Social impacts of a video blogging system for clinical instruction

In the past decade, digital technology has become widely integrated into many professional training settings, yet at present we lack a detailed understanding of how new technology alters networks of social and technology-mediated interactions present in such environments. I have been engaged in a multi-year ethnography-for-design study in a dental hygiene training program in National City, CA. During the project, I helped design a new clinical training laboratory, equipped with embedded digital media technology, such as flat-panel monitors, computer workstations and overhead cameras. Here, I detail the ethnographic motivations for the design of the technology integrated into the training program. I also present an analysis of how a collaborative video blogging system (a .vlog.), used in an introductory clinical instruction course, affects the network of social and technology-mediated interactions. In particular, I examine how interactions with videos structured the way students and instructors work with each other in the clinic. Additionally, I report how the faculty.s acceptance of technology was influenced by the presentation of divergent methodology in the vlog content.