Emerging Technologies Center

"E-learning is a core offering, inextricably integrated with traditional courses and an indispensable part of the traditional education mission," said Villanova University CIO Steve Fugale. "E-learning is a fundamental component of education with both students and faculty driving demand" (1). "Students say technology has little impact on teaching," says Jeff Young, Chronicle of Higher Education (2). "America needs to move much faster to adopt information technology in our health care system, " Secretary Thompson said as he released the action report ordered by President Bush (3). WELCOME TO the Emerging Techoologies Center, a new initiative by Nursing Education Perspectives to highlight emerging technologies and explore their impact on nursing education. Today's educators are faced with many challenges. One challenge is the impact of emerging technologies on higher education, particularly the teaching-learning process. Higher education institutions are investigating how to maximize the use of technologies to transform their academic practices - from changing the traditional teaching-learning paradigm to using instructional management systems for decision-making. Faculty are being asked to use human simulators, teach online courses, incorporate PDAs into clinical courses, make decisions on computer requirements for students (laptops, PDAs, Blackberries, or iPods), create electronic portfolio systems, and prepare instructional materials ior Roomers, Gen Xers, and Millennial generation students. Faculty struggle to understand and remain updated on concepts such as learning objects, open source software, interoperability, total cost of ownership (TCO), Linux, Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM), XML, and others. A second and relatively new challenge is how to prepare nursing for the widespread deployment of health information technologies within the health care delivery system. The "Decade of Health Information Technology: Delivering ConsumerCentric and Information-Rich Health Care," as it is called by secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson (3), will present many new demands on educators who must prepare nurses to practice in this environment. Strategic initiatives outlined by the national coordinator for health information technology, Dr. David J. Brailer, specify four goals: 1) incorporate electronic health records to inform clinical practice; 2) interconnect clinicians so that they have access to critical health information for decision-making; 3) personalize care by creating personal health records for consumers, enhancing informed consumer choice, and promoting the use of telehealth systems; and 4) improve population health by the collection of timely, accurate, and detailed clinical information (3). …