their own activities.
The project builds on an international and multidisciplinary co-operation between researchers at the universities of Turku, Helsinki, Gothenburg, Regensburg. In addition we will co-operate with scholars at The Open University in The Netherlands and Florida State University. The scholars co-operating represent the disciplines of learning research, cognitive psychology, medical research (pathology), medical informatics, medical education and the study of simulations in medicine and health care. Our multidisciplinary ambitions include theoretical and methodological interests of analysing how methods such as advanced eye-tracking of reading of images can be combined with an in-depth account of how students acquire concepts and learn to structure complex information in professionally relevant manners.
Seminars and events
- 02.02.2012 09:42 Paradigms of eye movements in reading and beyond
- 12.09.2011 16:22 New Tools and Practices for Seeing and Learning in Medicine
- 21.09.2009 12:08 Technology and New Cultures of Learning seminar series in the Educarium:programme for autumn 2009
- 21.09.2009 12:04 Cultures of learning from a global corporate perspective
The second seminar of the year 2009 is held on Tuesday, February 3, at 14.15-15.45 at Educarium, room 441.
- 21.09.2009 11:37 Developing professional vision
Article seminar on January 19, 2009 provides presentations of classical works on professional vision, perception and knowledge.