What Makes Good Use of Technology?
Without realy doing any research I suppose using technology in a classroom is best used when it allows students to have a better undersanding of a topic that is being discussed. For example I have had students in the past who had trouble understanding the 3d shapes of molecules. I would not even want to imagine how hard it would be for them to understand without very detailed pictures in their textbooks (which is arguably also a type of technology).
Now it is possible to show 3d images of these molecules using digital software something that at the very least gets students attention (technology increasing student motivation? hmmmmm…)! This use of technology is not new….. it is simply a video derivation of another form of technology that has been used in chemistry classrooms for many years… the molecular model! In its day it was a great tool and actually still is. Just because we have new, fancy digital applications to use today doesn`t mean that the older types of technology have become obsolete. After all we still use ballpoint pens nearly everyday, right? That is also a piece of technology isn’t it? Most likely pretty high tech when it was first mass produced. So to get back to the digital imaging of molecular structures let’s not also forget that showing a digital image may also be a much quicker option to teach students visually about chemical shapes. Where as having them create models may take considerably more time. That brings us to another point that makes technology useful…. it can save us time. So to quickly summarize good use of technology in a classroom would facilitate at least two things:
– it would improve student understanding by manipulating the learning environment to involve different techniques for knowlege delivery
– it would improve student learning generally by lowering the time it takes for students to acquire knowledge and /or perhaps decreasing preparation time for teachers which allows them to focus on other areas that students may be struggling with
Any others that come to mind?
Imagine how hard it might be to explain the information in the following video without having the use of the molecular image of DNA?
January 20th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
I often use YouTube video clips in my classes. For example, in my relativity course we found a wealth of resources online. I liked your example a lot. I agree with your post. There are many ways that technology can help visualize science concepts in physics, bio, chem or math.
Thanks, Dr. M.