On a fresh spring day one still can see on a college campus lawn a class of about twenty students spread hemispherically about the professor who competes with lawn mowers, overflying jet planes, and the threat of automated lawn sprinklers erupting from the ground. Even in ideal small-class college environments, students apportion their time in almost classic time management scenarios. The question arises how electronic technologies can both assist in the engagement and reflective processes without being digital band-aids for today's educational shortcomings. Digital imaging may be used to engage students and potentially lead them to reflection. Illustrative of this process is the digital portfolio, a method of assessment.
Students have a difficult time recording and remembering what they see through a microscope.
They are essentially engaged in pattern recognition. For many, one microscope slide of variable quality is called upon to provide the data necessary to produce one drawn image, upon which understanding of some underlying process is hopefully built. Digital frame grabs of microscope images allow a student to build visual libraries for comparison. Instead of a fixed-station practical exam, the student assesses her understanding with this digital portfolio. Learning to recognize a basophil on a blood smear slide is one thing, but knowing why the cell has blue granules is a very different other thing.