Technology Blog For EDU580

The Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Science has a website, http://www.koshland-science-museum.org/exhibitdna/index.jsp that explains many aspects of DNA.  Students look at the structure and organization of DNA.  They see how DNA codes for proteins.  The site reviews mutations and also discusses how technologies have utilized the science behind DNA to solve problems that exist in the world.  Students are then able to experience these real world applications by solving problems that experts might attempt.  Students look at real DNA sequences to discover how inherited diseases are found, how criminal DNA is matched to crime scenes, how new viruses are compared to old for better identification, and how corn changed genetically from its wild type to become the domesticated corn we eat today.

This website reviews the basics of genetics that must be covered in a high school biology class in preparation for the Regents.  A downside to this site is that the basics are rather wordy.  There is a lot of reading at a level that will test a student’s understanding of the material.  The interactive DNA analyses give students the opportunity to think the way that a geneticist in the field might.  Students must solve the problem of identifying key features of a new virus or determining if a child has an inherited disease.  The equipment necessary to do this is very expensive.   A high school biology laboratory could not afford the micropipetters, DNA amplifiers, and DNA sequencers that are needed to use knowledge of genetics in a meaningful way.  This website allows students to virtually analyze DNA to further discover its importance.  These activities give students an experience into a very specialized field of scientific study. 

This website would encourage a deeper understanding of material because students must not only know the facts but also be able to apply them to real scenarios.  The investigations look into techniques that students would be likely to read about in the newspaper or hear on the news.  This application of information takes student understanding to the next level and answers the dreaded question, “Why is this important?”  Students experience the answer to broaden their knowledge and make the material more meaningful.  Genetics becomes real to students because they have heard of ways that it is used but were never allowed to experience it.  This activity allows them to get a deeper understanding of how genetics affects them and people around them.  This is also beneficial to students as they think about future careers.  This website introduces students to job opportunities in genetics.

            I can see this webpage integrated at the conclusion of learning about DNA.  It is a little advanced for an introduction; however, after a couple of weeks of instruction on DNA, this site will be a great review of material before a test.  Students could work in the computer lab in groups to answer the questions posed on the website.  I like that students have the chance to apply genetics to real world scenarios.  This topic can easily be breezed over giving students little practical experience or knowledge of the relevance of the material.  The activities are also structured enough to have students work in groups and to solve problems and learn information together.  This changes the classroom atmosphere from being independent work with a lot of note taking to structured group work to solve problems.  I think this allows students who are advanced to dig deeper into the material while allowing students who do not understand the material as clearly to work with others to fine tune their comprehension.  I like that this website can work on different levels for different people to enhance their understanding.

The digital domain reviews were interesting and particularly relevant to me.  Both of the presenters are future biology teachers.  Their reviews were opportunities for me to see different technology resources available for my teaching.  In class it was brought up that in schools there are not a lot of opportunities for teacher communities that allow educators to share new lesson ideas or problem solve situations as a group.  Such organizations of teachers would greatly benefit teacher ability by learning what methods seem to work the best.  As teachers become more comfortable with the internet I think more online technique sharing communities will develop among teachers over vast distances.  In this class, hearing my peers’ suggestions for biology related resources was very close to a non-virtual learning community.  One resource was found at www.scratch.mit.edu/projects/boldbait.  This was an animation program that allows students to create creatures and set them to motion.  I think in a biology class this may be useful in teaching students classification.  I have seen an example of an activity that allows students to identify fictitious monsters using a dichotomous key.  If a teacher were to design several animated creatures using this site they could create their own key that might also include organism habits and behaviors.  This would take the key to a new level and allow students to practice their observation abilities.  Another resource was at www.dnaftb.org/1/concept/.  This site was about DNA.  It traces the history of DNA through discovery and applications.  The website has a lot of good pictures but also has a lot of reading to accompany them.  This site looks like it could be a substitute for a textbook assignment as it is very detailed.  As a result of the detail a teacher may decide to only use certain parts of this website and make the rest of the site available for students to research on their own if they are interested.    The last presentation was on a couple of game related websites.  These were www.biologyjunction.com and www.quia.com/shared/bio.  These sites have many different games.  These games would be useful for review of material; however, they do not seem to test students higher order thinking.  Students rely on simple recall for many of the games on these websites. 

