February 28, 2020

By Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science staff

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Technology is playing an important – and growing – role in the education of health care professionals.

Whether you are a student or an educator, the 8th Annual Education and Technology Forum: Reimagining Education and Technology, the Learner Genome Project was for you.

The enterprise-wide event was held on Feb. 5, 2020, on the Arizona, Florida, and Rochester campuses. It was also streamed live with options for synchronous virtual engagement.

What is this event about each year?

Richard Zimmerman, M.D., dean for education at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Arizona, summed it up in opening remarks as site host.

Educators “feel anxiety and trepidation because the way we were taught as ‘seasoned educators’ and the way we think we want to teach and should teach may not be the way our learners want to learn,” he said.

“We have lots to learn and need to adapt. You have to meet the needs of the learners, otherwise you won’t get the most out of teaching them and they won’t get the most out of your teaching.”

Some of the expected outcomes of the forum are to “expand our ideas about education and learning, harness education technologies for what they are, and it’s one more way to make learners collect, curate, and connect with the information we are delivering.”

Mayo learners across the continuum of health professions education were invited before the event to share their stories about education technology they use. Many were in the form of 20-seconds-or-less videos.

Specific topics for this year’s event included:

• The Evolution of Learning Across the Continuum. Geoff Talmon, Vice Chair, Medical Education at UNMC and author of Mind the Gap: Generational Differences in Medical Education, led a discussion which aimed to (1) increase awareness of the generational evolution of health professions learners, (2) provide an understanding of how new generations collect, consume, curate, and connect with educational materials, and (3) consider the growing role of education technologies among learners and how educators can best harness these tools.
• Reimagining Education and Technology — A Learner Panel Discussion. A panel of Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science learners from five schools and three sites shared the technology they harness for learning.
• Integrate the Science of Learning with Technologies for Learning. Kelley Sandvik (Education Technology), Victoria Staifer (Learning Solutions Center), Thom Belda (Simulation Center), and Dr. Mark Morrey (Simulation Center) shared the why, what, and how of technology integration for learning.