14: LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY ■ 341content to add value and meaning; and (c) provide learners an array of opportunities for
interaction within a multiuser environment (Skiba, 2007).
Virtual worlds have been used in health professions education with great suc-
cess. Initial endeavors suggest that virtual worlds offer extraordinary opportunities for
educators to enhance learning outcomes beyond that which is provided by more con-
ventional online or face- to- face classroom experiences. Virtual worlds offer rich oppor-
tunities for postgraduate professional development activities, continuing education,
professional certification or recertification, and much more. This very flexible environ-
ment can be used to stage experiences that help students and health care professionals
build cultural competency and improve communication and patient interviewing skills.
In addition, virtual worlds have been used to provide very realistic disaster simulation
training (Simon, 2010; Wiecha, Heyden, Sternthal, & Merialdi, 2010; Young, 2010).
Virtual worlds provide opportunities for creativity that are not limited by the
laws of physics, financial constraints, or geography. Realistic environments and simula-
tion experiences can be designed to educate and conduct research by containing costs
while simultaneously expanding your reach to vast numbers of students and potential
research subjects.
Although virtual worlds can be used for education, simulation, and research pur-
poses, caution is advised. Due to the nature of massive multiplayer games, users may
encounter some less- than- ideal occurrences including vandalism and other disruptions
(Boulos, Hetherington, & Wheeler, 2007). One notable example mentioned in a previous
work by Childs (2008) involved an online chat that was disrupted by digitally rendered,
flying objects. These instances can be proactively managed effectively by using avail-
able security settings within the virtual environment. In addition, as a means to com-
bat these malicious attacks, virtual worlds offer policing and enforce strict sanctions to
offenders (Boulos et al., 2007).
■ WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON?
These are very exciting times. It is a time in which technological innovations are emerg-
ing rapidly and diffusion of these technologies is taking place at an unprecedented rate
(Kittleson, 2009). Major shifts will involve: (a) a “smarter web” through parallel process-
ing capabilities; (b) more personalization; (c) expanded portability of personalized web
content via ubiquitous Internet access and cloud computing; (d) increasing data collec-
tion and analysis capabilities to work with “big data”; (e) interoperability; (f) cybersecu-
rity; and (g) virtual and augmented reality.
A major innovation in the future will be a “smarter Internet.” In the very near
future, the parallel processing technology will make it possible for the Internet to “rec-
ognize” the relevance of information as it appears in real time. The convergence of “all
of this data and these technologies will necessitate sophisticated algorithmic models to
aid interpretation and decision making” (Newton, 2009, p. 1). The design of these mod-
els will require the input of health care professionals such as the doctoral APN.
A major benefit of expanded processing capabilities will likely be with more intel-
ligent search tools provided by Web 3.0, which will be “smarter,” functioning similar to
a personal assistant who “knows” your likes and dislikes and “understands” the con-
text of the information being sought. As a result, searches for information will deliver
personalized and highly relevant information directly to your PLE, no matter where
you are. Currently, the focus is upon social networking and connections to people. The
shift in the future will be increased connections to information that will have limitless
application for practice.