TLT740 - TQ#9

In this week's evaluation of technology products, we focused on two scientific based activities. Although both taught similar ideas, the approaches were fairly different. Both approaches have the potential to successful learning tools when implemented properly.

The first product is called Phun, and it is a multi-platform tool that allows the learner to create scenarios, add various scientific variables, and view real world cause and effect situations. This tool is extremely useful due to its ease of use. You can work with very basic concepts, or design complex scenarios. Teachers can use this product as a value added tool in a classroom setting. Basic concepts explained in textbooks can come to life by designing examples via this tool. The time involved to create examples can take little to no time at all. For example, to explain something like gravity, a teacher could quickly create the concept in Phun and allow their students to experience it, rather than just read about it. For more complex ideas, it would be useful to let the learner work with the tool. There are a lot of variables and changes that can be applied and the nature of the product allows the learner to use their higher thinking skills to produce a unique end product.

Molecular Workbench is the other product evaluated this week. This is a Java based tool that allows you to apply scientific theory in very basic terms to see the outcome. In addition to the tool, the site itself lends itself to be educational and useful in a classroom environment. The focus is to provide a visual explanation to very complex questions. Students can hypothesize and test theories. Unlike Phun, Molecular Workbench provides a more structured and methodical process. It is a more inclusive tool that explains ideas, terms and concepts as you walk through the process. The tool allows you to make changes, experiment and apply theory. By the end of the tutorials, the learner has a working knowledge of the assigned topic. This kind of tool can be used as an in class exercise to reinforce what is being taught by the teacher, or it can also be used as a homework based assignment.

Although neither tool should be considered a stand-alone learning tool, incorporating them into current teaching methods and structures can be helpful for the teacher and useful for the learner. Attempting to produce these tests and scenarios in a realistic way, can not only be inefficient in terms of time, but can also become quite expensive. It may even be impossible to recreate what some of these tools provide in a computer based way. The ability to provide these experiences in such a short time frame, with no real cost association is a tremendous asset for the teacher.

With tools like the one's evaluated this week, teachers are given additional cost effective methods to teach science based topics in the classroom. The learner is given the ability to be expressive, use critical thinking skills, and visually see answers to problems or questions they may have.

TLT 470 - TQ#8

POV-Ray and Sketchup

This week we got to work with 3-D tools. There was a distinct difference between the complexity and capability of these two products, but I think both are quite useful tools. See my work below:

Sketchup



POV-Ray

TLT 470 - TQ#7

When I sat down to work with Gapminder, the first thing I did was download the PDF tutorial. I was surprised that it was only one page. Even the easiest of programs tend to inundate the user with information. Although short, the documentation was sufficient, and easy to understand. The basic overview also forces the user to go through the application and explore the different types of data that can be viewed. This forces the learner to think deeper about how they can apply the tool to figure out which elements may or may not be correlated.

Being a techie, I immediately wanted to see what kind of effect computers had on civilization over time. I was surprised that the US was not first on record, but sky rocketed and surpassed all of the other countries over time. I tried a few variables out to see if they had any impact on such growth. When adding income growth per person, there seemed to be no correlation. Next I tried variables such as Internet use, cell phone owners, and broadband users. Although some of the data did not go back that far in time, nothing seemed to show any substantial reasons for this increase. Variables such as urban growth showed a bit of a "hockey stick" appearance as Dr. Rosling referred to it in his presentation, but there were no significant findings based on the recorded data.

Next I decided to look at computer use and growth from an educational perspective. There was also no substantial correlation between computer use and youth literacy rates, 4th grade math achievement, or 8th grade math achievement. These results can often be construed to mean that the use of computers do not facilitate learning, but I still go back to the idea that computer and technology use can be beneficial, but only if implemented correctly. This data only shows us that based on the resulting data, there is definitely a need to focus on integrating technology more effectively into education to help improve the learning experience.

Overall, I think this tool is an extremely useful way to provide students with a means to gather information to apply to various assignments and projects. For older learners, I think it allows the students to focus more time and effort on the intended assignments. I often found it quite frustrating in my own experiences to spend more time trying to find out information and statistics about a topic, than actually completing the assigned task. For younger students, this tool may be better suited as a teacher lead tool to discuss topics in a classroom setting. The graphical representations help younger learners visually associate different variables and piece together how they relate.