After the digital reviews we worked on creating a lesson that integrates technology based on water.  Every discipline has a different way of looking at the same thing; water is a great example of this.  A physical education or health teacher looks at water as a way to stay healthy and hydrated.  A history teacher sees water as a necessary platform to start a civilization or a useful way to transport goods.  As a biology teacher, I see water as a necessity of all life.  My group, made of biology teachers, designed a lesson looking at how human might affect the water cycle.  We tied in agricultural techniques and how they affect invertebrate species in a nearby stream.  The lesson worked to encourage higher order, biology like, thinking about water.  Students would have the opportunity to create a study and then use Microsoft Excel® to draw conclusions about data they found.  In science the ability to manipulate data to make useful conclusions is essential.  It is interesting that by looking at numbers in different graphic representations a scientist to make completely different conclusions.  Database functions have a special place in science classes, and to some extent math classes, were students are exposed to interpreting the importance of graphs.  Graphs are everywhere; newspapers, profit reports, and many more places.  Science class is a great place to teach students the difference between useful graphs and poorly designed graphs, for this reason I think it is a good idea for teachers of these subjects to help students to really understand how graphs work.  This may be the only instruction they get for useful graph interpretation for an entire lifetime. 

                Class was a lot about us learning from each other.  We started by watching three digital domain reviews presented by our peers.  The first was on the Total War suite of games and how they might have relevance to a history class.  I was surprised to learn that these games are very detailed and historically accurate.  One can not only replicate historic battles and change conditions, but one can travel through important cities and villages to see architecture and layout.  I thought the battle scenes were impressive, showing hundreds or thousands of soldiers, much more realistic to battles than I had ever in field reenactments.  A teacher could use this as a way to show students how battles were fought, helping those who learn visually.  It was mentioned that this game does have limitations, like that one does not get an understanding of what individuals were feeling while going to battle.  The combined actions and thoughts of those who were fighting are what made the outcome of a battle or war.  This game cannot simulate this and that may be due to the nature of technology, it is limited by certain factors (see blog entry for June 16).  Another technology for teachers is found at www.mygradebook.com.  This is a site that can help a teacher keep track of student grades.  After making an account, a teacher can put assignments, student emails, and even seating charts on this program to aid them in keeping track of the paperwork side of teaching.  This might be a useful site if teaching in a district that does not have a required grade book program for teachers to use, as many schools do.  The security of the site was also questioned; however, it seemed the site was as secure as any popular email account would be.  The final presentation was a game that could be used in a government class.  It can be found at www.redistrictinggame.org.  In this game, students need to redistrict areas for congressional elections.  They must achieve certain goals, like having equal numbers of people represented.  Students must also manipulate the number of people in the district so that certain political parties have the majority.  This raises questions about the ethics behind how voting districts are determined and whether voting for a candidate is really useful or if it is already predetermined as to who will win an election, or at least who has the advantage.  I think this is an interesting topic to cover with high school students who may want to feel empowered.  During elections, many think their vote matters, this activity shows that it is possible that election results may be predetermined and that we may not be as empowered as we think.
                The second half of the class afforded us the chance to work with a Smartboard.  This was new for me and the equipment has a lot of bells and whistles to help teachers.  It allows teachers to save notes that they may have written on the board even after they have been erased.  The handwriting can be changed to typed text with only a push of a button.  These notes could then be given to an absent student so they are sure to have all of the material.  They could also be given to visually impaired students to manipulate in a way beneficial for them to study.  There are also activities in the Smartboard programs that students can do to help them study. There are geography puzzles, media files, art work, and many other resources available.  These would help students who learn kinesthetically.  We discussed that a Smartboard really does not do anything that could not be done without it.  I think it is an interesting tool that can help us reach students who learn by doing.  It also allows us to make our notes more permanent.  Even if Smartboards are more for convenience, I think it can be valuable in helping students to learn.  After all, technology should only enhance our teaching; we must still be the ones guiding the class.  Tools like Smartboard should be used to help students learn.

