BREAKOUT SESSION
What Constitutes an Electronic Curriculum?
P.A. Stewart and Joyce Nyhof -Young
ABSTRACT:
Do our electronic
curricular resources constitute an electronic curriculum? Most would conclude
that they do not because they are not integrated in a way that is easily
searched and marked up by students, and because most students still insist on
hard copy, or if it is not provided by the school, print out the information
themselves. Two software packages have recently become available that may allow
us to take another step towards a truly electronic curriculum. They are the
latest version of Acrobat (version 6) and Microsoft OneNote. Both of these
programs provide the facility to search multiple files simultaneously, create
searchable "flags", incorporate multimedia and internet links and add
student mark-up in a searchable form. The development of the Tablet PC adds an
additional dimension. It allows students to take notes in the class room directly into the software in either hand-written or
text format. The OneNote search engine will recognize handwriting as well as
typed text, when hand-written notes are entered using a tablet PC. The aim of
this breakout session is to construct a list of characteristics that would
constitute an electronic curriculum, and to share information on the pros and
cons of various hardware and software packages that may be necessary to make
electronic curricula a reality.
BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:
Almost every major
university has an enormous amount of curricular material in electronic format, however, few would claim that they have an
electronic curriculum. The aim of this breakout session is to discuss what the
term electronic curriculum should mean and what characteristics it should have.
Two widely available software packages and hardware, the new Table PC, will be
demonstrated as possible approaches to electronic curricula.
|
P.A. Stewart Division of
Anatomy, Department of
Surgery, 1 King's M5S 1A8 Phone: 416-978-8963 Fax: 416-978-3844 p.stewart@utoronto.ca |
CO-AUTHORS: Joyce Nyhof-Young Department of
Radiation Oncology, M5G 2M9 Phone:
416-946-4501, extension 5838 |