Wiki The Science Classroom

https://thescienceclassroom.wikispaces.com/The+Science+Classroom

This particular wiki encourages collaboration and communication of natural science topics (Robyler, 258). This particular project appeals to my ultimate goal in teaching of preparing students for their post high school experience in today’s technology heavy educational climate and work place. It allows students to develop a personal ownership to their comprehensive knowledge in Natural science and also physics.

EARTHWEEK-A Diary of the Planet Widget

http://www.earthweek.com

This widget provides daily up to date current events and news in Science and Nature. The widget provides an automated information experience on your browser with current science content (Robyler, 224). This widget would allow me to let students choose their own current scientific event from the constantly streaming widget. Since the events are current, students could further research and then present their results on the topic.

Albert Einstein Quotes Widget

This would be a “no brainer widget” to have in a high school science classroom. To have access on a daily basis to such content would encourage my students and their interest in science (Roblyer, 225). The man is arguably the most influential scientist of all time and is also a personal hero of mine. His quotes are insightful, encouraging, and of course brilliant. For my students to see a new quote of perhaps the greatest scientist of all time on a daily basis with this gadget would contribute so much to their knowledge and perhaps their lives (Roblyer,258).

Web Based Lesson National Museum of Natural History Web Based Student Activities

http://www.mnh.si.edu/education/studentactivities.html

M4 stellar Web Based Lessons from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History one example http://t.co/ETwTswc6aX #ED527UM

— David Iradji (@DavidIradji) October 18, 2013

As an educator, my students engaging in distant collaborations will be a necessity (Robyler, 258). These web based student lessons and activities are created by the mecca collection of Smithsonian Science. These activities would continually encourage the development of scientific inquiry and critical thinking skills. These are the foundation of web based lessons according to Roblyer and Doering (pg.225). I would incorporate these activities into my classroom lessons and units.

Module 3

Module 3

Urls:
Uniform Resource locators are internet addresses (Roblyer, 2013, p.216). The most essential part of an URL is who the server belongs to and its domain designator. The domain name tells you who the server belongs. The designator allows an educator to determine what kind of group owns the server such as .org, .gov, or .edu (Robyler, 2013 p.216). This is the basic foundation of a website and provides the essential knowledge of its content to an educator/student.

Search Engine:
The Search Engine is the revolutionary tool that allows us to locate information on the Internet. It’s a vital part in most people’s lives especially educators and students. An educator and student must master the art of using search engines by being familiar with all major search engines and also Metacrawlers. Metacrawlers are programs the use more than one search engine at the same time to locate information (Robyler, 2013 p.219). Search Strategies must be developed and taught based on subject and keywords. This will ensure efficient and adequate information retrieval from the Internet.

Internet Tools:
A Podcast is a very versatile Internet tool that can be very useful in the classroom. In an era where virtually every student has access to an audio file and headphones all day every day, for an educator to supply a podcast of a study guide, keywords, basic lectures, etc. could be very beneficial. This allows the student access to material and review all the time. There are many studies that show if you’re studying in the evening as soon as you wake up review that same material it will better retain in your memory. I used this technique throughout college and it became an essential tool especially in upper division science courses. If students have podcasts of information at their fingertip then they can constantly be reviewing material.

Favorite Websites:
Two websites that I feel are personally my favorite especially for education is Merriam-webster.com and google.com.
www.google.com
Google.com is most peoples major search engine of choice. Google is a very simple keyword search site and displays an instant list of websites with URLs that contain the word or phrase searched (Robyler, 2013 p.219). It also includes images, various advanced search tools, maps, and many other search capabilities. It’s my personal and also the greater population go to website and search engine.
 www.merriam-webster.com
 Merriam-Webster.com allows students to have a dictionary and thesaurus at their fingertips. It also contains an audio feature which pronounces the word as well. I personally use it constantly and believe it’s a vital website in expanding ones vocabulary and knowledge. Everyone should have this on their browser based list or bookmark file in order to utilize this site on a regular basis (Roblyer, 2013 p.218).

M3 http://t.co/zxNPF5B3Dg check out Merriam-Websters website geared for student/educator word power #ED527UM
— David Iradji (@DavidIradji) October 3, 2013

Through The Black Hole (u-ventures) (Book)

M2edtech #ED527UM @Hmason36 see Top 10 Web tools from a teacher including mobile learning very informative

— David Iradji (@DavidIradji) September 24, 2013

Hypermedia and Audio/Video Production

Hypermedia increases motivation and interest when presenting information. It’s an essential evolving tool in the classroom. One particular commercial hypermedia product that I took great interest to was an interactive storybook. The software is called U-ventures and the website is www.u-ventures.net.

