Reconciliation of Pedagogical Objectives, Technical Opportunities and Stereotypes of Educational Application : Case Perioperative Nursing

Abstract

In the design of educational applications, expertise in several fields is needed: pedagogy, technology and interaction design, among others. Since the aim of an educational application is to promote learning, there should be a clear hierarchy in the perspectives: pedagogical objectives should be the primary perspective, while others play merely an instrumental role. However, it appears that pedagogy is rarely seen as a separate area of expertise. Learning is considered a mundane concept that most people understand. This setting may cause conflicts within a design group. In this paper we present a typical case study, in which pedagogical expertise was overlooked. The resulting application was primitive, in terms of actual learning objectives. Despite this pedagogical failure, the members of the group who were not experts in pedagogy, found the application appropriate for the intended educational use. In a concise user study, the participants were astonishingly satisfied as well. We conclude that the halo around computer technology is still so strong, that it easily overrides obvious flaws in design.