AIC

I would like to thank Kate Roberts and Barbara Appelbaum for their
responses to my post of last week.  I stand partially corrected by
Barbara about the content of the JAIC; conservators do have to
submit more articles to it which are treatment oriented if that is
what they want to see in print, or to encourage others to write
articles.  I no longer submit articles to the Journal due to the
rather poor reviewers comments I have received in the past and
rejections of my treatment articles.  I have heard from many others
with similar remarks, so will argue that while we do have to write
more, there has to be the will at the Journal to publish.

Kate Roberts <kate.roberts [at] natlib__govt__nz> writes

>The establishment of standards and internationally recognised
>qualifications for training courses and apprenticeships in
>conservation would have a direct benefit for organisations in
>smaller countries either training or hiring conservators. For
>example, there is now great potential for the development of online
>training in conservation theory, supported by local apprenticeships
>for benchwork experience, but the standards are lacking for the
>development of this type of training. A model developed for the US
>would provide an excellent basis for other countries.

In response to Kate's comments I must say that I am hesitant to
support online education without considerable reservation.  At
present I am designing courses for San Francisco State University
for online education and I began the process disagreeing with the
idea of online classes.  I have been investigating the various
assessment processes which a vast number of institutions have
attempted in the past and present.  It is very difficult to teach
some classes and impart skills online, while others are more
amenable to the medium.

Experimental sciences like Chemistry seem impossible to teach online
and to impart a reasonable amount of skill and practical knowledge.
Conservation may fall into that category, although I am open to the
idea that theory, ethics and some aspects of practice like
preventive conservation and general preservation practice might be
elements to be attempted.

This fall I will be conducting an online and in classroom experiment
to test some of these assumptions and will have more information and
less opinion to share.  I would be interested in any experiences
others have had in this realm and in any instructional materials
people are using in conservation training in either the classroom or
in apprenticeships.

Niccolo Caldararo, Ph.D.
Department of Anthropology
San Francisco State University


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:4
                 Distributed: Wednesday, July 12, 2000
                        Message Id: cdl-14-4-005
                                  ***