Gaming: Virtual Tools Train Soldiers, Surgeons
Librarians have largely embraced gaming as an important mode of instilling various literacies, but we may need to devote more resources to developing our own understanding of the usefulness of games. Note the extent to which games and virtual environments are being used to enhance skills across a surprising spectrum of professional and service careers.
In the military, games are used for recruitment, to enhance pilot training, and to develop the cultural literacy of officers and ground troops. Read P. W. Singer’s fascinating article on “militainment” and the U. S. Military’s considerable investment in games like America’s Army at Foreign Policy magazine: Meet the Sims and Shoot Them.
Singer brings up the issue of detachment. Does virtual training lead to a lack of engagement, or instill a lesser respect for human life?
Medical professions also take advantage of games and virtual environments. Researchers in Buffalo last week unveiled a new robotic surgery simulator. Designed to train surgeons who will use the Da Vinci Surgical System, a sophisticated robotic platform from Intuitive Surgical designed to enable complex surgery using a minimally invasive approach, the simulator will hopefully lessen the steep learning curve required to be adept at robotic surgery. Five units from this new start-up, Simulated Surgical Systems, are currently being tested, including one at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
And remember Second Life? While the library community seems to have moved on from Info Island to some degree, that virtual world is host to simulations of all kinds. For example, one simulation trains medical students to listen to heart murmurs, while another assists nursing students in reading the symptoms of a virtual patient. A recent paper in the Journal of Medical Internet Research describes the methodology and results of a pilot postgraduate program created and conducted in Second Life. Learning in a Virtual World: Experience With Using Second Life for Medical Education also includes an extensive bibliography on virtual environments.
What can libraries do to prepare their users for these virtual frontiers?
