Premium
So you want to convert to virtual microanatomy slides? Our experience with wireless laboratories
Author(s) -
Crissman Robert S.,
Baptista Carlos A. C.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a848
Subject(s) - computer science , session (web analytics) , multimedia , intranet , wireless , class (philosophy) , set (abstract data type) , computer graphics (images) , world wide web , the internet , operating system , artificial intelligence , programming language
We describe how we successfully converted our first year medical student microscopic anatomy labs from glass slides and microscopes to virtual slides viewed on computers with wireless connection. We started to investigate this emerging technology in 2003, converted completely over to virtual slides for the 2004–05 academic year and then improved the system to handle 130 plus simultaneous users for the 2005–06 academic year. Various medical schools have successfully converted to virtual slides by creating expensive hardwired laboratories. These are typically limited to small numbers of computers due to cost limitations that can result in repetition of lab sessions to cover all the students in a large class. This is the first report of utilizing wireless connections for simultaneous use by a large group of students. More than 130 glass microscope slides were sent to Bacus Laboratories, Inc. to generate a digitized set of teaching virtual slides. The digitized images were loaded onto the hard drives of two in‐house servers (HP ProLiant G4 with Nortel Networks load balancer) with software for viewing the composite images. Images can be viewed on pc or mac platforms using the Java, Active‐X or Webslide (Bacus proprietary) viewers. The individual virtual slides are accessed through Websites for each session via the MUO intranet. There are three Airspace wireless access points in the large lecture hall (holds 200). In addition, the virtual slides can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Surveys and written comments of students and faculty are enthusiastic and indicate a feeling of increased efficiency in learning. Supported by MUO Educational Resource Fund.