Making decisions in Perinatal Medicine. Educational trends in the University of Buenos Aires - 10th WCPM

In 1992, the violent events in Los Angeles showed that the American dream was finished for the unqualified workers. Medicine had also changed and only physicians trained in use of IT resources could update their knowledge effectively.

Late twentieth and early twenty-first century were characterized by the emergence of the "society of information and communication", constant changes, complexity and “convergence culture” and ubiquitous connectivity with unlimited access to a wealth of information and resources.

Henry Jenkins, Program Director of Comparative Studies on the Media at the MIT, and his book Convergence Culture.

“Convergence" does not refer to "displacement". New media do not replace earlier but intertwine, complement and add to a variety of options, combinations and relationships.

The present era is characterized by the crossing of the old media with new; creating a framework in which the content flows across multiple platforms.

Blended learning (combined learning) is a term created to refer to courses that combine classroom learning and technology online (e-learning) enhancing the advantages of both. Combination of multiple approaches to learning: synchronous / asynchronous, online / classroom, formal / informal.

In the "blended learning" is perfectly possible to distinguish component parts.
The hybrid learning proposals are the "result of crossing distinct source elements. The result is fully integrated, inseparable.

At the School of Medicine - University of Buenos Aires, we developed a new program (2010) for the Rotating Internship, a network of collaborators (professors, assistants, etc.) including 50 academic units, assessment of student´s practice in each module, interactivity and proactivity among all coordinators, teachers and students. The proactive development of “equal opportunities” for 50 academic units includes:
- Practical training in hospital
- Resources on the Web or distributed via e-mail
- Blended learning; and we are trying to reach Hybrid learning.

This blog has links to various resources of our area of research in teaching (Cartelera CISAP).

This blog is used by rotating internship students and professors.

Other activities are the Quality Management Program, the Virtual Campus of the University of Buenos Aires, USINA tool for making decisions in Perinatal Medicine. We developed a Blended learning system and our evolution is towards a Hybrid learning system.

Our Virtual Campus (CITEP – Rectorado UBA).

The Rotating Internship in the virtual campus

The activities the campus allows us to develop:

USINA is a tool that shows a medical problem that requires making decisions in a specific scenario. Explain “why the correct decision is correct” and “why the wrong decision is wrong”. This strengthens the learning and training in making decisions, based on contents that students have learned.

We also develop teaching and practice with Human models. We do not know what will the impact on our students, so we are working on research in teaching at CISAP:

To those who have interest in this subject we recommend reading the blogs of Steve Wheeler and Graham Attwell.


Finally, we invite university professors to collaborate with our teaching network by contacting us through our e-mail cisapdocencia@gmail.com or through our blog http://cisapdocencia.blogspot.com.


“Convergence" does not refer to "displacement"

- We are combining the old media with the new resources

- "Hybrid learning" is possible in our School of Medicine

- Interactivity, proactivity and collaboration are essentials