Using Blogs in Science Education

Photo source: Castaway in Wales on Flickr

My current students are my guinea pigs.  I try not to test on them too much, though.  One group told me they love all the apps, but only if we use them one at a time.  I think that’s because to most of them all of these things are just too new.  In a couple of years I’m hopeful that my students will be more comfortable using educational apps and that I can use more of them at the same time.

The students are quick to tell me when something is or isn’t working.  Of course, a lot of things they love don’t have a huge educational impact.  Take polleverywhere.com.  Only about 30% of my students have cell phones with a texting plan so it isn’t practical to use in my classes.  Plus, my class sizes aren’t so big that I can’t conduct my own poll with just a simple raising of hands.

But, one student pointed out the appeal of this application when she literally screamed, “YOU’RE GOING TO LET ME TEXT IN CLASS?!?!?!”  It was awesome.  It didn’t seem to matter to her that she was texting for a class assignment.  Just the fact that she was able to text was thrilling to her.  Here’s the poll the students completed:

Another tool I find frivolous, but fun is Animoto.  It’s great for videos that show off what you’re doing in class.  I’ve used it to send home a video to parents at progress report time.

They’ve recently added the ability to include text in your presentations so perhaps this will make it more suitable for actual learning purposes.  However, the slides change so quickly (at least in time with the beat of whatever music you choose) and so this is a bit limiting.

To test it out, I created this Animoto based off of my introductory lesson to DNA and then asked the students’ opinion about its educational value.

Here are their responses:

1. List everything you learned from this presentation (I counted up 12 different facts).

• Out of 13 students, the most a student listed was eight and the least was zero.
• The average was 2.6 and the median was 2.
• The most common facts listed were DNA can be used to solve crimes and it can be used to cure disease.
• One student wrote that DNA gives you your identity although that fact was not included in the presentation.

2. Do you think this presentation could be used to replace/improve the traditional powerpoint lecture?

• 2 students answered Yes.
• 11 students answered No.

Yes and no.  Yes because it’s more visual and cooler but no because we might not be able to learn all the information correctly.

No, this short movie was too fast.  Maybe for entertainment but not to learn.

No, it was too flashy and distracted me from the topics.

Not replace, but I think it could be added into the presentation.

I do because it isn’t like the old powerpoint lecture which people usually find very boring.  This wasn’t boring.

3. Did you find the animations/music too distracting?

• 3 students answered No.
• 10 answered Yes.

The music was distracting.  I would rather learn without it.

The animations and music are very distracting because when a new topic shows up you first look at the pictures and not so much the information.

Yes, it was hard to concentrate during the presentation.

No, music helps me focus and the animations helped us see what we were learning about.

4. How did this animation affect your interest in DNA?  Increased it?  Decreased it?  Or had no impact?

• 8 students said the video increased their interest.
• 5 students said it had no impact.

This increased my interest but didn’t teach me much.

This increased my interest, but not greatly.

It definitely increased my interest.

It increased my interest because it was flashy.

Did not affect because the animation did not provide information.

Had no impact because I didn’t understand it.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that Animoto should be used to capture students’ interest about a topic with fun music and pictures, however, it cannot be used to replace a typical lesson.  Polleverywhere’s texting polls can only be used in large classes where the majority of students have cell phones with texting plans.