After sitting through our student lead presentations, I realized one of the most beneficial aspects of these presentations was the resources my classmates provided me with.  We have spoken about how it is often difficult for teachers to find the time to review online resources to use in their classrooms.  I have come across this website and associated educational blog entitled The Top 101 Websites for Teachers. The writer provides teachers with wonderful resources that teachers can use in their classrooms.  These websites are categorized by subject which makes it very user friendly.  What I like about the associated blog (click on the link at the top of the website) is the author posts their opinions about both positive and negative educational resources.  I actually like the list of blogs the writer has listed on the side of their blog which include other educators’ blogs, technology, education news and opinions, and general news and opinions.   Check it out!

Off to work on my paper…..

Sorry for the lack of postings lately. I have been spending a lot of time on our recent projects and put my blog on the back burner.

Since my last post I have completed a Digital Story and a Learning Object.  The Digital Story proved to be very challenging for me.  I found uploading my pictures and music to be easy, but the editing proved to be very difficult.  First I read the 84 page iMovie manual (yikes!) and then experimented with a fake story.  Once I felt comfortable with the editing, I worked on my wedding video Digital Story.  It took me two weeks to get the editing almost perfect, but I still have some tweeking to do!

The LO was actually fairly easy to put together.  The majority of my time was spent searching for resources and writing assessment questions.  I am very glad we had to do this project because I finally took the time to create a resource for my students that I have needed for years!  Hopefully the students will find it valuable and learn new skills that will help them become better researchers.

“To change school practice, curriculum goals and materials, assessment policies, and teacher development must shift. Without these changes, a new technology will merely be used to enact traditional practices.” (Wiske)

I think this statement was eye-opening for me. I, like most teachers, struggle with developing “best practices” for technology use in the classroom. But this statement made me realize that my approach may be wrong at times. I shouldn’t be thinking “how can I add this technology to what I am currently doing,” but rather, I should think about how a course could change, ie, assessments, materials, and goals, for the better WITH the inclusion of new technological tools. I think instructors sometimes get in the rut of “this works so why change it,” when in reality education is a constantly changing entity.

I like some of the data collection ideas found in our readings. The thought of using computer programs in my biology labs to graph data and then compare patterns sounds good on paper, but I have some reservations. Yes, the students would save time with writing it all out on paper, but isn’t that the way you learn to graph? My colleagues and I have the same feeling about graphing calculators sometimes. The students just punch numbers into formulas, but never really understand how the formulas were derived. So in the end, technology is making life easier for people….or is it???

One thing that I would like to touch on briefly this week comes from “Learning for the 21st Century.” This article states that teachers must help students connect what they are doing in the classroom with what is happening in the real world; in other words, make classroom content relevant to their lives. This is something I struggle with on a daily basis. You would think Biology would be one of the easiest subjects to do this with, but it has proved to be difficult.

When asked almost daily “why do we have to learn this?” it is difficult not to become a little disheartened. I try very hard to give students real world applications for the experiments they are doing (medical breakthroughs, cures for diseases, stem cell research, etc.) but all they want to know is how it will help them in medical or graduate school. I will continue to explain the relevance to them everyday if I have to, if only to look forward to the gratification of a student who comes back to my office after graduation to inform me that they got a job based on their knowledge of cell biology techniques that they learned in my lab. Maybe I should have past students come in to talk to current students about how their MCB education is relevant to their current careers……

Creating my ePortfolio definitely gave me a sense of accomplishment. I was able to review all of the work I created in CTER (more than I originally thought) and organize it in a way that exemplifies my accomplishments. I am glad this was one the projects for this course as now I have an organized display of my course work and projects.

One thought I had while working on my ePortfolio…..I wish all of my CTER professors had given us gentle reminders to update our ePortfolio every semester. I remember creating it my first semester in CTER, but only went back to it a few times after that. I think graduate students should be encouraged to work on developing this ePortfolio throughout their graduate education and not just at the end. Hind sight is 20/20 I suppose!

The 2008 Horizon Report was an interesting pool of the latest technological advances.  I was familiar with all of the emerging technologies except for Data Mashup- interesting, just not sure how I would use this in the lab.  It would be cool if I could “mash” experimental data from each of my different sections so that the students could compare/contrast, but I feel I could probably just do this with a wiki also.  I think this is a valuable resource particularly because it contains examples of each technology ( I like reading about new technologies, but always struggle with how to use them in the classroom).  I was wondering how I was going to be kept up-to-date with the latest technologies after I leave CTER, and I think reading this annual report will help me.  In my “spare time” I plan on reading the 2009 report to see if anything new has emerged between the 2008-2009.

