Serious Play in the Virtual World: Can We Use Games to Train Young Doctors?

摘要

Doctors are by tradition not the most forward-thinking group, nor can they generally be classified as early adopters of new technology. On average, it takes more than 10years before an evidenced-based intervention makes it into mainstream clinical practice. Ironically, in medical education, we are now faced with a new generation of students who can be rightfully called digital natives , whereas we, their tutors and instructors, are at best digital immigrants .The term digital native was first coined by the educator Marc Prensky~(1); it refers to a person who was born during or after the general introduction of digital technology. Through interacting with digital technology from an early age, a digital native has a greater understanding of its concepts. In contrast, the digital immigrant was born long before the meteoric rise of affordable personal computing and instant everywhere connectivity via wireless Internet. Although we may have mastered basic computer skills and use e-mail and Microsoft Word every day, computer games, social networks, and online role playing in virtual worlds (such as Second Life or World of Warcraft) remain alien to most of us. It requires considerable cognitive effort for a digital immigrant to adapt to these new modes of learning, communication, and play. There is now some evidence that the brains of the new generation who grew up with computers, games, social networks, and instant messaging are wired fundamentally differently from their predecessors.~(2).