USF College of Education's Athletic Training Program Goes High-Tech

TAMPA (September 16, 2005) - The senior athletic training students in the School of Physical Education, Wellness, and Sports Studies are currently learning to use a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), piloting an encounter project and also exploring other mobile software for personal and professional growth. 

PDA Encounter and Curricular Content Manager Solution:  This is a mobile and wireless software and PDA solution, which helps track and document students’ encounters in field/clinical sites.  It will provide a curriculum content management interface for faculty, students, and the administration.  This solution will help faculty redirect in a just-in-time approach to students’ fieldwork, and clinical educational experiences in line with accreditation requirements, USF benchmarks, and students learning needs. 

This project is a collaborative effort between the College of Medicine, the School of Physical Therapy, College of Nursing, and the Athletic Training Program of the School of Physical Education, Wellness, and Sport Studies. Thirty- five pocket PCs as well as two wireless access points were purchased with support from the Innovations in Teaching and Technology Grant.  The senior athletic training class is currently learning to use the PDAs, piloting the encounter project and also exploring other mobile software for personal and professional growth. 

Clinical instructors in the athletic training program also use PDAs to record the completion of clinical skills which are stored in a central database.  Since the inception of the project, more than 85,000 student evaluations have been recorded in the database through the use of PDAs.

For more information contact the College of Education's Communications Director.