Original Paper Teaching Health Informatics to the Net Generation: A New Baseline for Building Capability?

Background: The current generation of medical students are the Net Generation. However there is a dearth of data on their Internet use to inform universities ’ approaches to using the Internet, especially Web 2.0, most effectively in medical education.In particular, we have little information on students ’ skills base to use in planning to build greater informatics capacity in the Australian health workforce. Objectives: Collecting evidence of current students ’ Internet experiences and preferences will help to determine how, or indeed whether, our approach to developing students ’ informatics capabilities needs reform. This study addresses longstanding issues, by telling us what Internet capabilities students may have acquired or be likely to acquire by osmosis. Such evidence is required to help educators to develop students ’ focus on essential clinical uses of the Internet. Methods: Data on Internet use by 207 incoming medical students were collected as part of a four-page survey at a major Australian university, on first-year students ’ experiences with information and communications technologies and preferences about their use in higher education. Findings about Internet use by this cohort were compared with informatics education standards, frameworks and curricula for Australian medical undergraduates, to identify key issues for teaching and learning. Results: Students ’ Internet use is extensive, intensive and competent, but students do not have uniform experiences or preferences and are not major users of emerging Web technologies. In the undergraduate medical curriculum, it is difficult to determine accurately what types and levels of informatics capabilities are specified where, the details of related objectives, activities an