A moment of your TiME...

I guess it's best to start by being honest. I'm not a natural "techy". I grew up with rotary phones, sent my first email in high school, and didn't get a cell phone until after college <gasp!>. So why is someone like me so fascinated by technology? Because I've caught a glimpse of what it can do for medical education.

Learner Engagement. Remember trying to stay awake while a professor prattled on in front of text-filled blue slides? Or reading a textbook passage over and over because your mind kept wandering off to more interesting places? It doesn't have to be that way. Around the time I was in medical school, the Med Ed world started to change. Blogs popped up. And podcasts. And YouTube videos. And so much more! It was like The Wizard of Oz - we'd been living in black and white, and, suddenly, a technicolor world opened up with dazzling new ways to learn.

FOAM. Free Open Access Meducation. If you haven't heard of this yet, head over to your favorite Social Media site at type in "#FOAMed". You'll find the latest tutorials, pearls, quizzes, graphics, and research, laid out on a virtual platter for your consumption. New content is being created, added, and refined every minute. Indeed, the biggest challenge may be sifting through to find the best material. Luckily, many educators have taken on the role of curator to do just that. It's exciting and fresh - and it's free!

Global collaboration. Medical education now extends far beyond your classroom, hospital, or institution. The conversation is global. Through social media, students and educators from all over the world connect to share content and ideas. We can discuss our shared passion with people we otherwise may never have known. 

And this is really just the tip of the iceberg. If you're a doctor, nurse, PA, dentist, paramedic, pharmacist, professor, student, or anyone else interested in progressive medical education, I hope you'll join me on this adventure to explore the world of technology in med ed. It's about TiME.

​By Sarah Medeiros