It recognises that pedagogical change-including greater autonomy, diversity, openness, and connectedness-is required for any personal learning environments to bring maximum benefit to education.

The interactive website developed in this study-digiMe-is a personalised virtual learning environment which links to and makes accessible a range of Web 2.0 tools. With their collaborative, open and contributory nature, Web 2.0 technologies are a good fit for interactive, student-centred, constructivist, and negotiated pedagogies. As an alternative to existing learning theories (e.g., behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism), Siemens proposed connectivism as an additional learning theory, to reflect the rapidly growing knowledge and information exchange in the digital age. In responding to this change, this study developed and trialed a Web 2.0 supported website-digiMe-allowing medical students and health professionals to make connections with other members in the learning community.įirst, connectivity is one of the most significant values Web 2.0 technologies have brought to learning.

The emphasis is shifting from the previous paradigm of technology enabled content delivery to integrated and personalised learning that enables all participants to create new content in individual ways to meet educational goals. This paradigm shift can also be observed in the field of medical education though the emergence of Web 2.0 supported interactive websites. This ecosystem of technologies supports sharing and collaboration, and enables global connectivity to specialists and students across disciplines. This connectivity has been acknowledged by the Educause Learning Initiative who stated that “Higher education is entering a new, evolutionary phase defined by connections between everything and everyone” (p. It has become prominent across workplaces and education in general. digiMe demonstrated its potential in raising awareness of web and mobile apps useful for enhancing connectivity, although it needs to be introduced to students in earlier years of their medical education to achieve a higher impact on their learning.Ĭonnectivity is intrinsic to all aspects of our life today, be it political, economic, technological, scientific, religious, cultural, societal, or personal. However, many participants did not use digiMe beyond initial introduction to it.

The participants showed a desire for access to a recommended collection of apps, such as those offered through digiMe. The results revealed more active adoptions and a more positive attitude towards digiMe from Year 4 students compared to Year 5 students. This paper reports the functionalities of this website, results of a post-intervention evaluative survey, and statistics of website usage generated from Google Analytics. Connectivity to other medical learners and health professionals is intrinsic to digiMe. In this study, a social media technology supported website-digiMe-was developed and evaluated at the School of Medicine of one Australian university. Higher education is also transcending the previous paradigm of technology enabled content delivery and e-learning, with a new emphasis on connectivity, enabling participants to exchange knowledge and collaborate to meet educational goals. Connectivity is intrinsic to all aspects of our life today, be it political, economic, technological, scientific, or personal.

Digime the great