Dear Instructors and Dive Professionals:

[The Chairman]

the purpose of the I2I forum is to give an area for dive professionals to chat about the ins and outs of their profession without being embarrassed by the student/client bumping into their conversation. It is "shop talk" and we discuss different TEACHING techniques as opposed to DIVING techniques which are discussed out here in the open forum. If you do a search for any of the items you brought up you are going to find many hours worth of reading and research that have already taken place.

 

[DORSETBOY]

Havent heard that one before... maybe that's where I've been going wrong with my students!!!

 

[-hh]

NetDoc once bubbled...
the purpose of the I2I forum is to give an area for dive professionals to chat about the ins and outs of their profession without being embarrassed by the student/client bumping into their conversation. It is "shop talk" and we discuss different TEACHING techniques as opposed to DIVING techniques which are discussed out here in the open forum...

At face value, there would then be no harm in letting in all Educators participate, and not just those that are currently formal Agency instructors. If this is what is truely desired, "technical nonqualifiers" can be addressed on an individual and by-invitation-only basis.

FWIW, the claimed need for a forum does appears to infer that the support to Instructors from the individual Agencies is somehow delinquent or lacking.

Be that as it may, we should objectively examine and consider the formal, accredited educational requirements for dive instruction professionals: they are nonexistant! Perhaps the prerequisites for all dive professionals need to be examined and, for example, possibly require at least High School Diploma to become a DM, a College Diploma (any) to become an IDS Staff Instructor and an actual BA in Education Science to become a Course Director.

"The Course Director rating is the equivalent of having a postgraduate degree in scuba diving instruction..."
(from: http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/pro/cd.asp)


The current reality is that dive instruction is not an Education Science-oriented, but an Apprenticeship-oriented process. Anyone who's done their slave labor as a DM already knows this, even if they haven't actually recognized it.


-hh

 

[The Chairman]

the need for the forum is embraced by most agencies as a method for continuing education. Nothing happens in a vaccuum, except for maybe space walking. This is not the forum to discuss your other "claims".

 

[MikeFerrara]

hh

Many instructors hane little contact with other instructors. While the agency communicates to the instructor and the instructor can communicate to the agency, this forum is one of the few ways for instructors to get a direct line to a large number of other instructors. Unless of course there happens to be a bunch living on your street.

 

[scubapilot2000]

-hh once bubbled
...Perhaps the prerequisites for all dive professionals need to be examined and, for example, possibly require at least High School Diploma to become a DM, a College Diploma (any) to become an IDS Staff Instructor and an actual BA in Education Science to become a Course Director...

Similar to other sports/activities, traditional education degrees are not required to effectively do or teach (ie. golf instruction, professional racecar instruction, flight instruction). You can’t compare effective specialized sports/activity instruction to whether a person took History of the Roman Republic or Elements of Linear Algebra.

then -hh gurgled
...The current reality is that dive instruction is not an Education Science-oriented, but an Apprenticeship-oriented process. Anyone who's done their slave labor as a DM already knows this, even if they haven't actually recognized it...

Although I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with you when it comes to the DM certification. A significant part of becoming a good DM comes from the Internship portion of the program.

However, I’d say that AI, Instructor, IDC, Course Director and equivalents from other agencies are much more Education Science-oriented with hands-on lab vs. Apprenticeship-oriented. The certification process really focuses more on “how” to teach (effective communications, working with students, the science of diving, presentation skills, etc). Now, very much like a doctor, I think that new instructors should do some internship to get some real-world experience before they jump totally into the pool (pun intended).

 

[-hh]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
hh

Many instructors hane little contact with other instructors. While the agency communicates to the instructor and the instructor can communicate to the agency, this forum is one of the few ways for instructors to get a direct line to a large number of other instructors.

I don't disagree, but my point here is that if the quality of teaching can be materially improved by "something" (eg, dialog forum), the reponsibility to provide that resource is the Agency's, and no one else's. As such, they should pay for it.

ScubaBoard is not being materially compensated by the Agencies to provide this service, so the result is that the Agencies are getting a benefit at no cost...a free ride.

Now I wouldn't have a particular problem with doing this if all of the benefitting Agencies were Non-Profits, but as we all know, that's not the case.

In the end, we will of course do it anyway because we're an innocently altruistic bunch...


-hh

 

[scubaberdi]

I would love to join you to talk about dive training. if I only knew how! I am new at this can somebody please haelp me a bit to get started!

 

[The Chairman]

ScubaBoard is not being materially compensated by the Agencies to provide this service, so the result is that the Agencies are getting a benefit at no cost...a free ride.

I appreciate the sentiment... but in reality it's not the agency that benefits. It's the diving students, instructors and community at large that get the real benies.

 

[DFC5343]

Hummmm...nevermind