Impact of SmartphonesTablets on the Information Seeking Behaviour Of Medical Students And Staff of Niger Delta University Bayelsa State - Nigeria
2015; University of Idaho Library; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1522-0222
Autores Tópico(s)ICT in Developing Communities
ResumoINTRODUCTIONSmartphones and tablets generally belong to a group of mobile phones that process data similar to that of personal computers with some level of personal digital assistant (PDA) integrated into them by combining both mobile phone and handheld computers into a single device. Smartphone is a mobile phone running a complete operating system in a manner similar to a traditional computer, which offer advanced computing abilities and connectivity options (Alfawareh and Jusoh, 2014). They provides high quality performance and quick access to data and information management, mobile audio and audio-visual calls, mobile teleconferencing, sending and receiving emails and quick and easy internet access. They often appears in various sizes sleekly designed for work, learning and play by different IT companies. Some examples of Smartphones/tablets include; Sony Ericsson, Palm Treo, Blackberry, Nokia T-Mobile Sidekick, Torq, Motorola Q, E-Ten, HP iPaq, Apple ipads, ipod, iphone, Samsung Galaxy Tabs, I-mate, etc.Smartphones/Tablets in Medical EducationThe introduction of Smartphones/Tablets during the beginning of the 20th century has made a tremendous impact on medical students and staffs by changing the way they seek and retrieve information to meet their medical teaching, learning and research objectives. Since its introduction, it has been incorporated into many college and university classrooms across the nation using different educational models (Raths, 2012; Marmarelli & Ringle, 2011). The high preference amongst this unique group of users is mainly due to their portability, high functionality, higher performance capacity and ability to revitalize the broad spectrum of the entire medical teaching, learning and research process via easy and faster internet access. Smartphones allow medical students and staff to access the internet for email, instant messaging, web browsing, work documents, install programs, upload and download medical and health apps or files and lots more that are relevant to their academic work.Today's mobile devices are multifunctional devices capable of hosting a broad range of medical apps (applications) for both students and staff in the medical and health sciences. Mobile technology is one of the latest strings of technological innovations that can be integrated into medical education (Mohapatra, Mohapatra, Chittoria, Friji and Kumar, 2015). We all agree that Smartphone use is increasingly integrated in the daily practice of medicine. Smartphone applications are used in the form of efficient medical communication, research, diagnostic and reference tools, and even in patient monitoring and examination (Yousuf, 2015). Medical apps were perceived by medical students to helped improve their clinical decision making, saved time, allowed faster access to national clinical practice guidelines, allowed faster access to common laboratory reference values, helped in making differential diagnoses, enabled useful medical related calculations, allowed faster access to reliable sources of medical knowledge, allowed faster access to reliable sources of clinical skills, allowed accurate medicine dosages calculation, allowed easier medicine dosages calculation and allowed faster access to evidence-based medical practice (Koh et al, 2014).With the aid of these devices, students learn faster outside the classroom by having quick access to the internet and easy retrieval of required medical and health learning resources while lecturers also keep abreast of recent trend and development as it affects their medical teaching and research needs. Smartphones/tablets are redefining the way almost everything is done in the medical academic environment and are a ready tool for faster access to all medical knowledge geared towards achieving the medical teaching, learning and research objectives of the schools. Although PDAs have been around for over a decade, the introduction of the iPhone, iPad, and other smartphones and tablets has changed the type of information that can be easily accessed on mobile devices (Boruff and Storie, 2014). …
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