Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Learning about normal birth in Second Life

I am thrilled to announce that the second stage of the Second Life Education New Zealand virtual birth unit project has gone live. This stage of the project is a normal birth scenario containing five scenes from early labour to the first hour after the baby is born. The students will have the opportunity to role play either/or the birthing woman and midwife.

Midwife
As the 'midwife', students will assess, plan and carry out midwifery actions as well as document their midwifery care. They will receive very valuable feedback from midwifery lecturers about their documentation, and have the ability to self-assess their performance. The scenario has been based on the New Zealand College of Midwives' decision points in labour.

Birthing woman
As the 'woman', students (or anyone else who wishes to role play the part) will see how labour and birth feels from the woman's perspective. This includes the ability to be able to give the 'midwife' feedback, based on the New Zealand College of Midwives' consumer feedback form.

Video
Here is a video that gives a brief overview of what the Second Life normal birth scenario offers midwifery (and other health professionals) students.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEhK_wjIa74

More information
If you are interested in learning more about this learning resource, have a look at the project page on Wikieducator. Information about the lesson plans for the normal birth scenario can be found here, and specific information about how to get to the resource in Second Life can be found here.

Guided tour
If you would like to be given a guided tour of the birth unit in Second Life and shown how the normal birth scenario works, please get in touch with me.

4 comments:

willie campbell said...

Sarah
all this sounds so surreal to me tha I'm gobsmacked. AND yet maybe it is actually a digital version of sociodrama- the action method devised by Jacob Moreno who believed that "drama" and movement through roles gives high impact inaight to human sitauations. Has anyone done research on this?
SWillie

Phee said...

Hey Sarah, wow yeah i have been up to heaps, i'm in year 9 this year so its all very hectic and between that, all my after-school activities and work i never get a free moment

catkins_in_nz said...

Hi Sarah - I have written a short blog post on last night :) http://arwennastardust.wordpress.com. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts too! WELL DONE!

Sarah Stewart said...

Hi willie, I expect there is research about this ...I'll have to go and check it out :)

Phee: yes...life does get a lot busier as you move through school. You have to get good at organizing your time.

Clare: great post...let's hope the impetuous keeps going