| Last month we produced our first multimedia issue
and we have received an overwhelmingly positive response to this
enhancement to your e-journal. We would like to thank you all for
your encouraging responses. But we have listened to the needs of
those too who do not have a Broadband connection and we have decided
to keep a healthy balance between simple text and multimedia. From
now onwards, we will try to include a few PowerPoint and audio presentations
in each issue. The major part of the journal will continue to remain
in simple text but where ever possible we will use images, sound
and video to improve your learning experience. Also, we will provide
a simple text version of multimedia presentations for those who
like to read the text!
Multimedia plays an important role in education. The use of graphics,
sounds and videos together with interactivity can enhance the user
experience many folds. I remember a recent study conducted in Medical
College of Wisconsin about the use of multimedia education tools
for medical students. The results were very surprising and I would
like to share with you its findings:
Methods:
Sixteen (16) third-year medical (M3) students were exposed to
three educational interventions: a one-hour cardiac auscultation
lecture that featured computer-generated heart sounds, a PDA-based
heart sounds/murmur form and a web-based cardiac auscultation
program. Thirteen (13) internal medicine (IM) residents who served
as a comparison group attended a cardiac auscultation lecture
identical in content and format to the student lecture. At the
end of the study period, we evaluated the ability of both groups
to accurately identify heart sounds and cardiac murmurs via a
twelve-item performance-based examination utilizing computer-generated
heart sounds.
Results: Following our
teaching interventions, M3 students correctly identified 80% of
the computer-simulated heart sounds/murmurs while the comparison
group of IM residents accurately detected 60% of the same cardiac
findings (p <. 005).
Conclusions: The combination
of traditional lecture and multi-media, technology-based, self-directed
learning tools appears to be an effective and efficient strategy
for teaching and reinforcing cardiac auscultation skills to third
year medical students.
There have been many other studies which have documented the role
of multimedia in education and nearly all have found that the use
of multimedia makes learning easier and more fun. We hope you will
enjoy the multimedia additions to your favorite e-journal, Homeopathy
4 Everyone. We also look forward to more such contribution
from your end.
Now something about this issue. We have dubbed the February issue
of Homeopathy 4 Everyone 'Star- Studded', and when you
go down the list of articles, you will surely see why!. In this
issue you will find articles from the likes of George Vithoulkas,
Dana Ullman, Jawahar Shah, Rajan Sankaran, Mellisa Burch, David
Little and many others. There is an interesting and heady mix of
articles and cases with many of them focusing on Vital Sensation,
Kingdom Classification and Miasms. We would like to thank all the
contributors for their generous support and encouragement.
I hope you will enjoy reading the articles in this issue as much
as we have enjoyed putting them together. Do send me your feedback
at editor@hpathy.com about
various articles in this issue.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours Sincerely,

-- Chief Editor --
Homeopathy 4 Everyone |