Many people worry about the tens pounds one gains on camera.  I do not worry about this problem – I worry about hair loss.  I believe the camera does not cause either of these problems, but it does make one much more self-conscious and aware of one’s performance.   People are often oblivious to many things that become apparent when watching one’s self in a video.

For my teaching session I chose to film a student interviewing me as I played the role of a patient.  The interview acts a platform for how build a differential diagnosis from a chief complaint then using a variety of questioning techniques to narrow down the differential.  One student interviews, one student keeps us organized through tracking our progress on the white board and the group engages in discussions.  Many of my students have commented they have found these sessions very helpful in moving from book learning to developing the process of thinking like a doctor.

While watching the recording I first noted the impact of recording had on myself.  The recording altered the group dynamic making everyone seem slightly more hyper and a tad more nervous.  The recording device had altered the group function.  For me the nervousness and excitement manifested in excessive smiling.  It took a fair bit of time to for us to become used to the camera and normalize to this situation.

The most striking part of the video was the amount of silence.  Unlike a traditional lecture this type of small group interaction requires a lot of thought of the participants reflecting on the information I provide and myself reflecting on interaction and where to go next.  While teaching everything feels very fast due to the level of critical thought involved.  The dead spaces feel short.  There seems to continuously be ideas being thrown around.  The participants are constantly debating.  However while watching the video everything seems much slower.  The amount of time required to think seemed significant.  During some of the lulls some people seem to be thinking while other participants seemed to be distracted.  Not everyone was equally stimulated.  Having a group of six may be too large to keep everyone engaged in the topic.  In the future I may consider splitting the half and do the exercise twice.  This will also allow the students to have more independent study time while having more opportunity for interaction while doing the activity.

Overall I think the process went well.  Most of the students seemed engaged most of the time and valuable learning was achieved.  The board work demonstrated the students at a first year level were able to come up with an approach to a clinical problem with a little bit of guidance on the fly.   With some mild alterations related to group size and staying more focused I feel like this type of activity can be carried forward in the future.