Learning Unit #2: The Heart
This unit was designed for an 11th grade Science/Anatomy class.
This time when creating my second learning unit, I was more familiar with the tools, so I had a much easier time thinking about what kinds of activities I wanted to include in this unit. I started with some type of pre-assessment/prior knowledge method as I did in my last unit. For this unit, I utilized Zoomerang, now known as Survey Monkey after some big business merge. Anyways.... Survey Monkey was great and easy to use. It was very simple. The site was very accessible and the layout was great and easy to navigate. Students were able to access the survey and complete it. Their answers were submitted to me where I could analyze them and use this data to help with the class lessons, which is an added bonus.
For the second project, I had the students also use Google Presentations to create a slideshow/powerpoint presentation on the learning unit topic. Google Presentations is similar to Word PowerPoint, but Googles application has more potential to be collaborative, interactive, and allows for more creativity to occur from users. It creates a more appealing presentation by providing more graphic and editing options as well. ITs a great tool to use when students have to use a lot of information and have to organize things into different categories for presentations or powerpoints. What was also really great was this tool lets you share your documents very easily and allows for the import and export of things in a much easier manner.
Scratch was the third project tool used in my unit. I was very happy to use this unit because of the coding experience that you can get from it! This tool has so much potentials and endless possibilities. Its super engaging, and allows for students to develop useful skills. In a science class, it can be manipulated to create so many different kinds of demonstrations like the pathway of blood, or the water cycle and so much more. Although this tool is amazing, I recommend anyone who uses it provides students with some kind of step by step introductory lesson and provides step by step examples that students can look back at and build their skills from some starting point. This app can be overwhelming without the demonstrations because very few people actually have experience with coding. Scratch is very creative and innovative. I had heard of this tool and had seen it used in various technology classes, so I didn't think it could be incorporated into other areas of education until I found a way to incorporate it into my unit.
Screencast-O-Matic is the last tool I used in this unit. I had not previously heard of this one. After using it I do not see myself as a fan. Like voice thread, it can be used for voice and audio recordings for student projects and teacher lectures as well. From my experience with it, I do not believe the video quality was all that great. The application was very sensitive to movement and would often freeze. One good thing about this application that I did like was that it allows for you to do voice-overs while images are present on a screen. I really like the idea of this for a teacher so they can use it to attach audio explaining online class notes. It also can be used to guide others through a presentation as it is present on the screen. Something like this would be great for teachers to use when posting notes online or online lectors, but I do not recommend it for filming people or objects that move a lot.
Each of the tools used in this unit were utilized and used successfully. They helped to evaluate and allow for students to learn about the topic of the unit in various ways. Thee projects would work as great study material for future assessments on the unit topic. When using these tools, I recommend providing demos and step by step instructions for how to use the tools. I also recommend giving students a good amount of time to allow for creativity and engaged learning. I look forward to using these tools in future learning units!
This time when creating my second learning unit, I was more familiar with the tools, so I had a much easier time thinking about what kinds of activities I wanted to include in this unit. I started with some type of pre-assessment/prior knowledge method as I did in my last unit. For this unit, I utilized Zoomerang, now known as Survey Monkey after some big business merge. Anyways.... Survey Monkey was great and easy to use. It was very simple. The site was very accessible and the layout was great and easy to navigate. Students were able to access the survey and complete it. Their answers were submitted to me where I could analyze them and use this data to help with the class lessons, which is an added bonus.
For the second project, I had the students also use Google Presentations to create a slideshow/powerpoint presentation on the learning unit topic. Google Presentations is similar to Word PowerPoint, but Googles application has more potential to be collaborative, interactive, and allows for more creativity to occur from users. It creates a more appealing presentation by providing more graphic and editing options as well. ITs a great tool to use when students have to use a lot of information and have to organize things into different categories for presentations or powerpoints. What was also really great was this tool lets you share your documents very easily and allows for the import and export of things in a much easier manner.
Scratch was the third project tool used in my unit. I was very happy to use this unit because of the coding experience that you can get from it! This tool has so much potentials and endless possibilities. Its super engaging, and allows for students to develop useful skills. In a science class, it can be manipulated to create so many different kinds of demonstrations like the pathway of blood, or the water cycle and so much more. Although this tool is amazing, I recommend anyone who uses it provides students with some kind of step by step introductory lesson and provides step by step examples that students can look back at and build their skills from some starting point. This app can be overwhelming without the demonstrations because very few people actually have experience with coding. Scratch is very creative and innovative. I had heard of this tool and had seen it used in various technology classes, so I didn't think it could be incorporated into other areas of education until I found a way to incorporate it into my unit.
Screencast-O-Matic is the last tool I used in this unit. I had not previously heard of this one. After using it I do not see myself as a fan. Like voice thread, it can be used for voice and audio recordings for student projects and teacher lectures as well. From my experience with it, I do not believe the video quality was all that great. The application was very sensitive to movement and would often freeze. One good thing about this application that I did like was that it allows for you to do voice-overs while images are present on a screen. I really like the idea of this for a teacher so they can use it to attach audio explaining online class notes. It also can be used to guide others through a presentation as it is present on the screen. Something like this would be great for teachers to use when posting notes online or online lectors, but I do not recommend it for filming people or objects that move a lot.
Each of the tools used in this unit were utilized and used successfully. They helped to evaluate and allow for students to learn about the topic of the unit in various ways. Thee projects would work as great study material for future assessments on the unit topic. When using these tools, I recommend providing demos and step by step instructions for how to use the tools. I also recommend giving students a good amount of time to allow for creativity and engaged learning. I look forward to using these tools in future learning units!
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