I absolutely love how succinct and useful this article was in integrating technology into the classroom. There were ideas presented that I didn't even know existed or even thought to incorporate. In particular, I found tips 6 and 7 to be very applicable in a high school chemistry class.
Tip #6 introduced me to the idea of wordle.net, an online tool I never heard of until this article. Word clouds provides a very visual way to learn important definitions. Chemistry is full of vocabulary, and its nice that the students have a resource to organize the definitions.
Tip #7 deals with student and teacher collaboration via discussion groups and Google docs. Chemistry is a very collaborative science, and online resources like Google docs is very convenient. Group projects have now become easier because work can be done online and in real time.
I've never had these kinds of tools available to me when I was in school, and I'm looking forward to utilizing several ideas presented in Edutopia's article. I am definitely keeping this article bookmarked!
I agree that the idea of Google docs is very useful for the classroom. As we have seen in our classes, it is very useful for working together on projects. Students can work from home on group projects without having to meet or can work together in class and each do a part instead of one person writing the whole thing. So I do agree that this is very useful for the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI probably would have learned terms better in any class if the teacher had used wordle. It is so true that these were not around in my classrooms so by using these websites I think our students will benfit greatly and be so much more interested in the sciences.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of using Google docs in the classroom as well and agree that it's more convenient for group projects outside of the classroom... I know I wish it existed when I was in high school because it would've saved my parents and myself a lot of grief with running around and trying to meet with people.
ReplyDelete