The Chancellor's column

August 2008

Next generation teaching technology

Most productivity increases are driven by technology. Education is no exception. Are technology-driven changes in teaching and learning desirable? Time will tell, but the reality is that major changes during the coming years are inevitable. The question is, where does Monash University sit? Will Monash be adept and thrive ahead of the coming hurricane of change?

A few recent visits I made to several Monash University departments that are innovating in this area gives me comfort that we will thrive.

At the School of Biological Sciences in the Faculty of Science at Clayton, Professor Gordon Sanson proudly walked me round the newest teaching labs. All the lab benches are fitted with computers and video cameras in addition to the usual microscopes. The lecturer can see what each team of students is studying, send them questions, take their questions, share images, and generally achieve a high-level of interaction with the students. The equipment and software to make this possible were developed at Monash.

At the new facilities of the medical faculty in Sunway (Malaysia) and at Gippsland, Professors Anuar Zaini and Chris Browne, respectively, enthusiastically showed me several of the patient simulation rooms. In one room, instead of students making their first tentative attempts to examine a patient using a stethoscope they examine a virtual patient – a mannequin that can breathe like a healthy person or be programmed to breathe like an asthma sufferer; the mannequin might generate the heart beat of a healthy patient or it can be programmed to sound like a patient with a faulty aortic valve.

At the Victorian College of Pharmacy in Parkville, Professor Louis Roller bounced with excitement as he showed me the seminar room for teaching pharmaceutical practices, in which a video projected onto three walls surrounds the students with the daily happenings and crises of a retail pharmacy or a hospital dispensary. Soon to be added, synthetic digital patients will interact with the students and benefit from the treatments they dispense. Standing in this seminar room I felt like I was in an automobile simulator at the local video arcade, only the quality in the seminar room was far better and the value of the experience was far greater.

At home my son uses Blackboard, a service available to every Monash student. Blackboard enables him to download lectures, upload assignments and sit tests for credit or for practice. Blackboard almost literally brings the classroom into the bedroom.

These technological advances in education tools are just a hint of what we can expect to see dominate the way that teaching is delivered over the next 10 years. Monash recognizes the challenges ahead and is initiating major research and development work in this area.

Dr Alan Finkel AM (BE 1976, PhD 1981)
Chancellor
Monash University