Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education

By Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Inocencio D. C. Maramba, Steve Wheeler. BMC Medical Education, 2006

1,222 citations recorded by the source corpus.

BackgroundWe have witnessed a rapid increase in the use of Web-based 'collaborationware' in recent years. These Web 2.0 applications, particularly wikis, blogs and podcasts, have been increasingly adopted by many online health-related professional and educational services. Because of their ease of use and rapidity of deployment, they offer the opportunity for powerful information sharing and ease of collaboration. Wikis are Web sites that can be edited by anyone who has access to them. The word 'blog' is a contraction of 'Web Log' – an online Web journal that can offer a resource rich multimedia environment. Podcasts are repositories of audio and video materials that can be "pushed" to subscribers, even without user intervention. These audio and video files can be downloaded to portable media players that can be taken anywhere, providing the potential for "anytime, anywhere" learning experiences (mobile learning).DiscussionWikis, blogs and podcasts are all relatively easy to use, which partly accounts for their proliferation. The fact that there are many free and Open Source versions of these tools may also be responsible for their explosive growth. Thus it would be relatively easy to implement any or all within a Health Professions' Educational Environment. Paradoxically, some of their disadvantages also relate to their openness and ease of use. With virtually anybody able to alter, edit or otherwise contribute to the collaborative Web pages, it can be problematic to gauge the reliability and accuracy of such resources. While arguably, the very process of collaboration leads to a Darwinian type 'survival of the fittest' content within a Web page, the veracity of these resources can be assured through careful monitoring, moderation, and operation of the collaborationware in a closed and secure digital environment. Empirical research is still needed to build our pedagogic evidence base about the different aspects of these tools in the context of medical/health education.Summary and conclusionIf effectively deployed, wikis, blogs and podcasts could offer a way to enhance students', clinicians' and patients' learning experiences, and deepen levels of learners' engagement and collaboration within digital learning environments. Therefore, research should be conducted to determine the best ways to integrate these tools into existing e-Learning programmes for students, health professionals and patients, taking into account the different, but also overlapping, needs of these three audience classes and the opportunities of virtual collaboration between them. Of particular importance is research into novel integrative applications, to serve as the "glue" to bind the different forms of Web-based collaborationware synergistically in order to provide a coherent wholesome learning experience.

Subfields: Communication, Health, Information Systems

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/312bd6ff00aab586a2781410d2a1288ae371969c

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Citations in the corpus

Smartphones and Health Promotion: A Review of the Evidence (2013, methodology): “Interestingly, these new technological customized tools, relatively inexpensive, give new possibilities for teaching and learning: u-learning (stands for ubiquitous learning) and m-learning (mobile learning) [7].”
Investigating faculty decisions to adopt Web 2.0 technologies: Theory and empirical tests (2008, background): “The increasingly ubiquitous access, ease of use, functionality, and flexibility of emerging Web 2.0 technologies have made them much more appealing as instructional tools ( Boulos, Maramba, & Wheeler, 2006; Chen, Cannon, Gabrio, Leifer, & Bailey, 2005).”
Wiki as a Teaching Tool (2007, background): “Web 2.0 tools are characterized by ease of use and rapidity of deployment, making possible powerful information sharing and straightforward collaboration ( Boulos et al., 2006 ).”
Impact of podcasting on student motivation in the online learning environment (2010, background): “Boulos, Maramba, and Wheeler (2006) suggest that podcasts can be used to offer instructional material in an online learning environment for students to learn at their own pace and time.”
Reviewing and exploring innovative ubiquitous learning tools in higher education (2019, background): “…particular Wikipedia, with regards to it being a collaborative learning platform—where learners can actively engage in knowledge construction, while improving their digital literacy, critical thinking and academic literacy (Zheng et al. 2015; Calhoun 2014; Konieczny 2014; Boulos et al. 2006).”
The effectiveness of m-learning in the form of podcast revision lectures in higher education (2008, background): “Boulos, Maramba, and Wheeler (2006) discuss ways in which podcasts can be combined with wikis and blogs to enhance the learning experiences of students, clinicians and patients in the health industry.”
Review of Studies on Technology-Enhanced Language Learning and Teaching (2020, background): “These tools can provide multiple functions such as sharing materials, communication, editing and collaborating on content [85,86].”
Systems medicine: the future of medical genomics and healthcare (2009, background): “These intrinsically interdisciplinary endeavors will require dedicated centers and networks in which scientists of all disciplines can work together [237-239], with careful attention to clinical practice and education [240,241].”
The good, the bad and the wiki: Evaluating student-generated content for collaborative learning (2008, background): “Arguably, such folksonomies provide a more fluid and accurate representation of the current needs and aspirations of the user group (Owen et al, 2006) which can change as group interests develop (Boulos et al, 2006).”
The emerging Web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education. (2007, background): “…thus substantial,30 although ‘collaborative intelligence’ can significantly compensate for this and ensure acceptable quality.31 Quality issues are discussed in greater detail in Boulos et al. 2006.18 Podcasting and streaming video services Podcasts are time and location independent digital files.”
Defining Internet-Supported Therapeutic Interventions (2009, background): “There are also suggestions that they also aid in the construction of meaning [97].”