Precisely what you would do were your watch/depth gauge/SPG fail. Wing it somehow.
Wow. To say that I am stunned at this response would be an understatement. I suppose I should not be after reading previous statements made on previous posts. But even this response has me speechless.
I have never...EVER...seen this response to any legitimate diving question from an Instructor. There should never be a taught situation where a student is instructed by an Instructor to "wing it". It borders on the concept of advocating poor diving practices and engaging in destructive diving behavior.
Typically Instructors attempt to prepare students for the diving world. We teach them to think, be educated, and that there is a solution to most problems that they will face. It simply requires a clear mind and a focused determination to resolve the conflict at hand. At no point should a student be told to just wing anything. We teach then how to maintain proper buoyancy. We teach them how to obtain proper trim in the water. We teach them to be focused with regards to air management and dive planning. The operative word is teach. To wing it suggests that you are unprepared or poorly prepared. It suggests that you are throwing caution to the wind and hoping for the best. If they are going to wing it, then they really don't need an Instructor. What they will need is prayer.
I intentionally stayed out of this discussion because I have had similar ones involving NetDoc and they typically have ended the same. With random analogies being given that are rarely germane to the topic at hand. I thank you DA for pointing out the obvious fallacy with that approach. I felt content to watch from the sidelines when I realized that there are people who will read those statements and might think that since they came from an Instructor, then they must be true. If my computer fails, then I should just wing it. The errors in that line of thinking are staggering. It makes no sense in areas outside of diving. Others have addressed it quite well thank goodness.
I also concur with DA's statement that simply giving the people what they want is an irresponsible response to a legitimate question. My patients want Demerol and Dilaudid when they come into the Emergency Department. Under NetDocs philosophy, I should just give them what they want. It will make me popular and would do wonders for business. Until the DEA comes knocking on my door.
New students don't know what they don't know. It should be the responsibility of any Instructor to produce educated and competent divers. I don't know why some Instructors continue to whine about the time they have to put into educating their students. The student has paid you to educate them. Do that. And do it to the best of your ability. If that requires more time then give it to them. Or tell them you have taken them as far as you can and suggest someone who can complete their training. But to complain about the fact that providing more education to the student is wasted time or time you could be spending on other things is counter productive to the very concept of education. Some students need more time. Some students will require more patience. Often times it is these students that when they do get it, become the stars of the class!!
As many others have said, there has been no disagreement over the importance of PDCs in the diving community. Very helpful. They should be introduced and taught at the OW level. To exclude teaching the tables because it takes away time from teaching other concepts smacks of laziness to me. There are important concepts that the tables convey in teaching decompression theory. It gives students a tangible concept of nitrogen loading, surface intervals, and how to track nitrogen loading during repetitive dives. It is simply a tool. But it has provided a very decent building block for the understanding of decompression theory and an understanding upon which the computers algorithms are based. Students should be taught that the tables are not a holy grail, but just one of many avenues available to them to understand nitrogen loading and dive planning. It is a reasonable back up to a failed dive computer. I too fail to see why teaching this very valuable option is not an option. You have stated your reasons and they have yet to make sense to me. We'll have to agree to disagree.
Lastly, to tell students that they can learn the tables from some other source...leaves me speechless again. I will accept that I am a new Instructor and clearly don't know all of the tricks of the trade. I am SO grateful for the postings of others who have given me tons of information and guidance on how to conduct a class. Even I don't recognize my current teaching method from my previous one. And I am still looking for ways to make it better. To include more information in the class that is relevant and will expand their understanding of diving. This statement to me suggests that one is abdicating their responsibilities to their students. Clearly a subjective opinion, but is the one I have nonetheless. Tables can be very overwhelming. Sometimes students have trouble understanding them even when the Instructor has explained it to them. I am not sure I would want them to "learn it in the streets" without a supposedly educated Instructor helping them. They are not necessarily complicated, but again form a legitimate foundation for the understanding of decompression theory. It depends on how it is taught, but it can be understood without it being an inconvenience to either the Instructor or the student.
I still have not grasped the concept of finding ways to minimize contact with one's students. Educators should be doing the exact opposite.