Final Course Reflection

Final Course Reflection

Web 2.0 - what a blast?

I have learned many new skills and have set up good teaching and learning options for the future such as:

• iGoogle: This has been great from a social and entertainment point of view for myself. I now have a personalised web page to check news, weather, science updates, famous quotes and weird and interesting facts. I intend to use some aspects of this in the classroom. For example, an interesting gadget which i discovered was called "Dark Roasted Blend". This showcases the more interesting posts on You tube and other sites. Research has shown that students respond well to weird facts and anecdotes. I have found lots of you tube clips which may help motivate students in Science. The example below shows how engineers have used the same technology used in low gravity fuel tanks to develop a low gravity drinking cup. See my blog and stay posted for more.

• Google Docs: This is a great collaborative tool and i saw many possible administrational applications such as proofreading an exam across the a teaching facaulty, storing marks off site, freeing up disk space on the server by going off site. Also, students can submit work through google docs rather than clogging up email.
  

• Blogger: I set up a blog http://fmilic.blogspot.com which i hope to continue with and post interesting things i find or create. Hopefully it can attract some interesting discussion over time as more people join. My next project is a class blog for my Physics and chemistry classes.

• Flickr: A good way to share photos. Perhaps in the future i could set up a class account where students can send me photos of experiments. It is also a good resource for accessing photos for visual podcasts. The clip on creative commons was both amusing and interesting. I wonder how many teachers and students are breaching copyright and whether they will ever crack down on this?
  

• Podcasts: I have discovered some really great podcasts such as http://www.podomatic.com/profile/meaghersphysics. He has mad some great podcasts for physics and chemistry students. I have RSS ed this site and will feature some of the more interesting ones on my blog. I intend to get my students working on podcasts as they are an interesting way to teach difficult content as they are visual.

• Glogster: A quick way to create a web page and link ideas. I don't like the look of it so i doubt i will use it. No offense glogsters!

• Delicious: Thank goodness for delicious. I can now track my extensive net surfing and collaborate with others with similar interests and ideas. I intend to give my senior students access to my Physics and Chemistry tags.
  

• RSS: Finally the web comes to you. This is great since i don't have time to look everywhere at once for resources. A good resource is New York Science Teacher who have an RSS function on their site.

• Social Networks: Facebook and twitter are both blocked at most schools for good reason. They are great time wasters. However, i learned that Second Life has some great science applications such as being able to observe molecules in 3D and explore human anaotomy in 3D. Hopefully this application will not be blocked as I will be exploring it further with my students.

• Wikis and Nings: These are a great substitute for myclasses which I already use. Ning seems to look better and i will be transferring some of myclasses pages over to Ning. The collaborative aspect of these programs take learning into the highest order in Bloom's Taxonomy as students can evaluate each others work and collaborate on a project.
  

As a new convert to Web 2.0 it was very interesting to hear where technology may go in the future. It was fascinating to hear Graham Glass speak about the Swedish Model for Modular Learning. See my blog for a link. http://fmilic.blogspot.com/2010/07/tedxmanila-graham-glass-120509.html

Web 2.0 provides teachers with a challenge for the future and students with tools which maximise their learning and which take their learning up a few notches on Bloom's Ladder.

Many thanks for providing me with such a great learning opportunity.

Frank Milic
Science Coordinator
Domremy College.

Astronaut demos drinking coffee in space

New Looks at Atlantis Launch

Bloom's Taxonomy and Web 2.0

Do you find this adaptation of Blooms to digital technology helpful in planning your curriculum?

Yes, somewhat useful. However, i beg to differ with some aspects of Bloom's digital Taxonomy.

E.g. The lowest order skill is "remember". Remember Skills involve students underlining, googling, retrieving. These skills are hardly helping anyone remember a fact or a concept. Some facts still need to be remembered especially in Science. These seem to be more organisational skills rather than learning skills. They are relying on the computer device to remember- not the student.

Where would you place other tools such as Second Life, Flikr or Mind mapping on this map?

Second Life: I would place it in analysing if simply exploring, if designing a model of a cell or something in second life that would be the highest order learning which is creating.

Flickr: remembering

Mind Maps: If creating a mind map then creating. If it is a collaborative mind map there would be some evaluation necessary.

TEDxManila - Graham Glass - 12/05/09

module 10

Reflecting on the educational value of Wikis / Nings as virtual K-12 learning spaces

• How can Web 2.0 assist in improving learning outcomes for all students?

Good Points
- Motivation: the technology is fun to use, students are more motivated using computers as opposed to writing in books.
- Deeper learning: students can if given choice can delve deeper into a topic. This could encourage students to become life-long learners.
- Speed: knowledge can be obtained quickly and tested in interesting ways. Graham Glass spoke about an app which teaches Cartesian coordinate geometry using the context of a pirate finding treasure - students are rewarded in (virtual) gold coins for learning more about the history, maths, etc in the game.
- Modular Learning: students can learn at own pace.