Pockets of Potential was an interesting compilation about cell phone usage for education.  I agree that students are now “mobile” not “digital” (Elliot Soloway), but I have some concerns about this.  Even at the college level, I still have students who do not have cell phones, personal computers or even printers.  This article speaks of the “affordability” of mobile devices, but I beg to differ.  Yes, more children have cell phones, but not all.  This could be a problem if you want to incorporate their use into a classroom activity.  I have to admit even I have removed email/internet from my cell phone due to cost in the past- how can I expect college students to pay for it then? I like that this article speaks to the idea of having the web at our fingertips; I am just not sure we are at a place where we can fully use this technology due to cost.

What is the future of learning?

CTER courses have given me some insight into the technological advances available to students today.  I have discussed in depth with my cohort how difficult it is to review all of these technologies and also to determine how best to use them in the classroom.  I am finding that once I incorporate new technology in the classroom (which sometimes involves purchasing equipment and/or software, or curriculum changes) the technology quickly changes and I am left to revamp and revise again.  CTER has given me many examples (blogs, wikis, chat, etc.) that I could explore with my students in the lab, but I realize that it is now up to me to take the time to utilize them.  My first step in this direction is actually occuring as I type this- for the first time this semester, I have allowed my students to do presentations in any format they choose rather than requiring PPT.  We’ll see how it goes! I will update you all later.

With regards to e-portfolios, I personally like having the opportunity to compile electronically all of the milestones/projects that I have completed in both my education and workplace.  A portfolio definitely gives one a sense of pride of and accomplishment.  Two aspects of ePortfolios that  I would like to explore more in the future are sharing my educational philosophies and also predicting what direction the future of my career, education, and MCB courses will take.  This may be as simple as developing a section for ideas to explore, key concepts to discuss, or project concepts for my students.

An intersting side note…..

This semester I discussed with some of my collegues the idea of my students creating ePortfolios of the lab work they completed in my course.  Most people baulked and asked me what the students would use the portfolios for after they graduated.  I tried to explain that I thought the future would behold the opportunity for Biology/Pre-med students to portray their course work, lab data, and volunteer experience electronically when applying for professional or graduate school- again everyone disagreed.  I think until that time actually comes, my innovative approach may be placed on the back burner, which is a little disheartening.

Personally, I feel my students would benefit from these portfolios as they are a means for the students to see all they have accomplished in their undergraduate curriculum.  Why not compile all of your accomplishments into one neat little electronic display?

I can’t believe this semester is almost over! Overall, I found this course to be extremely informative and beneficial. I have done evaluations in the past, but nothing as formal as the project I just completed. I am glad I now have the skills and know-how to complete a formal evaluation. This course is definitely going to benefit me at work!

I look forward to continually working on my evaluation. Since it will take 4 years to complete, I feel I have plenty of time to “test the waters” and make changes to the evaluation to make it more thorough if necessary. I would also like to add another component to my evaluation in the future- incorporate transfer student data.

Besides learning about evaluating, I enjoyed the fact that this course discussed a specific form of evaluation- AI. This concept was new to me, and I was pleasantly surprised how it put a positive spin on interview and survey questions. Before this course, I had always viewed evaluations as a means to identify “problems,” but now I see that you can also identify the good in programs and set a goal to emphasizes these positive aspects.

This class would not have been as much of a success for me without the help of Cheryl, Kona, and my peers. Breaking our paper up into manageable parts made things less overwhelming for me, and the feedback from my peers was priceless. I believe being able to review each other’s work was beneficial to all.

I hope everyone has happy and healthy holidays! See you in the next class!

So I haven’t worked on my project as much as I had hoped to this week. Hopefully having some time off from work this week will allow me to really concentrate on working on my final post. I had hoped to post a rough draft for feedback by this weekend, but have not had the chance to do that yet. If I get a post up in the next few days, I hope to get some feedback before posting my final copy.

The PPT is in the back of my mind. I know what I want to talk about- I just have to sit down and do it! I am having flashbacks to my college days when you find any possible reason to procrastinate on homework. My excuse(not a good one) yesterday was Christmas shopping! I like said, my plan this week is to buckle down and finish!

Best of luck to everyone on these final weeks! Happy Thanksgiving!

So I have compiled the parts of my paper into one document and created a cover page.  After reviewing the sample pages, I see that I need to create an appendix for my timeline and interview and survey questions.  Once I have this accomplished, I plan on checking that my paper flows and creating a final synthesis of how I will collect the data and analyze the results.  I hope to have a rough draft together soon and delivered to Kona and Cheryl for feedback.

Happy thanksgiving to everyone!