Classic way to keep children engaged in reading and now digitally interactive #chooseyourownadventure #ED527UM

— David Iradji (@DavidIradji) September 19, 2013

This product is an interactive storybook. It has very special place in my heart as a lifetime avid reader. This electronic storybook is adapted from the the Choose Your Own Adventure book series, that I myself fell in love with at a very young age. Its use in the classroom is phenomenal and was for me as well on a personal level. It’s interactive and you choose the character’s next move. Now that the paperbacks have become digitally interactive that popularity has continued to grow. It keeps students on their toes. It’s a way to make reading versatile and interaction is available as the student requests it. In an era of handheld 24 television programs and movies, I feel this is an ideal competition for students to read than rather watch something on a screen. A multimedia authoring tool that also can keep students engaged and motivated is audio and video production and editing systems (Roblyer & Doering, pg.186). Students have access to video cameras, editing programs, and all types of technology via cell phones and lap tops. We must incorporate these tools in the classroom. Develop assignments where students can create podcasts or videos to submit the material. Students can utilized lesson reviews and study guides via video and audio streams (Robyler & Doering, pg.189) . We live in an era where people have headphones on all day and are usually attached to a screen. Educators must incorporate lessons and school work to these types of media and students can access material virtually all the time at their finger tips.

References

Johnson, Amy. (August,2013.)Through the Black hole. Retrieved September, 2013:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUQtWUabWVI.

Things People Forget Not To Do in Desktop Publishing follow the Criteria

Roblyer and Doering pointed out several major concerns in desktop publishing that I still am guilty of doing. I still do limit the number of fonts in my work (so distracting). I still often find myself using the same fonts for title and text. I’ll even admit prior to chapter 5 and reading other classmates blogs I was unfamiliar with serif typeface and sans serif typeface. I often paid little attention to appropriate sizes. I’m definitely guilty of excessive underlining, boldfacing, and italics (which I thought I was also was so clever when using). Matching text and background colors is also a major flaw especially when reading all the other gorgeous blogs by fellow classmates. I’m excited about hopefully mastering these concepts eventually and hopefully before my career takes off. I love such simple phrases as “white space sells.” Also how visual cues can be so effective for a reader is also very useful and intriguing. I want to combine all these features in my blog and also have seen excellent examples in other classmates. I know graphics can get complicated but I also understand the simple stuff is just as important to master. Last but not least you can never forget to avoid typos, text break, and format errors.

Bringing The Internet & Software into the Classroom

The Internet & Software Assist Teachers

 

GeoThentic -  http://www.lt.umn.edu/geothentic

Simulation Support Software

This website allows students to solve complex problems within an online environment.  It is a very insightful approach by national geographic to provide a learning environment in which students learn by making adult decisions.  Geothentic allows students to build on their scaffold by using their own experiences in an active and hands on manner with real life situations (Roblyer and Doering,2013,pg.45). 

Check it out...!National geographic's way of teaching kids how to deal with adult scientifc situations. http://t.co/2MitjsDi9Q. #ED527UM

— David Iradji (@DavidIradji) September 5, 2013

Learningplanet.com – http://www.learningplanet.com

Drill and Practice Software

The Learning Planet offers a very extensive library of learning activities and educational games.  The math exercises allow learners to have diverse choice in various drill and practice educational games.  It allows students to learn through fun work problems and obtain immediate feedback and grades (Robyler and Doering, 2013, pg. 83).  This type of practice is essential to math because it eliminates the monotony of traditional math daily lessons in the classroom setting.

HippoCampus.org – http://www.hippocampus.org

Tutorial Software

Hippo Campus is a core academic website with a very extensive multimedia collection that offers tutorials and videos for all high school science subjects (NROC, 2103).  It’s very well-funded and offered to the general public (NROC, 2013).  These animations and videos mimic an advanced human tutorial providing all information and instructional activities a high or middle school student requires to master a science topic (Robyler and Doering, 2013, pg.78).  Again not only does it provide an excellent tutorial source, it’s also REGISTER FREE and NO CHARGE.

Math Blaster – http://www.mathblaster.com

Support Software Instructional Game

An instructional game that even makes the repition of math enjoyable through the use of drills and simulations.  Math is a subject which requires constant motivation and this site offers many activities which follow a rule in order to produce a sufficient outcome (Robyler and Doering, 2013, pg.90).

 Memory Challenge – www.criticalthinking.org

Support Software Problem Solving

Memory Challenge assists students solving skills by teaching directly through explanation and practice (Robyler and Doering, 2013, pg.79).  These memory exercises provide various levels of difficulty to ensure adequate problem solving skills are developed by the student. 

References

Robyler, M.D. & Aaron H. Doering.  Intergrating Educational Technology into Teaching (6^th ed.). Upper Saddle River : Pearson.

Monterey Institute for Technology and Education and NROC. (2013, January). User’s Guide to HippoCampus.  Retrieved from www.hippocampus.org.

It's On...

It's On...

Looking forward to blogging and hopefully allowing this course embrace technology even further.  I've always loved techonology especially in new gadgets!

Thanks Class