Final Blog!!
Hello readers,
This is an exciting post for me, because it marks the end of the semester! Wow has the last couple of years of university flew by! This is an exciting time for us all, being in the market for jobs and ready to start our "grown-up" lives.
This past week my peers and myself presented different technology resources to be used in the classroom. I chose to do mine on the interactive simulation programs available at https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new . The site was originally made for Physics specifically, that's where the term "PhET" originated from was "Physics Education Technology". It was created by a group of University of Colorado graduate students and has since boomed in popularity. The site now contains 158 different simulations with a spectrum of different subject areas. The site has since added subjects of Math, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Biology. The resource is very popular with teachers in those subjects I mentioned because its a different way for students to interact with and understand a concept they are learning. It's especially good for when its a complex concept and it provides extra visuals that you wouldn't be able to see in real life - for example electric field lines growing bigger or smaller when its something we cannot actually see in the real world. The site boasts that 658 million of their simulations have been delivered around the world, 658 MILLION! That is a wild number, and also proof in the pudding - this stuff is effective, interactive, and FREE!
Another resource that I could see myself using was the one Aaron presented to us. Aaron showed us the website https://www.kialo.com/, which is a medium used for debates and discussion. It is very user-friendly and powerful tool to help students engage in the discussion. It is accessible through the internet - phones, tablets, laptop ect. For the website to be most effective it is best to log in and make an account, dont worry though, you can use Facebook or Google too. You can create your own topics, or use the literal million topics that they already have. It starts with students coming up with their own "Pro's" and "Con's" to a given topic. Other students can see the entire classes Pro's and Con's, and each time a student leaves an answer, there is an opportunity for others to discuss things about that answer (like little side-bars of more discussion). It can start to make quite the little charlotte's web quickly with people participating, debating, and discussing. Debates are awesome, no matter the subject, because its helps people see from different perspectives and be MORE ENGAGED.
Well that's it for my blog post this week. I'm looking forward to having a good sit down with Bryce K as we discuss details about what we learned from taking this course in a podcast format. That will be our final piece to the puzzle of the Internet For Educators class.
Thanks for anyone who took the time to read this and/or read any of my posts throughout the semester. I'm sure we will be getting together around grad and likely after we finish the 7 weeks of student teaching. Keep your nose to the grind stone people, your almost there!
-DJ
This is an exciting post for me, because it marks the end of the semester! Wow has the last couple of years of university flew by! This is an exciting time for us all, being in the market for jobs and ready to start our "grown-up" lives.
This past week my peers and myself presented different technology resources to be used in the classroom. I chose to do mine on the interactive simulation programs available at https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new . The site was originally made for Physics specifically, that's where the term "PhET" originated from was "Physics Education Technology". It was created by a group of University of Colorado graduate students and has since boomed in popularity. The site now contains 158 different simulations with a spectrum of different subject areas. The site has since added subjects of Math, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Biology. The resource is very popular with teachers in those subjects I mentioned because its a different way for students to interact with and understand a concept they are learning. It's especially good for when its a complex concept and it provides extra visuals that you wouldn't be able to see in real life - for example electric field lines growing bigger or smaller when its something we cannot actually see in the real world. The site boasts that 658 million of their simulations have been delivered around the world, 658 MILLION! That is a wild number, and also proof in the pudding - this stuff is effective, interactive, and FREE!
Another resource that I could see myself using was the one Aaron presented to us. Aaron showed us the website https://www.kialo.com/, which is a medium used for debates and discussion. It is very user-friendly and powerful tool to help students engage in the discussion. It is accessible through the internet - phones, tablets, laptop ect. For the website to be most effective it is best to log in and make an account, dont worry though, you can use Facebook or Google too. You can create your own topics, or use the literal million topics that they already have. It starts with students coming up with their own "Pro's" and "Con's" to a given topic. Other students can see the entire classes Pro's and Con's, and each time a student leaves an answer, there is an opportunity for others to discuss things about that answer (like little side-bars of more discussion). It can start to make quite the little charlotte's web quickly with people participating, debating, and discussing. Debates are awesome, no matter the subject, because its helps people see from different perspectives and be MORE ENGAGED.
Well that's it for my blog post this week. I'm looking forward to having a good sit down with Bryce K as we discuss details about what we learned from taking this course in a podcast format. That will be our final piece to the puzzle of the Internet For Educators class.
Thanks for anyone who took the time to read this and/or read any of my posts throughout the semester. I'm sure we will be getting together around grad and likely after we finish the 7 weeks of student teaching. Keep your nose to the grind stone people, your almost there!
-DJ
Seems like you learned a lot! That physics resource is great, I’m going to share it!
ReplyDeleteMatteo Di Muro