Using Technology in Biology: Reflections

I wanted to post the final presentations for the class.  We recorded them at ustream.tv.

(FYI: If you’re particularly interested in my section, you can fast-forward to 1:09.  My section runs until about 1:27. )

Thanks to Alice, Cathy and the other members of the class!  I was thinking the other night, “What kind of teacher would I be if I had gone to teach somewhere else?”  I have to think I would be completely different.  I consider it to be a great boon that I get to teach in a collaborative environment and in a 1:1 school.   But, neither would be as successful without the other!  When I think about how much I have been learning since the beginning of the year and how that is manifested in the student experiences in my class, it boggles my mind to think that some teachers do the exact same thing year after year.

Tags: collaboration, ustream.tv

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Tags: disease, immunesystem, slideshare

Immune system – Animations

We used 5 forms of “critical input experiences” for this content.

• Guided notes with a PowerPoint
• A set of flowcharts (innate and adaptive)
• Animations (linked from the powerpoint)/Youtube video
• Role play – the students generated this in groups and acted it out in class with props they brought from home

Student feedback

I used a GoogleForm as a formative assessment and a way for students to self-report the usefulness of the tools. Here are the results.

What stands out here for me is that students reported animations as useful, but not the most useful way of learning the immune system. There is a wealth of new questions that comes from this data, but when I have 28 hours in my day, I’ll be able to dive into some of those.

Summary

I have found this course to help me develop my use of technological tools. I’ve approached aspects of my goal, but by no means met it. It’s something I’ll be working on, perhaps indefinitely!

To work on my goal for improving the use of technology in Biology, we have embarked in a variety of projects over the past 4 months. I’m going to focus on three of the project and some of the evidence from students.

Cells Parts and Functions Webquest

Overview

• Innerlife of cells video
• Cells parts and function webquest:
  • collected sites for them to visit
  • used a form to draw and list function of cell part

Student’s feedback

Engagement: this was a little surprising to me. From anecdotes, students said they were tired of webquests, having seen them in so many other classes.

Here are some quotes student reported in survey monkey to the question, ” What other ideas or thoughts do you have to share about this activity?”

“I learn better from direct teaching, but it was a good starting point. I am really glad we went over it in class and get a completed web quest to refer to.”

• “It allow you to learn the cell parts and functions quick and efficiently”
• “It wasn’t that fun, but it gives you good study notes”
• “i think that sence(sic) you are seeing the actual part you are learning not just mentally but also vishually (sic)”
• “The online activities helped me but I found myself struggling to pay attention. It didn’t really stimulate my brain at all.”
• “It was fun, cool to see the differnat(sic) cells and what they did.”

So, those mixed responses were helpful. I think we’ll reconsider how we use this activity next time. Perhaps we can find another “hook” for students to find this information worthwhile to learn.

Cellular transport – Molecular Workbench

For this project, we used a variety of animations, along with a diffusion lab as the “critical input experiences” for the content. As a way to check for student’s understanding we used Molecular Workbench. This works best if students download the software, rather than using the online version (for our use of Macs, anyway).

We can see student reports like this:

We found some pros and cons of this program

Pros

• Independent – students were able to do this for homework
• We did not have to invent this assessment
• Student reports are created – allows me to check for understanding

Cons

• Glitches with reporting – we could not access all of the student’s reports (we’re still working on this problem)
• Student reported frustration – with repetition in the activity and inability to send report to me

Continued in next post

My overall goal for this course is to refine a process for selecting, evaluating and implementing tools in my Biology classroom. This is a goal that directly aligns with my collaborative inquiry work.

As, I’m planning my goal for this course, I have several criteria I would like to meet.

Criteria:
1. Improve student conceptual understanding of biological concepts.
2. Evaluate digital tools designed for conceptual understanding. (This links to the ISTE National Educational Technology Standard of evaluating tools based on the appropriateness for the task.)
3. Use digital tools with thoughtful and cohesive pedagogy in my Biology class.
4. Select tools using a process that is efficient and timely. This process should allow me to consistently find and use new tools as they are updated, but also allow this process to be less time consuming.

As I work to meet the overall goal, I think I will have to meet several sub-goals. Some of these sub-goals may be more directly approached through this course. Other of these sub-goals will be approached through my work with my collaborative team.
1. Identify search techniques and sites with research tested digital tools
2. Use an evaluation template to evaluate tools based on conceptual and pedagogical criteria.
3. Identify digital tools that serve as critical input for students to grasp ideas in Biology in concert with other pedagogical strategies.
4. Use and evaluate a variety of digital tools. Include new tools to me and new tools to students. These should be in addition to tools I am currently using: wiki, videos, animations, and podcasts.