So, this athlete walks into a virtual clinic...It might sound like the beginning of a joke, but it's really the beginning of a new way of teaching anatomy.
Susan Verscheure, instructor of human physiology, recently paired up with animation experts from the university's Interactive Media Group to create a virtual clinic full of virtual patients with virtual injuries.
At their computers, real live anatomy students can listen to a patient's story, walk through a series of diagnostic tests and learn to distinguish between muscle, nerve and ligament damage -- without twisting the limb of a real patient. Verscheure's virtual clinic allows these medical professionals- in-training to interact with the virtual patient, flexing and lengthening their muscles, while quizzes and lectures from the perky animated instructor prepare them to one day join their own three-dimensional clinics.
The virtual clinic provides one exciting example of technology's new prominence in the classroom, but the possibilities are infinite. According to Kirstin Hierholzer, director of the UO Library's Interactive Media Group, the center and its staff are available to all UO professors interested in exploring technological solutions to real world educational challenges. If an instructor can dream it, they can make it happen -- in two dimensions.
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