Mar
19
Reading Response 8: Using technology in science
March 19, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
Sample science unit home/launch page
Articles:
Differentiating Instruction
Working With ELL
Inquiry-Based Instruction
All three of these articles tied together very well to talk about a couple different ideas to help students learn: co-operative learning, communication, and support. Co-operative learning fits in because it allows students to work together and learn from each other. When students are in groups each has a job, which can build on their current skills. For ELL students, this not only gives them the opportunity to work with other students, thus improving their English, but the other students can learn from their knowledge and experience. Communication through technology, such as wikis, blogging and emails, allows students to ask their questions and get the answer in a written format, more easily allowing them to refer to it in the future. This is another way for ELL students to develop their skills, and for groups working on projects it will allow them to communicate more easily away from school. Finally, the teacher can use technology to support learners, as in my example, to not only provide directions but to place information all in one place and in multiple formats. Written directions allow students to go back and answer their own questions and review content-same with the lecture outlines posted. The podcasts and samples all students to see and hear about what they need to do (adapting for different learning styles).
The example is simply a document laying out an inquiry-based science unit. None of the documents/media are included, but this could be the blueprint for a 6-8 science unit. By the way, this was created using Zoho, an on-line office suite. One of the neat features here is that not only does it become available on-line, it can be downloaded (if need be) or subscribed to via RSS, so students/audience can be updated when the document changes.
