Problem-Based Learning via Web 2.0 Technologies

During the last few decades, medical education is shifting is increasingly embracing active learning approaches. This shift from teaching to learning is also strongly related to an involvement of information and communication technology, and especially the Internet and the Web. The emergence of Internet 2.0 is indeed being stressed as a promising tool for advanced support of medicine and medical education. Although Web 2.0 emphasizes on participation, in its early days is still used in the majority of cases to hold and provide content (albeit created dynamically and via peer participation and collaboration) and then systematically deliver it to students. In this paper, we propose the use of wikis and blogs not just for creation and promotion of information, but as active tools to support problem based learning in medicine. In this approach, students and instructors use the Web as a virtual place to collaborate and create new knowledge and new educational experiences.