Raven McCrory first discusses the relationship between technology and science. Then he describes where to use technology in the curriculum, what technology to use and how to use it. He finishes the chapter with discussion about how a teacher's knowledge of subject matter, students, pedagogy and technology help answer the previous where, what and how questions.
Where to use technology in the curriculum:
1) Areas of the curriculum that are hard to teach
2) Areas that technology is an essential element of the science being taught.
What technologies are classified into 3 categories:
1) Unrelated directly to science but used to support science-
EX: spreadsheets, word processing, graphic software
2) Designed for teaching and learning science-
EX: Model-it, Virtual Frog, Cooties, BIOKids, and WISE
I especially value the interactive science simulations at PHET.
There are many research-based sims with a searchable data-base of teacher created lesson plans. I find this technology most useful at helping students grasp abstract concepts like the nature of fields and electromagnetic waves, to differentiate between the velocity and acceleration of an object and especially electricity and magnetism concepts.
3) Technology designed to do science-
EX: Microscopes, Telescopes, Measuring Probes, Scientific calculators
Tips on How technologies are used:
- Teach students how to first use the system or tools
- Give them time to "play" with the system or tools
- Identify possible failure points and make alternate plans in case of breakdowns
- Plan a specific activity
- Consider environmental conditions like the amount of student talk allowed during the activity
- Plan for assessment of what students learned and the efficacy of the activity.
I believe having time to "play" with a technology system or tool is an important step in an effective implementation. During "play time" formative assessment can take place and troubleshooting can occur. Students are able to orient themselves and the teacher has time for some 1 on 1 troubleshooting to bring students up to speed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The interactive science simulations are very powerful and when used as part of the learning process can make a difference in students deeply understanding the concepts. The author takes TPACK and clearly connects the technology by using the Where, What and How questions. It allows you to select and bring the technology into both the content and pedagogy circles.
ReplyDeleteThe links you provided were great resources. Have you seen the NASA site http://www.nasaimages.org/ take a look at Aeronautics.
You are so right about the playing and using formative assessment as the trouble shooting process. Think of the playing as the exploring and rethinking components of the WHERETO model.
ReplyDelete