Using Technology in Biology: Reflections

This week, my 9th grade students are preparing for a student-led conference with their parents. They are reflecting on their learning in each class. I’m asking students to do a comparison of two recent labs (one on light, one on sound) and the gains they have made in analyzing and writing scientifically about data. It occurred to me while they were working on the sound lab that it would be great if they could link to a video of them actually taking the data!

So, I whipped out my camera and took some short digital video clips. I uploaded them to Teacher Tube, and from there I was able to embed them on my wikispace! What an exciting way for them to show their parents what they can do in science!

A few students asked to embed them directly into their platforms (iWeb, blogs, powerpoint) . For that, I just emailed the video clips. Does anyone know other ways to share video files?

Tags: Teacher Tube, video, wiki

Here is a screencast I made (one of several) for my Biology class. I used Jing to do this.

Tags: Jing, screencast

Ten questions were used to inform us how we are engaging students with a “personalized learning environment”. I took the suggestion from the blog and made a graph of my responses to the questions.
I don’t feel that I can give myself a 5 in any category, but I felt most confident about these 5 areas: #5. virtual environment; #6. “school time” and “personal time”; #7. Access to resources; #9. Access to peer review, and #3 Students know what they need to learn
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The #5 virtual environment and #7 access to resources are criteria met because of the one-to-one laptops we have in our school and my use of tools in class. I have tried to have students use a variety of tools. I model them, and I think students feel they have access to others. I’ve been impressed that my students rarely need direct instruction for tools I show them, and often choose appropriate tools on their own. The #6 school time and personal time is not a distinct boundary because students can access all of the tools we use from anywhere. I find that students learn both in class and at home with few problems. I think some students do their best work in class, but I also have been impressed with what they are capable of doing on their own. For example, I had a group of students compose, and record songs about Protists entirely outside of class.

Finally, the two categories that I feel I have more direct responsibility for are access to peer review and students know what they need to learn. #9 Peer review has been emphasized in my classroom throughout the year in all of my classes. I have had various structures for this to take place. Sometimes peer review is live, such as when students are working as a group on a lab or activity. Other times, I have more structured peer review for products students have worked on individually. In my last survey of students, they reported that the peer review process they did on a lab report helped them with their thinking and writing. I’ve also had student use wikis and implemented structured peer review at multiple times during the construction of the wiki.

#3 Students know what they need to learn in my classroom for the most part. I gave myself a 3 on this because I still am working on this aspect of my teaching. However, for all projects a complete product descriptor is available to students. I find that product descriptors are useful to students, and exemplars are also very helpful. This is sometimes hard as a new teacher because predicting what students should be able to learn and do in a project can be like predicting how high someone can jump just by looking at them. You might get an idea, but students can really surprise me!

Tags: engagement, peerreview, productdescriptors

The second assignment asked us to look at the tools our classmates were using and try one in our teaching. I did not find any of the tools others had talked about particularly compelling for my classes. So, I investigated a few other tools and tried two.

1.) Gliffy. I was not overly impressed by this site. I thought it might be nice to have students do graphical representations online, but I found that the Inspiration program my students have and already use is probably more useful and user-friendly.

2.) Note share. I’ve heard other teachers are using this, and I wanted to see if the nature of the program will work for my needs. In Biology and also Physical Science, much of our notes are diagrams. Often, I think students benefit from drawing the diagrams and I think it is also useful to see diagrams within the notes. So, does note share allow for diagrams? yes! But, you have to drag the images from the Finder. (their help) So, it involves an additional step from making the notes in Word. However, you can also import notes from Word. I’m debating trying this with my Freshman for our Motion unit. That will be in April.

3.) Google Notebook. I decided to look at this as an option for students to take notes for my class, as well. Unlike Note share, this cannot include images or diagrams. So for me, that limits its usefulness. I am using it as a place to take notes in my own meetings, and research. It’s nice because it has a quick link on the browser, so you can access it instantly.

4.) Delicious But, the real assignment was to use another tool in my teaching. So, I went back to a tool I’ve raved about before delicious. I love this tool for my own research purposes, and to give students links I’ve found. For example, here’s my page that students went to for practice and more independent learning about diffusion and cellular transport. I sent them to that site and had them choose animations and tutorials from that list to do as practice during class. But, they also have access to that anytime for preparation for the upcoming test.

I also just started using it in a new way this week. I had students get their own accounts and we are all now linked in a network. They are starting a research project on diseases. I have some resources on my own account that they can access for a start, but I can also see the resources they are tagging in their research. We just started this, but when I have an example to show, I’ll list the link here.

Tags: delicious, gliffy, google notebook, noteshare, research