On-line science? Why Bother?

I just finished teaching 4 Anatomy and Physiology labs, 2 Wednesday and 2 today (Thursday). The students were a delight to be around. Eagar, smart and ready to get into a health profession. We will do lots of stuff this term. Tallahassee Community College A&P labs use mostly high quality models and little real material. We have some human specimens, heart, brains, some reproductive parts and others. Look and touch only, no cutting. I wish we used more fresh material but, alas, we don’t.

The joy of these labs is not the models, it’s the students as they struggle to learn. It’s the one-on-one moments where I teach them how to learn something. It’s the light in their faces when they get it. It’s the interaction with people they don’t know. It’s sooo much more. And all this is lost in an on-line lab. Sure, you can look at high quality photos of models and dissected human legs, but if you can’t understand what you are looking at because the only living thing you have ever seen up close and dead was KFC, then the abstractions are a real impediment. There certainly is a place for on-line education for some people. But not nearly all.

Look. Go back 50k years. I wanted to learn how to make a spear point. You sat down with me and showed me. I practiced while you watched. Or I had to learn to pick non-poisonous plants to eat. I followed you around and watched you, you showed and talked to me, I tried it, got it wrong, and finally learned what to touch and what not to touch. I learned EVERYTHING that way. Humans and their antecedents have been learning the same way for millions of years. Either one-on-one or in small face-to-face groups. It must be good because here we are. So why would anyone think that putting people in a small dim room with a computer and a box of “labs” would be a better way to teach and learn? Beats the hell out of me.

Image: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/newsletter/2002/dec-jan/images/p5.jpeg