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Bone lab

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

4.75 stars
Content Quality: 4.25 stars
Effectiveness: 4.5 stars
Ease of Use: 4.75 stars
Reviewed: Mar 14, 2011 by Communication Sciences and Disorders
Overview: This free download program provides an interactive view of the skeletal system, from head to toe. The program can be searched by keywords or bone names. Views can be rotated in all directions, to see views in lateral left, lateral right, anterior, and posterior 3D views of the bones.
Learning Goals: This program would primarily be used to assist students in increasing familiarity with bones/skeletal system, and improving understanding of relationship of bones to each other.
Target Student Population: Undergraduate anatomy/physiology students.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: Appropriate for introductory anatomy. No prerequisites.
Type of Material: Free downloadable anatomy enhancement software featuring skeletal system elements.
Recommended Uses: Teaching anatomy class. For student use to enhance anatomy instruction relative to skeletal system.
Technical Requirements: Downloaded with Firefox 3.6.12. MUST be downloaded on Windows XP. Not compatible with Vista or Windows 7.

Evaluation and Observation

Content Quality

Rating: 4.25 stars
Strengths: The ability to manipulate the skeleton and all of the views, including to look from behind (posterior) allows students to appreciate multiple perspectives and aids in understanding the relationships between bones.
Concerns: There are no explanations or text associated with the images, just bone names.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating: 4.5 stars
Strengths: This is the closest that most students will be able to come to holding a skeleton in their hands, turn it over, examine it to understand physical relationships between skeletal structures. This would be useful for visual and kinesthetic learners.
Concerns: There is no content associated with the program, other than bone names. There is no opportunity to learn important facts about the bones or their relationships with each other or to the body as a whole.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating: 4.75 stars
Strengths: Very attractive. Colors, shapes (including a sense of surface shape), views make it very effective in terms of depicting the skeleton. Design quality is very good. Once you figure out how to see different views, it is easy to use.
Concerns: This program is generally quite user friendly and reasonably intuitive, however a few directions regarding how to use it would decrease the amount of time needed to figure out how to interact with it. Also, there is a help button, but the button tells you that you "don't have permission to access" it. So if you are uncertain as to how to accomplish something, you must figure it out through trial and error.
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