TOP 10 REASONS THE WORLD-WIDE-WEB MAY FAIL TO CHANGE MEDICAL-EDUCATION

The Internet's World Wide Web (WWW) offers educators a unique opportun ity to introduce computer-assisted instructional (CAI) programs into t he medical school curriculum. With the WWW, CAI programs developed at one medical school could be successfully used at other institutions wi thout concern about hardware or software compatibility; further, progr ams could be maintained and regularly updated at a single central loca tion, could be distributed rapidly, would be technology-independent, a nd would be presented in the same format on all computers. However, wh ile the WWW holds promise for CAI, the author discusses ten reasons th at educators' efforts to fulfill the Web's promise may fail, including the following: CAI is generally not fully integrated into the medical school curriculum; students are not tested on material taught using C AI; and CAI programs tend to be poorly designed. The author argues tha t medical educators must overcome these obstacles if they are to make truly effective use of the WWW in the classroom.