New Book List

I have added another book list in one of the tool boxes on the side. This list contains some of my personal favorites for supplemental reading to use with students. Alice in Quantumland by Robert Gilmore is particularly helpful using imagery to explain quantum theory. I hope to keep adding to this list. Click on the book titles to link to a summary/overview.

Feedback welcome!

Emerging Techology - Go! Animate

How about a little chemistry humor? Just hit play. (make sure your sound is on for full effect)



I really crack myself up. How about another one?

I know, I know...I'll stop now and get on with the discussion.

The research for this particular post has been way too much fun. In fact, don't all teachers need a little more fun? Well if you are looking to insert some fun into your classroom , this technology has it built in! And who couldn't use a little humor or visual boost at a staff or professional development meeting.

Go! Animate.com is very easy to use but a little limited in choices. For each scene of your animation, you choose a background and just insert characters. The manipulation of the characters is easy once you know what you want. There is also the option of using your own face (by photo). For teachers, this could go in several directions (most of them hilarious). In fact I think planning your story and dialogue is the hardest part.

For a middle or high school level science class, I think its educational applications are limited to providing some instructional variety in short spurts (like the jokes I attempted to animate above.) I also began work on a lab safety animation and if I can get it to work I will post it here as well. I should also come up with an ELECTRON joke to complete all the subatomic particles! Most of the time math and science classes take themselves way too seriously (not to mention how seriously mathematicians and scientists take themselves).

Sequencing becomes the key skill that the user needs for putting together these animations. So it is possible that students could use this application to provide visual imagery for a sequence. It could also be used as an option for a project that requires a presentation other than powerpoint slides. Especially for younger students, this could have wonderful applications as a story sequencing tool.

The visual appeal to the students is a no-brainer. The animation could also be used to address issues of behavior (acting out, cheating, bullying, etc.) by bringing them to light and providing alternative solutions.

So I recommend you try it out - it's free and did I mention that it is fun?

Emerging Technology - Google Forms

For my second look at an emerging educational technology, I have chosen Google Forms. In my previous post, I took a look at the other applications in Google Docs. Once I saw what Google Forms could do, I knew it deserved its own post.

It is very simple to use. It allows you to type in questions, choose the format for the answer, and add general directions for the reader. When you are finished, you have a URL address to an electronic form that stores the answers in a spread sheet for you, the creator. Once I discovered this I had to think up an immediate application. So I decided to type up a five question survey to send to some friends of mine that attend an annual social event that I have been hosting for 10 years. My answer formats included: text, paragraph text, and choose from a list. It took maybe 10 minutes to type in the whole thing. I emailed out the URL to my select list of 35 friends, and within 24 hours, I had twenty replies. Not bad at all. There is also an analysis tool included that showed a summary of results for each question. When appropriate there is even a bar graph displayed. And if you prefer, you can export the results data to an excel spreadsheet.

(In fact my husband was bummed when I showed it to him. He had just led a team- building retreat for a not-for-profit and he said that this application could have saved him a few hours if he had used it to replace a paper questionnaire.)

So as an educational tool, can anyone say ----- prior knowledge assessment? In a web cast from the 2008 NECC that I listened to recently, Cheryl Lemke, who spoke on “The Ripple Effect – 21st Century Innovations that Matter”, directly referenced prior knowledge assessment as integral to instructional best practices. As a chemistry teacher I have met so many high school students whose preconceptions lead directly to misconceptions. Abstract learning of chemistry concepts is already hard enough without needing to overcome a variety of misconceptions. And in a study that I recently reviewed in an earlier blog post (Moallem, Kermani, and Chen, 2005), while I disagreed with many of the assertions made by the authors about the effective use of handheld wireless computers in the classroom, they also discussed the benefits of prior knowledge assessment that could be done and quickly submitted via the web prior to class.

I am also thinking that students could potentially use Google Forms to set up data collection for an investigation or science fair project. The simplicity of it is appealing.

Since I am going into elementary schools and helping with their science programs, this tool would be a useful way to briefly survey the teachers with questions like: “How much time per week do you spend on science?”; “What are your favorite and least favorite science topics to teach?”; or “ Is there a science topic for which you would like more support?”. Usually I have to verbally ask the teachers in person because papers just get lost in the shuffle. I think they would be more likely to fill out an electronic form.

As far as drawbacks, student access outside of school is the primary issue. There also could be privacy issues since I believe the data could be accessed. The searches I did to confirm this did not turn up conclusive information on privacy for Google Docs as a whole. I am sure the issue will play out overtime – but as educators we should be aware of what we are using on the web.

So overall, I give a big thumbs up for Google Forms as a potentially useful educational tool.

Now for your participation - fill out the following form and submit. It's that easy!



Lemke, Cheryl. "The Ripple Effect - 21st Innovations that Matter." National Educational Computing Conference. San Antonio, TX. 30 June 2008.

Moallem, M., Kermani, H. & Chen, S. (2005).Handheld, Wireless Computers: Can they Improve Learning and Instruction?. Computers in the Schools. 22, 93-106.