Should SB be required reading in OW classes?

[spectrum]

After reading several posts about how few divers read or even know about Scubaboard it got me thinking. I know that I have learned a great deal and have become a much better diver by reading SB. So, should it be required reading for new divers or at least discussed in OW classes?

Absolutely not. There is way too much dogma, conflicting opinion and outright misinformation to be suitable as course material. Instruction needs to be consistent and complete.

That having been said... For the student capable of critical thinking this is a great place to get insight into the different ways that some things can be considered. In the past I have described it as a moot court situation. We frequently have threads with multiple conclusions. I was then able to separate fact from BS and decide which of the viable conclusions best fit my situation. This is not to much to accept from SOME new divers but to most, if they will even commit the time is beyond their skill set.

If a course were to suggest resources outside of their revenue stream providing awareness would be a good compromise. The audience will be largely self filtering.

Pete

 

[TSandM]

At the end of the OW class, my husband gives his students a list of on-line resources he thinks are valuable. There's a site with tides and currents for the PNW, another with critter identification, and of course, there is ScubaBoard. I do think one can learn an enormous amount reading here -- I know I have, and I have passed along advice I got as a newer diver (with attribution, whenever I can remember the source) to many people over the last eight years. The "Near Misses" subforum is incredibly educational, and although there IS misinformation there, it is almost always obvious when someone is saying something that goes strongly against the consensus.

And as far as reading ScubaBoard causing a lack of confidence in one's instruction and instructor -- shouldn't it? If your instructor is teaching you on your knees, if parts of the class are being left out, if you are being sold a bill of goods on your gear, shouldn't you know that? If you come out of OW unable to hover, or swimming with your hands, shouldn't you know that that is not the desired outcome? One big problem I see with diving and instruction is that OW students have NO idea what their class should be like, or what they should be able to do at the end of it, other than not drown . . . If our consumers were better educated from the get-go, wouldn't the quality of instruction HAVE to improve?

 

[Tigerman]

At the end of the OW class
...

Theres the key word...


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[lowviz]

No way of really knowing beforehand, but I just can't seem to let go of the idea that there was a lot of "tongue-in-cheek" associated with the OP.

I disagree, by the end of OW, IMHO, it is a bit late to be "educated" as to the quality of your instructor/instruction...

 

[Tigerman]

No way of really knowing beforehand, but I just can't seem to let go of the idea that there was a lot of "tongue-in-cheek" associated with the OP.

I disagree, by the end of OW, IMHO, it is a bit late to be "educated" as to the quality of your instructor/instruction...

Theres a lot more noise on SB you have NO way of knowing the merits of than just learning how to recognize a good instructor.
SB is in no way a basic manual of rec diving, its a more advanced tool than that. For better (mostly) and worse..

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[lowviz]

Theres a lot more noise on SB you have NO way of knowing the merits of than just learning how to recognize a good instructor.

Still disagree. ScubaBoard is an internet-based social diving site. It is all about opinions on gear, technique, instructors, instruction, dive locations, etc. and most importantly peer (including expert) review of those opinions. Noise is part of the internet and today's personal core skills should include being able to filter internet noise rather than trying to avoid it. ScubaBoard is extremely well organized with respect to topics and skill levels.

So let's say Jack and Jill are going on a nice vacation and see a 'learn to dive' ad. Sounds like fun, we should go into the shop and become informed consumers... Sealed and done. No noise.

... SB is in no way a basic manual of rec diving, ...

Just as "The DecoStop" is not a manual of tech diving. They both are, however, appropriate sources of noisy information for their readership.

So your position appears to be that ScubaBoard readership should not include the "dive curious". Sounds like a rip-roaring thread to me...

 

[Tigerman]

No, I think that someone that has NO scuba training AT ALL, aka not yet certified, has absolutely NO basis of knowing what is worth reading or not.
Once you've gone through the OW theory you have atleast a bare minimum of knowledge to judge the various posts by.
Dislike online courses or not, atleast its to the best of our knowledge FACTUAL information you get taught rather than 300k different opinions you have no other basis of separating than who scream the loudest...

To put it another way..
Wether 10+10 equals 20 or not is NOT open to interpretation when you first learn math.
It IS however open to interpretation when you get to learning about other number systems...

 

[Doc]

Required reading?

[rant] The entire SCUBABoard thread, from the OP on to the last, that should be required reading before a reader posts anything more.

That's what I see as required reading. [/rant]

 

[drrich2]

So your position appears to be that ScubaBoard readership should not include the "dive curious".

I see your point, but I think the reality is a bit more nuanced.

1.) The original issue was whether SB should be required reading for OW; in other words, for everyone. Not just people who are used to independently researching issues online & in-depth, and can screen out the noise, separate the wheat from the chaff, etc...

2.) The dive curious might use the info. to choose an agency & instructor before signing up for a course. A person currently in an OW course is doing neither of those things.

One big problem I see with diving and instruction is that OW students have NO idea what their class should be like, or what they should be able to do at the end of it, other than not drown . . .

As threads debating the inclusion of rescue skills in basic OW courses, the issue of whether instructors should be able to with hold certification despite students passing knowledge & skill tests or add material to the basic course & require it for certification show, we on the forum do not have a consensus on what their class should be like, or what they should be able to do at the end of it.

Put another way, let's say PADI decides to mandate promoting Scuba Board in their basic OW course, and the students, struggling with the basics, get into some of the long, highly contentious threads where people hotly critical of PADI's OW course tear into it.

Richard.

 

[lowviz]

I see your point, but I think the reality is a bit more nuanced.

1.) The original issue was whether SB should be required reading for OW; in other words, for everyone. ...//...

I see your point, but I think the OP is also a bit more nuanced...