Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center,
Shreveport, LA
Abstract:
The amount of information presented to
health sciences students during their education is increasing at a seemingly
geometric rate. With the introduction of computers and their widespread
acceptance as teaching tools there is a tendency for an increasingly larger
proportion of these materials to be disseminated electronically.
Perhaps due to our 500 years of history
with the printed page the majority of the students print out all this
information. This may not be a purely psychological need as research has shown
that reading from a screen is slower than from the printed page. While printing
may be appropriate to notes which may accompany a lecture, most electronic
material loses all the interactivity and hyperlinking when printed. Regardless
of this consequence we find students printing hyperlinked cases when the case
cannot be followed to completion in a paper version.
Though at first glance this may seem to
be a trivial problem it may hold the key to the future of electronic learning
as the educational Intranet is used increasingly for electronic document
dissemination rather than interactive teaching. If this is the case then the
computer becomes a means of transferring the cost of printing from departments
to students rather than a learning tool. Clearly this is not the application of
computers in the curriculum that was envisioned.
We are experimenting with a variety of
methods that achieve a compromise between using the computer as a learning tool
and as a method for disseminating printed information.
Some of these involve the use of images
and illustrations which are of little value when printed (even so, some
students continue printing out of habit) but also involves reformatting
Powerpoint presentations to use as handouts so that the students can use these
to make notes during a lecture while the graphic images remain purely
electronic. This process of changing content to an electronic format also
requires constant faculty education.
While a major use of computers remains
faculty to student and student-to-student communication we believe that the
barrier to reading from the screen that currently exists may endanger the
acceptance of computers into the health sciences curriculum.
Benefit in Attending
Session:
The future of computers as an educational tool in the health sciences may hinge on the ability of the students to read information from the screen. Changes are needed both in the students and faculty habits if this goal is to be achieved. This presentation will demonstrate several possible solutions.
Mark W Platt
BIometry, LSU HSC, 1501 Kings Highway
Shreveport LA 71130
Telephone Number: 318 675 4452
Fax Number: 318 675 7757
E-mail Address: mplatt@lsumc.edu