Innovative Technology in Anatomy Lab

I found this article in the Summer 2013 edition of Optometric Education (pp. 100-105), in which the author had implemented the use of a variety of iPad anatomy apps in her Anatomy Laboratory among first-year optometry students, while simultaneously withholding them from a single lab group, to act as a control.  The results showed no statistical difference between the control group and the lab groups who were given iPads with apps to use in lab.  They found that students liked the iPads, but preferred increased instructor involvement to the programs.

This was fascinating to me, because I also teach anatomy laboratory in an Optometry school, to first-year optometry students.  Being a traditionalist by temperament, I am hesitant to embrace updated technology in the lab unless I can see the benefit of it.  After my predecessor removed microscopes from the lab, for example, I returned them the following year, to help my students get used to discovery and control of microscopy (important points in an eye examination).

That the students who were given the iPad apps gave some feedback implying that they would prefer a more structured lab was very interesting to me--in my experience, students often want to be led by the hand.  Part of the point of the Optometric curriculum, however, must be to train students to venture out on their own.  Thus, I don't find the students' distaste for their digitally-based independence to be a major concern, on its own.

More concerning to me is the lack of improved understanding, as measured by post lab quizzes.  The great promise I have heard is that technology use will revolutionize the classroom and lab.  However, the apps the students were using appeared to use rather traditional teaching methods (eg. rote memorization, flashcards, and manipulation of models--albeit virtual ones, etc.), merely repackaging them in a digital context (see Table 1, reproduced below). Students complained that the time spent learning the new technology took away from their lab time as well.

While an interesting premise, this study only seems to reinforce that what is needed to improve instruction is not a digital version of existing resources, but newly-designed resources that take advantage of the unique opportunities that mobile technology brings.  Purchasing new tech may not be so useful without improved instructional methods.

Going forward, I'd like to look into educational software design theory--how software can truly change the way we educate, rather than merely digitizing the old methods--as well as investigate the Learning Theories of Malcolm Knowles, who the article referenced.  I'm not familiar with his work.

APA citation:

Sanchez-Diaz, P.C. (2013). Impact of Interactive Instructional Goals in Gross Anatomy for Optometry
      Students: a Pilot Study. Optometric Education. 38(3), 100-105.  Retrieved from
      http://www.opted.org/files/Volume38_Number3_Summer2013.pdf