Information technology in nutrition and dietetic education

Abstract

The increase in pressures of teaching in tertiary education\rhas led to a need to consider new methods to support the\rlearning experience for students; for example, in a single\rfaculty of a university, a survey has shown that there were\r173 different innovations in teaching methods that were\rbeing tried and 14% of these involved information technology\r(Ellington & McIntosh, 1995). Since the development\rof the computer, it has become a growing influence on\rthe workplace for nutritionists and dietitians, so clearly\rinformation technology has been incorporated into the\rteaching programme as a subject. In addition to these more\robvious uses of computers by professionals, computers can\ralso be used to help in the teaching of non-computingrelated\rsubjects. While teachers of nutrition may be pleased\rto allow computing staff to develop separate units for\rinformation technology, few may themselves consider\rthe application of information technology in the support\rof their own teaching. I have developed several different\rapproaches that illustrate the range of possible uses of\rcomputers as aids to teaching; I incorporated all of them\rinto the teaching of second year Nutrition and Dietetics\rstudents