| Итог: | The Virtual Slidebox is a project aimed directly at making the study of microscopy exciting once again for a digitally engaged body of tertiary students. By transforming microscopy from the older analogue format of the light microscope to its computerised equivalent ('virtual microscopy'), the eye-straining tediousness of this older format has now been brought into question. In the process, virtual microscopy (VM) transforms the study of microscopic material into a spatially and temporally variable immersion in the world just beyond the limits of human vision. Microscopy is the first port of call for those students who are keen to learn about this nano-world beyond human vision. It is crucial then that we get both the learning/teaching protocols and the technology right in microscopy so that students can become actively, even deeply engaged in this realm of knowledge. The successful integration of VM into the curriculum should be high on the must-do list of the relevant educators. Virtual microscopy is a relatively new technology emerging in the mid 1990s that turns the computer into a microscope while at the same time keeping the glass slide technology that formed the basis of analogue microscopy. By digitally scanning the glass slide VM makes microscopy more easily amenable to the myriad of ways electronic technologies can represent this nano-world. This report then details the results of one project team's efforts at the University of Queensland (UQ) in introducing VM into their curricula. Certainly student response has been overwhelmingly in favour of VM, a response demonstrated again and again in survey after survey. The problem remained institutionally located in integrating VM technology into the UQ intranet. Equally, there is still resistance among some academic and technical staff to this educational innovation. [Executive summary]
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