Farah Camile S, Maybury Terrence S
University of Queensland, School of Dentistry and UQ Centre for Clinical Research, Herston, Queensland 4029, Australia.
J Dent Educ. 2009 Aug;73(8):942-9.
Recent technological innovation has now made it possible to turn the computer into a microscope. This has entailed a shift from light microscopy to virtual microscopy. This development then foregrounds the issue of the pedagogy involved in this move from the analogue technology of the light microscope to the digital, computerized instance of virtual microscopy. In order to address this issue, undergraduate students enrolled in the Bachelor of Dental Science program at the University of Queensland School of Dentistry were surveyed to ascertain their preference for light or virtual microscopy. The value of this study is that it was conducted on the same cohort of students in two separate courses in 2006 and 2008, giving it longitudinal validity. The responses were overwhelmingly in favor of virtual microscopy. When it came to completely replacing the light microscope with virtual microscopy, however, students were much more ambivalent about such a wholesale change although this was less of an issue in the senior year. This shift from light to virtual microscopy signals larger changes in the tertiary sector from print-literate to electronic forms of knowledge and from teacher-centered to student-focused frames of learning. In short, we are in the midst of the e-evolution of microscopy in dental education.
最近的技术创新现已使将计算机转变为显微镜成为可能。这带来了从光学显微镜到虚拟显微镜的转变。这一发展进而突出了从光学显微镜的模拟技术向虚拟显微镜的数字、计算机化实例转变过程中所涉及的教学法问题。为了解决这个问题，对昆士兰大学牙科学院牙科学士课程的本科生进行了调查，以确定他们对光学显微镜或虚拟显微镜的偏好。这项研究的价值在于，它于2006年和2008年在同一批学生的两门不同课程中进行，具有纵向有效性。调查结果绝大多数支持虚拟显微镜。然而，当谈到用虚拟显微镜完全取代光学显微镜时，学生们对这种全面变革的态度则更为矛盾，尽管在高年级这个问题不那么突出。从光学显微镜到虚拟显微镜的这种转变标志着高等教育领域从以印刷文字为基础的知识形式向电子知识形式、从以教师为中心的学习框架向以学生为中心的学习框架的更大转变。简而言之，我们正处于牙科教育中显微镜的电子进化过程之中。
