Despite the development of mobile device technology over recent years, its application in the field of teaching has not yet had a parallel development. For the past two decades teaching subjects such as histology has undergone a change in the digital use of its content and didactic methods based on Web applications, e-learning portals, etc., in which the use of high definition images enables the substitution of the light microscope for a “virtual microscope”. This paper describes a mobile device solution based on the use of Near Field Communication technology for supporting teaching in medical histology. The didactic contents are managed in a database which stores information and images corresponding to the histological slides that are handed out to students in the glass slides for their analysis under a microscope. By associating a single NFC chip to each glass slide and touching this chip with a smartphone, students are given access to all the multimedia information related to the histological slides, without needing a mobile device. The system developed, called HistoNFC, enables access to this information at any moment, as well as the follow-up to the didactic activity and student evaluation. Evaluation of the system has been carried out by histology students of medical degree at the University of Córdoba, assessing aspects of the assisted-learning process as well as technologies, and the results obtained have been very favorable for both, as can be seen in detail in this study.
HistoNFC: An Innovative Tool for the Practical Teaching of Histology Using NFC Technology
