With the rapid movement of more and more classrooms toward BYOD settings, the use of phones and tablets in the classroom has also become widespread. A Pew Research Study actually reported that 73% of AP and National Writing Project teachers observe their students using cell phones in the classroom (Liu, Scordino, Geurtz, Navarrete, Ko, Lim, 2014). With this incorporation of technology into the classroom on a daily basis, the quantity of apps to further enhance this experience can be overwhelming. These apps can be for teacher use, for student use, or for a combination of both. I frequently use teacher apps when I’m not at school to help gather ideas for class or have better management of the classroom. Unfortunately, many apps are also blocked on the school wifi and as Liu et al. (2014) stated, “...student access to mobile devices was limited by school rules that prohibited the use of electronic devices during school hours.” Therefore, it is even more of a challenge to find apps that are also accessible on school wifi. I know that I do not do as great of a job implementing apps for student use to help them be more prepared for class. Because of this lack of use for my students, I have decided to explore some possible apps for my students to use in the classroom.
I did a little bit of research and came across several websites with suggestions for great science apps. One particular website offered a list of the 10 best iPad and iPhone apps for students and included this amazing app called Molecules. Within this app there are only a few major molecules, but one of those molecules is DNA and this particular molecule is one of the most important topics we cover in biology. Within this app, students can manipulate the object by rotating and zooming. Students can also see the correlation of the molecule colors to the name of the molecules. The structure of DNA tends to be a difficult unit for my students and largely because they cannot actually see the structure of DNA. I think this app would allow my students that really struggle with spatial thinking to truly visualize the model of DNA. Plus, the added bonus is that they can access it at home too, not just within the classroom. In terms of classroom use, I would rather set this app up as a station within a DNA exploratory lab or station rotation activity. The only issue I foresee is that iPad access can be quite difficult within my school. In this situation, I would probably have to use my own iPad and I have some concerns about damage and other issues that come with students using my personal technology. I think ultimately I may purchase an additional table or try to get a grant of some sort to fund a couple classroom tablets.
I did a little bit of research and came across several websites with suggestions for great science apps. One particular website offered a list of the 10 best iPad and iPhone apps for students and included this amazing app called Molecules. Within this app there are only a few major molecules, but one of those molecules is DNA and this particular molecule is one of the most important topics we cover in biology. Within this app, students can manipulate the object by rotating and zooming. Students can also see the correlation of the molecule colors to the name of the molecules. The structure of DNA tends to be a difficult unit for my students and largely because they cannot actually see the structure of DNA. I think this app would allow my students that really struggle with spatial thinking to truly visualize the model of DNA. Plus, the added bonus is that they can access it at home too, not just within the classroom. In terms of classroom use, I would rather set this app up as a station within a DNA exploratory lab or station rotation activity. The only issue I foresee is that iPad access can be quite difficult within my school. In this situation, I would probably have to use my own iPad and I have some concerns about damage and other issues that come with students using my personal technology. I think ultimately I may purchase an additional table or try to get a grant of some sort to fund a couple classroom tablets.
Another app I discovered is called iCell. This app allows students to once again have interaction with a microscopic item that is very important to biology class. Even better, this app not only has the typical plant and animal cell, but also has a bacteria cell for students to view. Students then click on the type of cell they want to view and then click the organelles to read their function. Perhaps the best thing about this app is the ability to read the organelle function in beginner, intermediate, or advanced vocabulary. This is amazing! My ESOL students and severe special education students could easily view the beginner functions, while a majority of my on-level students could understand the intermediate functions. To further challenge my advanced students, or even next year’s STEM biology students, can use the advanced functions. This tool can also be readily used at home and to study the cell functions. Once again, the challenges would be providing in class technology, but I do think this app could be readily used on the individual devices of students during class to overcome this challenge. Students without technology could also work with a buddy to accomplish the same learning goals.
Besides apps, there are also countless tools available to enhance the use of technology in the classroom. One of the first tools I decided to investigate for further use in my classroom was Padlet. This tool I have been somewhat familiar with from graduate classes and other teacher professional development, but I’ve always been the student, never the instructor. After exploring this tool from a teacher standpoint, the benefits to my classroom are endless. I especially think this tool is great for gauging student knowledge and interest. This tool will benefit all types of students due to the anonymous nature of posts and the ability for students to type and think at their own pace. In this manner, my ELL students and special education students will especially benefit because they can also see other responses before posting which can help direct their focus. I’ve decided to test run this app when we start the evolution unit because many of the initial topics are very controversial. Posing opinionated questions allows me to discuss both sides of the argument from a neutral standpoint without calling out individual students for their opinions. This tool will work great with personal devices of students and the only issue i predict is the school WiFi and how slow the Padlet responses will post due to the tendency for the WiFi to work very slowly when being used by so many students.
