Blog, Wiki, RSS, Podcast, Moodle, CMS, LMS, Internet 2, Web 2—the public is regularly bar-raged with an increasing number of Web acronyms as new Internet technologies are being developed. The Web as we know it is barely over a decade old, and although the services that leverage the public Internet have become an essential part of the public consciousness (eg, via e-mail, Web browsing, file sharing), advocates and pundits alike will likely agree that we are nowhere near to seeing the maturation of these services and their assimilation into our daily activities.
The infrastructure of the Internet is designed to promote knowledge sharing. It is no surprise then that some of the earliest uses of the document hyperlinking technology of the World Wide Web were in the area of education. Almost from the inception of the first Web browsers in the early 1990s, educators embraced these tools as a lightweight solution for dissemination of almost unlimited amounts of educational material to anyone with a personal computer, a Web browser, and a connection to the Internet. The multimedia capabilities of Web browsers were of particular interest to radiology educators who could now display digital versions of clinical images with textual information. Rather than being restricted to conventional textbooks, which present material in a fixed format, educators could use the World Wide Web and experiment with presenting similar material in different formats, ranging from structured reference or learning modules to digital teaching files and case presentations. Although the technology available to deliver and display content has expanded in scope (eg, multimedia, streaming video and sound), speed (ie, broadband connections), and availability, it remains debatable what the best vehicle is for delivery of educational material.
This issue of RadioGraphics presents two articles tbat provide different perspectives on radiology online learning. In the first article, Rowell et al (1) examine the utilization patterns and preferences for electronic learning (e-learning) through a survey of 92 practicing radiologists. Although thercis substantial bias in the survey sample, the underlying message is that the majority of radiologists surveyed preferred traditional means to obtain information about advancements in our profession. However, virtually all of the survey respondents acknowledged some use of the Internet for what they consider "radiology education," with the majority (84%) claiming that their Internet usage for this purpose had increased in the past 3 years. Despite the extensive online availability of many radiology journals, only 9% of the survey participants admitted to reading journals exclusively online, with 67% of the participants preferring hard copy exclusively to online versions. Most of the radiologists in the survey (72%) believed that online material was just as reliable or more reliable than printed materials on similar subjects. Interestingly, whereas almost one-half of the participants (45%) admitted that they have used online continuing medical education (CME) materials, 70% also stated that they preferred to obtain CME through traditional venues such as meetings and courses.
Although utilization of online educational resources is on the rise, the results of the survey suggest that radiologists still express some ambivalence about using online resources exclusively.