Abstract Research in medical education has traditionally drawn on scientific evidence using quantitative methodologies. However, qualitative methods now bring new insights into the humanistic elements of healthcare. In the health sciences, traditional methods of data collection can now be transformed by the affordances of new technologies. The iPad enables alternative types of engagement with research participants. For instance, movable images can provide avenues for data providing deeper insights into individual experiences. The Keynote application (app) offers such an opportunity. In a recent Masters research project in Higher Education Studies, the iPad was used as a valuable tool to draw on students' critical reflection in terms of their obstetrics practical curricular task. Using a simple image on the Keynote app of the iPad, this project involved undergraduate medical students, who shifted the images to indicate their assessment of their personal growth. By talking to their actions as they adjusted the size and position of symbolic circles, the iPad acted as a vehicle to facilitate deeper reflection revealing richer insights. The novelty of using the tablet plus the added sensory input contributed to a deeper student engagement. As products of individual student insights, these images were interpreted to indicate shifts in students' knowledge, empathy and reflection from their fourth year Obstetrics experience to their insights two years later in their final year. The findings from this project demonstrate how the iPad fosters personal meaning, thereby enhancing the quality and efficacy of our educational practices.

1. Using the Keynote App
as a research tool
A case study in medical education
Veronica Mitchell
Education Development Unit
Health Sciences Faculty
University of Cape Town, South Africa
@ iPad Conference in Higher Education
Cyprus, March 2014

2. Research project
Supervisor: Prof Suellen Shay
The Curriculum in Medical Education
Masters
Higher Education
Studies

3. Context

4. My stance
Professionalism
&
Health and Human Rights

5. The Curriculum
Research question
How do students
negotiate the gap
between the fixed, intended curriculum
and
the fluid, enacted curriculum
in their early Obstetrics delivery experience
?

6. Pam Hoffman, http://www.flickr.com/photos/pampan/7669484820/in/set-72157630806128380/
What about integration?

7. Obstetrics practical rotation
15 deliveries = competence
Year 4
students

8. Kaleidoscope of student experiences
Kaleido App on iPhone
Obstetrics in Year 4

9. Obstetrics in Year 4
South Africa’s
weak public health system
Curriculum challenges
?
A changing educational landscape

10. Supercomplexity
Uncertainty
Prof Ronald Barnett @UCT
June 2012

11. Barnett (2000:260) explains curricula as:
being lived by rather than being determined …
[with an] elusive quality about them.
Their actual dimensions and elements are tacit.
They take on certain patterns and relationships
but those patterns and relationships
will be hidden from all concerned, except as they are
experienced by the students

12. Theoretical frame
Barnett & Coates (2005)
triad for professional curricula

13. K
AB
K
B A
Composition
Size / Weighting
Colour
Sequence

14. Triple Schema

15. 5 students in Year 4 in 2010
Methodology
1. reflective commentaries
2. one-to-one interviews
3. iPad’s Keynote images

16. Affordances: Keynote App
Novelty / appealing
Alternative modality
Visual dimension
Tactile component
Intergenerational bridge
3rd party in the conversational space
Sense of play
shifting images / familiar shapes / colour
Circles created vs messiness of drawings
Keynote App

17. Methodology with the iPad
Explanation to students
Explored the Keynote tool
Gave them a template
Alongside semi-structured questions
Explained their experiences by moving the circles
Emailed to researcher
Saved as images
Printed for dissertation

18. Limitations: Keynote App
Different
New / Unfamiliar
Students more used to text
Abstract nature of concepts
circles representing curricular domains
Template used
Keynote App
By George Tuli (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

19. What about integration?
K
AB
Using visual communication
Kress & van Leeuwen (2006)
Deeper hidden truth
Microscopic view through circles
Jewitt & Oyama (2001)
Analysing the visual component
Students
Year 4 In 2010
Year 6 in 2012
Being Acting
Knowing

20. Research participants
Joan
Thabo
Sipho

21. Pseudonyms used
Participants
Joan
Sipho
Thabo
Mature, previous degrees,
tactical, aware of social justice
Quiet, reflective,
developing confidence
Proud leader,
passionate about Obstetrics

22. K
A
B
In 2010
Student Joan
B
A
K
Curriculum
In 2011

23. K
AB
Curriculum
Student Sipho
K
B A
In 2010 In 2012

24. K
AB
Curriculum
Student Thabo
K
B
A
In 2010 In 2012

25. Individual shifts, integration / transformation
Joan
Sipho
Thabo
Developed relationships,
Understood & responded
to broader issues
Regrets, sense of numbness
with compliance
Values his power, advice to me and
others, critical of peers in not
adapting
Summary

26. Way forward
PhD
Value of using images
Emerging iPad affordances

27. Reflecting on the tool Professionalism
&
Health and Human Rights
Enriching experience
- digging deeper into students’ authentic experiences
- motivating critical reflection
Missing: Students comments on the technology
- enabling / constraining
iPad was a highlight for me

28. Conclusion
Deeper insights with alternative approaches
Keynote App was a valuable contribution to research
Exciting new opportunities arising
Illustration by Stacey Stent , thanks to Dick Ng’ambi

29. Thank You

30. Licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 South Africa License.
References
Barnett, R. 2009. Knowing and becoming in the higher education curriculum. Studies in higher education. 34.4:429-440.
Barnett. R. & Coate, K. 2005. Engaging the higher curriculum in higher education. SRHE & Open University Press.
London
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen,T. 2006. Reading Images: The grammar of visual design. 2nd Ed. Routledge: London.
Jewitt, C & Oyama, R. 2001. Visual meaning: A social semiotic approach. In van Leeuwen T & Jewitt C. A handbook of
visual analysis . London. SAGE. Publications.