Another wonderful tool I found was Planboard. This particular tool has been brought to my attention before by a friend who is also a teacher. It just unfortunately became something that I put off and forgot about due to the overwhelming amount of tools and apps I am exposed to constantly. Sadly, I wish I had followed through with her advice, because this tool is great! Planboard is a teacher tool and while it does benefit the students, it is ultimately for teacher use. This tool allows teachers to type out lesson plans, correlate those plans with standards, and upload documents. Even Google Drive documents are able to be instantly attached to the lesson plans. This tool obviously has a great perk of encouraging teachers to be paperless but also teachers can access lessons after the semester and use them to refer to lesson plan for future school year. I can also use this to link useful videos and other materials that may help my students with disabilities. In this manner, all these tools are at my fingertips regardless of where I may be. As long as I have internet access, I can access my lesson plans, something that is not always possible if I travel and do not take my school supplies or need to quickly send something to a student who was absent. The internet access issue could also be a challenge in that I would need to have internet access to manage my lesson plans, not just a paper planner, but the benefits of this tool far outweigh the potential challenges.
Screencasts are also great tools for teachers to use in their classroom. Screencasts are very beneficial to students as they allow students to take notes and learn classroom content out of class so they can further apply the content in class. My initial experience of screencasting was with Jing as I would record small tidbits for my students. Many of my coworkers use screencast-o-matic but I had limited experience with this tool. After working with Screencast-o-matic to help teachers at my school with an assessment tool, I found it very easy to use! It was easily downloaded onto my computer from the website and I did not even need the technology specialist to do it for me, which was an added bonus. There is a free version (which is the one I used) and it records up to 15 minutes of screencast time. The paid version has many more upgrades such as editing tools, a wider array of video publishing websites, and a longer time frame. In my opinion though, the free version does everything I would ever need it for! See my video below that I created using Screencast-o-matic.
Screencasts are also great tools for teachers to use in their classroom. Screencasts are very beneficial to students as they allow students to take notes and learn classroom content out of class so they can further apply the content in class. My initial experience of screencasting was with Jing as I would record small tidbits for my students. Many of my coworkers use screencast-o-matic but I had limited experience with this tool. After working with Screencast-o-matic to help teachers at my school with an assessment tool, I found it very easy to use! It was easily downloaded onto my computer from the website and I did not even need the technology specialist to do it for me, which was an added bonus. There is a free version (which is the one I used) and it records up to 15 minutes of screencast time. The paid version has many more upgrades such as editing tools, a wider array of video publishing websites, and a longer time frame. In my opinion though, the free version does everything I would ever need it for! See my video below that I created using Screencast-o-matic.
I currently use Doceri on my iPad to create flipped lessons for my students and I have also used the record function of PowerPoint. With the ease of use that screencast-o-matic allows though, I would like to start using this tool to record quick lessons on major content pointers. I could also make brief test review videos to go over how to do problems and graphs from that particular unit. I also think the ease of use of these tools would be great for recording a pre-lab mini-lecture for students to watch before coming to class on a lab day. There are so many options for screencasts, I just need to make better use of all software that is available to me, which will ultimately better the education of my students too!
Resources
Liu, M., Scordino, R., Geurtz, R., Navarrete, C., Ko, Y., & Lim, M. (2014). A look at research on mobile learning in K-12 education from 2007 to the present. ISTE, 46(4), 325-372.
Read, A. (2015). The complete guide to new Twitter polls: What they are, how they work, and 9 ways to use them [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://blog.bufferapp.com/twitter-polls
Science Focus. (2015). The 10 best iPad and iPhone science apps. Retrieved from http://www.sciencefocus.com/feature/tech/10-best-ipad-and-iphone-science-apps
Resources
Liu, M., Scordino, R., Geurtz, R., Navarrete, C., Ko, Y., & Lim, M. (2014). A look at research on mobile learning in K-12 education from 2007 to the present. ISTE, 46(4), 325-372.
Read, A. (2015). The complete guide to new Twitter polls: What they are, how they work, and 9 ways to use them [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://blog.bufferapp.com/twitter-polls
Science Focus. (2015). The 10 best iPad and iPhone science apps. Retrieved from http://www.sciencefocus.com/feature/tech/10-best-ipad-and-iphone-science-apps