Hi everybody! I am Shawn, a digital student at George Washington University in Virginia, USA. I travel through the States on the GWU Mobile Leaning Center to show high-school students the world of healthcare professions and explore with them, what they could study at GWU. If you want to know more about that, read here!
The GWU Mobile Learning Center
As you might have noticed, I’m a football player! Since the GWU Mobile Learning Center mainly focuses on high-school age participants the setting in a football game gives a familiar starting point for the simulation and allows them to better visualize themselves in a situation they know very well. During a football match against a rival high-school I get injured on the field. Nothing too bad, don’t worry! But it hurts a lot, so I need the participants help to get proper medical care as soon as possible!
My avatar has also been carefully designed for its purpose. I had to be as relatable as possible for the teenagers I meet on my travels, whilst also pursuing other goals of the GWU Mobile Leaning Center, like inspiring diverse students. To make the simulation realistic, I’ve been given a huge variety of expressions of pain, discomfort and nervousness. I’m sure the animators of the e-REAL team has a blast!
Now you are probably asking yourself, what is this GWU Mobile Learning Center he keeps talking about?
Well, the GWU Mobile Learning Center is a giant truck equipped with all the newest educational technologies and e-REAL interactive walls that travels the States from high school to high school to teach about healthcare professions and further education offered by GWU. It’s the first Mobile Learning Center of its kind! Adapting interactive technologies to a compacted and movement friendly setting has been a fun challenge for the e-REAL team. Nobody had ever thought about the logistics of putting interactive walls on a truck until GWU asked e-REAL to do just that. And what a great success it was! Interactive walls are very adaptable and can be customized for specific situations, from very big to very small spaces.
Exploring the healthcare field
Now, as I have said, the Mobile Learning Center is an educational simulation. Following my journey from the field through all the exams at the hospital allows the students to see as many different healthcare professions as possible. From my trainer, the first person that runs to me, to the ambulance that takes me to the hospital, all the nurses, doctors and surgeons, as well as x-rays technicians and physiotherapists, I give a great insight into the medical world!
But e-REAL hasn’t adapted interactive wall to fit on a truck just to give an insight into healthcare professions. There is so much more to it! The Mobile Learning Center provides the students with an innovative experience and allows them to try new technologies. The best educational technologies from interactive walls to virtual reality have been installed to the truck to allow the participants to take part in fun and educational activities.
They get a chance for example, to play minigames where they must sort the medical instruments of my surgical operation or put together a puzzle of my exam results. Edutainment has been proven to be particularly effective with younger students and the ludic part of the Mobile Learning Center was specifically designed by educational experts with high-school age participants in minds to allow them to learn whilst also having fun. Here’s a video on some of the professions and educational activities that can be found on the GWU Mobile Learning Truck experience!
Reaching and representing diversity
The project of the Mobile Learning Center was developed to reach underprivileged highschoolers with innovative technologies and inspire them to pursue higher education in the healthcare sector. To make the simulation more relatable for the students and show a representative example of how a diversified healthcare force looks like, e-REAL has paid a lot of attention to details not only in my design, but in the creation of all the digital humans that populate this simulation. From choosing a large variety of American accents for the voiceovers of the avatars to realistically reproducing the physical characteristics of different ethnicities, the healthcare professionists of the Mobile Learning Center are an excellent example of how digital humans can be used for diversity and inclusion not only in the workplace, but also in education.
And the realism doesn’t stop there, because for educational purposes every aspect of the simulation including medical instruments, settings and procedures have been kept true to form thanks to the collaboration of the experts at GWU. Some of the professors also make a special appearance as digital humans inside the simulation along with the very beloved GWU mascot – can you spot him in the picture? – but that’s a story for another time!
I have to go to practice now, if you have any more questions, I’m sure some of the other digital humans of the Mobile Learning Center would love to give you their opinion too. For now, the DigiBlog will wait for you next week with a new character. See you!
