Lesson 8: Benefits of Online Communication Tools

          I used to have pen pals as a kid. Growing up in rural West Virginia, in the days before cable, computers, and the Internet, they were my link to the outside world. Over thirty years later, I still remember Cindy Chen from Singapore and Susan Smith from Australia, and Stacey Holden, from the faraway land of Oklahoma. They shared with me what it was like growing up halfway around the world and I told them what it was like having neighbors who milked cows, hunted raccoons, and still had an outside bathroom. I eagerly awaited their letters covered in exotic stamps that took almost 3 weeks to get to me each month. Communication was so important, that I was willing to wait weeks for an answer to my letters. The invention of online communication has expanded our ability to communicate with others in a way that I would not have thought possible as I was waiting in line at the post office to purchase my very expensive air mail stamps. Forget weeks for an answer! How about seconds? Today’s users of email, Blogs, and social networking sites such as Facebook can communicate almost instantaneously, if they choose to. I certainly choose to. My sister who lives several states away has probably written 2 letters in her whole life, never remembers to send pictures of her kids, and calls every now and then. Using Facebook, I can keep up with what my nieces and nephew are doing, view pictures, and sometimes even catch her online and have a quick chat. There’s no denying that online communication tools have made the world a much smaller and much more informed (for better or worse) place. Though, I will never forget the excitement of finding one of those red, white, and blue letters written on the special air mail paper in the mail box.

          One of the drawbacks of opening communication with the whole world is that the whole world is not always nice. To keep your computer and the information that you store on it safe, you have to have security. At home, I have a Firewall and security software that I run regularly. At school, all of our computers are networked and the security software is automatically updated on a daily basis. We are not allowed to download software that is not directly intended for use in the classroom and we must have a valid license for use. Students are also forbidden from bringing software from home to run on a school computer. As a teacher we are expected to monitor students while they are on the computers and make sure that this does not occur, plus the computers in the lab are automatically configured to delete any unauthorized software as they are shut off each night. It is important that we, as adults and educators, model proper computer use for our students and educate them in how to be safe while online, including using security software and being aware of the dangers of viruses and malware.

Lesson 7: Educational Software

           There are so many different types of educational software available to today’s educators, the task of selecting which ones are relevant and which are just plain bad can be a daunting task. Luckily, our school district, like many others these days,  employs full-time time technical support people and curriculum coaches to help us in selecting software that both meets our curriculum standards, student needs, and budget.

          Last year I used virtual dissection software with my 6^th grade science students. Being the first time that most of them had ever experienced dissection, I thought it was a good idea to let them go through a “dry run” before the actual “live” dissection (the students are live, the frogs are dead). I accessed the software via my computer in the classroom and used an LCD projector to present it to the class. The software guided the user through the steps of dissection: how to place the frog in the tray, how to pin it, where and how to make the appropriate cuts in the frog, etc. Short videos showed the students what to do, and then they followed through by making the incisions to the frog themselves. I had students take turns doing the dissection on my computer, while the others watched on the screen.

          It was a good introduction and allowed me to get a good idea of who I should assign and not assign as lab partners. Somebody has to actually cut the real frog! The students that volunteered to virtually dissect really enjoyed it, but the students who were grossed out did not. I felt that it was important that all the students follow the dissection on the screen, even if they were squeamish, to better prepare them for the actual event. On the screen they did not have to deal with the smell, textures, and sounds of the actual dissection, but they would learn much of the same anatomy and physiology of the frog that they would be required to know.

Eventually, I would like to actually purchase a class license to use in the computer lab so that all of the students could do the virtual dissection, instead of using only one copy on my computer. Budgets being what they are and considering that I only do this once a year, I don’t think that that will happen, however.

          This year, as I prepare to do dissection again with my students, I am going to try to find software (freeware) that is easy to use, of good quality, and appropriate grade level for my 6^th grade students. There are many options out there that meet these needs. I just need to do my research.

Lesson 6: WebQuests

“I finally did it!” was my first reaction after I completed my first official WebQuest a few minutes ago. I am rather proud of my accomplishment and put a lot of effort into making it visually appealing and relevant to my students.  
The address is: http://questgarden.com/100/00/4/100404095921/ if anyone would like to take peek. It is called "Built for Success: Animal Adaptations." It takes students on a quest to discover the relationship between an animal's adaptations and its habitat. Students will explore how animals are uniquely adapted to survive in a particular habitat. I am not completely finished though. I want to add pictures and I will have to write to the webmaster to figure out how to add my own photos to my site. Currently the files are too large. I take a lot of photos of all the wonderful animals at the Louisville Zoo and would like to include them in my WebQuest to personalize it for my students by adding photos of animals that they might have actually seen in person.