When taking a course on technology, one might have a preconceived notion that the best place to learn would be in front of a computer, or at least in a classroom with a projector and dry erase board.  Our class could not be found with any of these technologies around.  Instead while sitting in a circle, on imitation reed seats in the warm late spring sun, we discussed the implications of technologies on our abilities, accepted definitions, and the unique limitations of technology.

Technological developments have allowed humans to increase their abilities to think and to achieve.  This was demonstrated by trying to multiply two, three digit numbers in Roman numerals.  A task that, ironically, proved undoable for a class of adults working on Masters Degrees.  We found that through the advent of Arabic numerals, complex mathematical computations became much easier and efficient to do.  At one time this was a new technology revolutionizing our ability to do mathematics.  It was mentioned that during the “big upgrade” from Roman numerals to Arabic numerals there was difficulty in understanding how math would be done, this may be similar to what we might be living through with digital technologies.  

We drew upon personal experiences of how technology has impacted definitions of life we see around us.  For instance, the idea of being “with” someone has changed from interacting with a person in a face-to-face way, to being in the physical presence of a person; however, not interacting with them and perhaps being on a cell phone with someone else.  In personal relationships, spending time “with” one another takes on this new meaning. The door is open to being “with” someone and not being around them.  Talking, texting, or instant messaging others who are miles away may be so interactive that being virtually with a person exceeds the contact that one is having with people who are only a few feet away.  No longer does the definition of “with” have the same meaning as it did only ten years ago. 

We also discussed the limitations that there may be to technology.  Technology cannot address or affect things that we hold as uniquely personal.  A fear, love, or emotion we feel cannot be depicted through technology and affect every person who experiences it the same way.  We are all individuals, not to say that exposure to a culture that seeks oneness is not making us all similar.  As people we must work to be as unique as possible, not in opposition of ideas of oneness; but to ensure the world is filled with many unique thinkers all viewing the world slightly differently.  Innovations are made by people who see what they have a little differently.  As teachers, we must be sure that we do not fall into letting technology drive our instruction.  We should not make a lesson fit into a PowerPoint® just because our computers have the program.  We should not use a Smartboard just because our classroom has one.  Our pedagogy should not be so defined by technology that we cannot teach without it.  Technology should not bind us to computers, projectors, and dry erase boards simply because we have them.  We must use technology to enhance our teaching and be willing to leave our smart classrooms with the goal of better teaching and learning. 

After our discussion was done we went back inside for some practical applications of word processing and using PowerPoint®.  We found short written pieces and, using Microsoft Word ®, made changes and reviewed each other’s work.  We added pictures and made the work publishable before turning it into a PowerPoint® slide.  The slides needed to have less than five bullets with only notes on them, no complete sentences.  Pictures were to be used to enhance the material.  It was a beneficial activity.

The implications of technology on our everyday lives is much farther reaching than I had initially thought.  When viewed as any extension of ourselves that increase our capacity we realize that technology affects all aspects of our lives.  Technology can have mind boggling complexity or unastounding simplicity, whether it is the extensive infastructure and programs that run the GPS units used to hep us navigate or a simple sock, cushioning and insulating our feet.  Every technology that has been developed has implications for how we live our lives and our lives are the effects of our application of new and old technologies.  How we use different technologies will dictate whether they are useful for the advancement of the human mind, which is one of the goals of being a teacher.  Perhaps, now more than ever it is our job, no our responsibility, to be able to implement different technologies into our classroom in a useful and beneficial way for our students to advance their minds.  We must be the students’ technological sock, cushioning and insulating their experiences with technology, and their GPS, guiding them to useful, successful, and rewarding experiences with these self enhancing capabilities.

Today’s class opened my eyes to my own technological inadequacies.  I have a lot to learn and I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge on how to integrate additional technologies into my classes in a meaningful way.  I am well on my way by initiating my first blog, it has surely started out to be an interesting and informative class.

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