Project Summary

Title: SP Education Outside of Healthcare: a blog about live human simulations

 

Context: A final project for course IDE 611: Technologies for Instructional Settings

 

Author(s): Amber A. Walton

 

IDD&E Component: Planning and Analysis (9) Analyze the characteristics of existing and emerging technologies and their potential use.

 

Reflection/Self-Assessment:

Overview

This course project challenged students to create and maintain an individual blog and reflect on the experience of blogging.  The focus of the blog was required to be an educational technology selected from a provided list, however I petitioned to focus my blog on 'live human simulation' in non-medical settings, my argument being that Simulated Participants are a type of educational technology.  One introductory post and one reflection were two required postings, otherwise the assignment allowed for creativity and flexibility in composing blog posts. 

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Strengths

I began with a brief history of SP Methodology and included a list of terminologies and their definitions; my intention was to introduce non-SP Educators to the field.  From there I highlighted the SP Methodology Lab at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; I consider this lab to be the gold standard as a university-wide resource for any educator interested in infusing SP simulations into their classroom.  Next I highlighted EduSIMS for teacher and school leader development, conducted by Dr. Benjamin Dotger of Syracuse University's School of Education.  I was excited to include a blog post featuring a Skype video interview with Denise LaMarra of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, who sees non-medical SP encounters as a vital training resource for many industries.  I also posted about Ms. LaMarra's co-chair of ASPE's special interest group on "Non-Medical/Expanded Use of SPs," Kerry Knickle, who is based out of Toronto.  Finally, I compiled a list of professional organizations for simulation educators, both within and outside of healthcare professions, and posted about the opportunity for SP simulations to help job applicants in a number of industries with their speaking skills .

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I have not yet seen a website or blog which focused on non-healthcare SP simulations and I feel proud to be an innovator in this context.  I also feel that the breadth of the posts I included helped to paint a broad-yet-detailed picture of the state of this educational technology.

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Opportunities

The Skype interview with Denise LaMarra suffered from some major technical problems.  If I was to include a video chat like this again, I might select a different platform that was more stable, yet just as easy to use.  It also would have been nice if I could have provided closed captions or a written transcript of the video interview.

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I was also disappointed that only a few of my classmates commented on any of my blog posts and/or interacted with the content.  Not every person is interested in SP Methodology and my classmates were perhaps too busy with their own assignments to read my lengthy blog posts and respond.  I acknowledge that lengthy posts might dissuade readers from engaging with my blog, but I do hope that the breadth of and detail in my posts can provide valuable information to educators who are interested in this novel application of a decades-old educational technology.