ICT in hospital schools

For us, ICT in hospital schools is an important topic research. Moreover, it is a special topic because is necessary to have a high grade of implication affective-personal. In this post we are going to present the short history (but strong) of the GITE with this topic. Furthermore we will show some ideas to follow with this research line.

In 2005 started the relationship with the teachers of hospital schools team of the Region of Murcia under the practicum of the lecturer Linda Castañeda. This first contact served, among other things, as a seed for a few years after the Team of educative attention hospital and home (EAEHD) and the GITE to design an research to improve a complex educative reality. We are talking about ALTER Project.

This project has been funded by the Fundación Séneca and developed from 2010 to 2013. Was led by Mª Paz Prendes and participated researchers GITE, the EAEHD teachers and working groups from other universities (Santiago of Compostela and The Balearic Islands). The main purpose of this initiative for the use of ICT in the context of the hospital schools, was the design, implementation and evaluation of use a management tool of activities with Web 2.0 tools. However, this project has helped many other things, such as creating a consolidated working -ALTER team- or creating new lines of work.

In addition to the knowledge generated by the project itself, there have been other studies and publicationes in parallel to it, among which include conference papers, master thesis, journal papers, a book and a doctoral thesis. All documents available at: https://www.um.es/aulashospitalarias/resultados.php . Among many other contributions, these studies have provided an opportunity to discern and create new paths to research of this reality to improve it.

Thus we show below a summary the main lines of research considering the results and conclusiones obtained in the ALTER Project and some of studies derivatives -studies referred to above-, moreover to name a few actions and projects already completed or in progress as examples to cover these needs. We gather together this information in six key points -the order does not mean neither more nor less important-:

1. Generalize the results of studies conducted in hospital schools seems like a daunting task, differences between contexts and participant shows are some of the problems which give rise to the range of application of the results is limited. However what does apply research procedures are followed to solve similar problems. We have agreed with other studies being undertaken by stating that one of the most interesting develop precisely lines of work are research procedures in these contexts (Gonzalez et al., 2012).

2. Would be interesting to carry out works that attempt to analyze how the child learns in the hospital, how they can use ICTs to empower the student or analyze the different communication processes that can facilitate ICT for knowledge construction collaboratively. Regarding remain few studies about the educational use of ICT, ie, more research is needed on specific methodologies, designed, implemented and evaluated in real educational contexts and research hospital less specific technologies.

3. If there is a tool that has been used in hospital schools in different studies (some recent examples, Duro 2013 and Ellis et al., 2013) because of the obvious possibilities in these contexts, is videoconferencing. However, there are many attempts and almost all end with same conclusions need further investigation on the methodological aspects of the educational use of videoconferencing.

4. The training of teaching hospital is one of the basic pillars from about years been calling for and even designed (and Lieutenant Lizasoain, 2002). These “recent” designs should add aspects to the integration of ICT. Thus research and experiences in which training plans (highlight collected González, Ottaviano and Violant, 2013 and Violant et al., 2012) in the use of ICT for hospitals are designed educational context required.

5. Another line of special interest is the application of mobile technologies to expand the social and educational contexts of students and teachers in the hospital. In this line we are currently working with the “ICT for creating educational and social spaces in hospital schools” project, led by Professor Linda Castañeda and led from GITE closely with the EAEHD.

6. The community professionals that work in these educational contexts is not numerous, however it not is too connected to be as a real learning community. Is necessary to do more projects or other activities to promote this union between the different “islands” of job created. This was precisely one of the main needs that justified the Seminar Teaching Hospital and ICT held in late 2013 at the University of Murcia under the project ALTER. Coming soon on the blog will offer both recorded project presentations, as well as some resources of the speakers with a summary of what happened. It also makes it interesting to build bridges of communication between researchers and teachers to share publications generated.

This is the point at which we are researching, building networks and especially enjoying working with the construction of a line of study whose main aim to improve education in the hospital shools and the contribution to the happiness of students hospitalized as well as their families. Close by thanking, once again 🙂 – teachers from EAEHD for opening the doors and windows of their classrooms, thanks.
We still …

References:

Duro, D. (2013). La videoconferencia en el contexto de las aulas hospitalarias de la CARM. Informe de Trabajo Fin de Máster. Recuperado de http://digitum.um.es/xmlui/handle/10201/34960

Ellis, S.J., Drew, D., Wakefield, C.E., Saikal, S.L., Punch, D., Cohn, R.J. (2013). Results of a Nurse-Led Intervention: connecting pediatric cancer patients from the hospital to the school using videoconferencing technologies. Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 30, 333-341. DOI: 10.1177/1043454213514633.

González, C.S., Navarro, V., Del Castillo, J.M., Quice, C., y Vera, S. (2012). Videojuegos activos y promoción de hábitos saludables para menores en situación de enfermedad. EDUTEC 2012.

González, C.S., Ottaviano, M., Violant, V. (2013). Uso de las TIC para la Atención Educativa Hospitalaria y Domiciliaria, una nueva formación de postgrado en la Universidad de la Laguna-España. II Congreso Latinoamericano y de El Caribe. La Pedagogía Hospitalaria hoy: políticas, ámbitos y formación profesional. 3 y 4 de octubre. Ciudad de México.

Lizasoáin, O., y Lieutenant, C. (2002). La Pedagogía Hospitalaria frente a un niño con pronóstico fatal. Reflexiones en torno a la necesidad de una formación profesional específica. Estudios sobre Educación, 2, 157-164.

Violant, V., Cardone de Bove, P., Monsalve, C. y Márques, L. (2012). Multidimensionalidad de la pedagogía hospitalaria desde la transdisciplinariedad: análisis de necesidades de los itinerarios formativos. IV Forum Internacional innovación y creatividad. Adversidad y escuelas creativas. Barcelona, 27-28 de junio.