Lessons from Grey's Anatomy?

Beyond the Bubble discusses how technology can provide opportunities to improve student assessment. The report briefly highlights iStan, a life-like, sensor filled mannequin used by medical and nursing schools to simulate patient interactions and responses.

Medical education is obviously very different from K-12. But, it's not so different that we can't learn from the practice. Examples from medicine and a variety of other fields show that we can think differently about how to assess students' knowledge and skills -- with profound implications for more personalized instruction. Here's one account from Oklahoma:

“See one, do one, teach one’ is what we used to say,” [Dr. Rhonda] Sparks said. “Once I’d watch something and an instructor had talked to me about it, then I could perform that procedure. Then once I could perform that procedure, I was responsible to teach someone else.” She said some students wouldn’t gain as much experience as others because of random chance, poor mentoring or even simple shyness. The training center allows the university to standardize the learning experience for all students and even tailor the lessons to the students’ strengths and weaknesses.

This is the world that we need to prepare our students to succeed in. It's not just doctors, but also nurses and physician assistants working both individually and in teams. Nor is it some distant future. This is the profession today -- in hundreds of hospitals, medical schools, and even on Grey's Anatomy...