Bad Points
- Lack of Time: teachers need to create new resources. At the moment teachers are too time poor to do this with the increasing demands placed on them.
- Training: some teachers will never embrace technology due to fear and lack of control.
- Fear: There is also a fear amongst some teachers that their power is taken away from them if students learn without them.
- Money: governments and systems need to employ people to create these new resources - there is no time for teachers to write new resources from scratch.

Interesting thoughts on wikis and Nings.
- Teachers can collaborate and build networks to teach and share their work. see the wiki that the Gary Carey, myself and Galen Neubronner produced about Databases in Science.
ictinscience.wikispaces.com

- Students have an audience for their work and thus take more pride.
- Good for differentiating the curriculum.

module 9

Social Networking at school - i thought all of this was discouraged.

Facebook - has no place in the classroom. it is also blocked.
Twitter - can't see the point in a classroom setting.

If anyone can try to convince me i would appreciate the discourse.

however, i have discovered the possibilities of second life in science education. since it is a 3D world it lets us explore inside cells, human anatomy and complex chemistry.

Science Learning Opportunities in Second Life

Module 8

RSS is very useful. I have subscibed to some great Science worksheets sites such as New York Science Teacher. i'm looking forward to seeing updates and sharing them on my blog.

Module 7

I Created a delicious account and have included both personal (private) bookmarks and public ones for school purposes.

I have yet to fully explore the capabilities of delicious. It is a great tool for teachers to organise their favourite sites and share these with their senior classes.

When exploring other poeple's blogs i discovered Ning. My next holiday task is to transfer some of my myclasses pages to Ning. There seems to be more scope in terms of design and transfer speed.

Module 6

Using glogger and bubbl.us.

These are essentially mind maps and webpages.

Good for revision at the end of term or HSC revision. Brings the big ideas together.

Glogster

xevious

this web 2.0 stuff has revolutionised the way i use the web for social and entertainment purposes.

I have attached the XEVIOUS gadget to my igoogle home page. What a beautiful time waster and a blast from my 80s past.

http://www.google.com.au/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/113822955816639290150/xevious.xml&source=imag

Module 5

Digital Story boarding

Using vodcasts and podcasts in the classroom:

Since year 9 and 10 have laptops their assessment tasks have been multimedia tasks.

Year 9 are given a model of how to produce a podcast on garage band. It is a guided tutorial which teaches students how to make a podcast ( or visual story board).
Pictures of various stages in Human evolution are placed in a folder on the school server. Students place the images in order and record a voice over explaining the sequence. Lower ability students could be given a script.
Then the students get an assessment task where they have to use imovie or garageband to teach a concept they have learned in class in semester one. Eg. the big bang, how nerves work, etc.
They work in small teams to make a short film. The best ones get chosen to enter into the sleek geeks award.

Year 10 create a website using iweb on a chosen disease. They provide information and fact sheet along with an FAQ section.

Podcasts

Found some great podcasts today.

If you ever wondered how your microwave works see:
http://meaghersphysics.podomatic.com/player/web/2007-09-15T23_51_34-07_00

Half way there

I'm hoping to finish this course by the end of the week and I'm still having fun with it.

Frank's Web 2.0 Adventures: get creative

Frank's Web 2.0 Adventures: get creative: "http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/getcreative/ very funny and informative"

get creative

http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/getcreative/

very funny and informative

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Module 4

I Created a flickr account today. I downloaded the photos provided by the CEO. I endeavour to add more of my own and manipulate them.


Creative commons is a great feature. More teachers and students need to be aware of copyright. Creative commons is great feature.

Module 3 - google docs

Google docs rocks!

This is a great tool for teachers and Science coordinators.

Possible apllications:

1. Use Google docs to proof exams across the department. Person posts exam on google docs and other teachers comment or add extra questions.

2. Store marks in google spreadsheets. Teachers can input marks from home.

3. No more relying on uSBs for presentations.

4. Departmental worksheets, marks, programs, etc can be stored off site

5. In the classroom: submit work on google docs. Allow the class access to improve quality of student work..

module 2

I really don't see the point of blogs in science teaching. i hate to be critical but most educational blogs have been nothing more than rants.

I have yet to find anything useful on a science teaching blog. Can anyone help?

web 2.0

I have just enrolled in the web 2.0 course.
I have enjoyed watching the you tube clips and setting up various accounts. I especially enjoyed customising my igoogle page with news, music, weather and sport gadgets.
Igoogle is great as it let's me select the news broadcaster as opposed to ninemsn where i was forced to read tabloid news prior to surfing the net.
I'm hoping to ad some science and education gadgets to my igoogle page.