Anderson. (2003). Getting the mix right again: An updated and theoretical rationale for interaction. The International Review of REsearch in Open and Distance Learning. Retrieved June 16, 2009, from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewArticle/149/230.

Dale

I’m interested in reproducing your chart on my blog. Do you have a preferred place to cite from?

Rob

awesome example you point out from Kathleen. I didn’t think about haptics that way. I was struggling to distinguish between working with virtual simulations and actual sensation immersive environments like Haptics where tactile sensation is actually very important, as a med professional actually conducting a surgical procedure would be even more life like using haptics than with simulations.

Thanks for the idea!

I agree with your statements about virtual field trips. Students learn much more than course concepts when participating on field trips. I also agree that sometimes students may not learn course concepts when on these trips.

At our school, Biology AP students go on field trips to Banfield, BCIT, and the aquarium to perform some of the required AP labs. I wonder if the AP program would create/approve virtual labs to help reduce student costs.

Cheers,

Dale

I believe that simulations will be a great tool to help students obtain a better understanding of course concepts. Hopefully textbook companies, in conjunction with the release of the textbook, will produce virtual simulations to match textbook concepts. Hands on labs, even though they may be more expensive, should never go the way of the dodo bird. They help tactile learners and help students obtain laboratory skills.

Cheers,

Dale

Once again you are writing about the conjunction of virtual and real labs. I think it is the solution for the future. I do not want to think that everything will go virtual, but the virtual component helps students and teachers build science intuition and science understanding and this is very important.

Regards, M.

Your post made me think more about museums and virtual environments. For example, you mentioned that “Spicer and Stratford (2001) found that students appreciated the VFT as a prelude to the actual field trip.” This is important. I think having a real field trip goes beyond just the content that the students learn. An opportunity to go somewhere with friends, interact outside of school is valuable. Yet, in my view (I am not an expert on museum education), not much is often learned at these field trips in term of content, unless the teachers embed the field trip into what is happening in class. For example, my son’s school went to Vancouver island for a week long field trip and they collected data and then worked on its analysis when back to school. In addition they prepared for it. So Virtual environments might be amazing tools to help prepare for such a field trip and help analyze the data. All this said, we have to remember that many kids cannot visit Exploratorium or a Science Museum whenever they want. So having Virtual museum might be great for those students!

My last comment is about creating these virtual environment. This is obviously very expensive, so places like Exploratorium can do an amazing job at it because they have funding. To do something like that without financial support isn’t easy, yet some very big projects started from something very small.

Thanks for your post.
Regards, M.

Thanks for sharing this terrific resource!
Whitney

Your site has a peaceful Zen. I love the picture, symbolizing the journey of learning perhaps? The layout is easy to understand and to navigate. The only thing I would recommend is that you add a section on yourself, like a personal introduction. (I currently do not have a personal section either but plan to add one)

Great site thanks,
Dave

I really like how you identify the importance of “knowing the tool” and using it for teaching. For your reference, I (and my partner in ETEC 510) have done a wiki on Tablet Enhanced Teaching Environment in Math. I am sure you will find it useful for your science instruction too!

http://sites.wiki.ubc.ca/etec510/Tablet_Enhanced_Learning_Environments_in_Math

Cheers,
Leo