          I enjoyed the WebQuest, but would not use it for every lesson. I don’t think that is the intent of the WebQuest anyway. I think it would be fun to design one for the periodic table of the elements. Students could choose (or be assigned) an element and research it via a WebQuest. I would also like to embed video in my WebQuest. Maybe with a video of me explaining the “mission” of the quest in the style of the movie “Mission Impossible.” Something like “Your mission, and you WILL choose to accept it, is to discover what element or elements are essential for human survival. This message will self-destruct in 30 seconds…just kidding. Now get to work!” There are several different ways to design a WebQuest on that particular topic.

Another idea is to redesign my “Science Fiction or Science Fact” project and turn it into a WebQuest. It might make it a little easier to follow, especially with my lower-performing students if they had a definite plan to follow, instead of having the whole Internet to explore. Sometimes that can be a little intimidating for some students.

I did also learned that not all WebQuest creation sites are created equal. The WebGarden site was down last night, so I decided to try one of the other recommended sites on the main website. The AT&T site looked easy enough, but after a couple of hours work, all I had was a pretty “hotlist” of websites for my students to look at. Thanks goodness the WebGarden site was back up this morning. It did take a while, but I am pretty satisfied with the results. I just need to figure out the picture thing…one WebQuest at a time.

Lesson 5: Online Communication Tools

     In 10 years of teaching science I have used a variety of online communication tools in my classroom, including email, web site links, and streaming video,

     My teaching team has its own webpage attached to our school’s homepage where students and parents can access the following important information: daily activities in each of the four core classes; information about upcoming events such as field trips, school pictures, etc.; homework page with attached links to the actual document, if applicable; due dates for projects, etc. The students can also access our individual email addresses from this page to send email. I think this is a very effective way to keep parents “in the loop” and help students to be better organized and prepared for class. We spend an entire class period during the first week of school explaining to students how to access the web page, what information they can find there, and how to email any of the teachers if they need additional help or have questions that were not answered by the web page.

     I used to keep a hyperlinked list of web sites for my students to use whenever they were going to the computer lab or were doing research on the Internet, but I had a hard time keeping it updated. Links become broken or hijacked, as in one unforgettable incident involving a website about the periodic table and full-frontal nudity! It took a lot of time trying to manage the links and ensuring that they were all still working and valid, so I now just use a few links for each project, which I carefully check each time before I have the students go there.

     Last, but definitely not least is using streaming video! We don’t have a lot of money for science videos in the budget and even if we did, they would probably be out of date in a couple of years, depending on the scientific topic. With steaming video and an LCD projector, I always have the most up-to-date information available. Most recently, I was talking about the volcano that just started to erupt under a glacier in Iceland. We had been discussing geothermal energy the month before and some students still had a hard time with the idea that Iceland is the world’s number one producer of geothermal (“heat from under the Earth”) energy. Being an island, it was, of course formed by a volcano, but then there’s that whole covered with ice thing…some kids just didn’t get it. Then the volcano erupted in the middle of a great moving sheet of ice. Black molten rock and scarlet flames shot high into the air, instantly vaporizing the ice into steam. It was very impressive on CNN that morning, but as I tried to convey my excitement to the kids, my words were simply not enough. Later that day I logged on to MSN.com and there was the link to the CNN video clip of the eruption. I was so excited to be able to share that with my students and to help them make the connection between what they learned in class to what was going on in the outside world. A similar thing happened when I was looking for streaming video about animal habitats. PBS.org is an invaluable resource for teachers. I found several full-length videos about habitats from NOVA and Nature that were appropriate for use in my 6^th grade science classroom. The kids squealed with excitement (at least I think it was excitement…) as they watched a giant Burmese Python swallow a full grown alligator in the Florida Everglades. You just don’t get that much reaction when you are reading about invasive species and protecting natural habitats in a book. Literally the day after we watched the streaming video, CNN ran a story on how officials have declared hunting season on the Python in Florida in an effort to curb the tens of thousands of released “ex-pets” that are starting to endanger the already endangered species that are protected there. I will probably cease to include video requests in my budget in the future. We simply don’t really need them very often anymore. Using video streaming allows you make real-life, up to date connections, at the speed of your Internet connection for FREE!