Reflection 1: Web Spaces

Using online resources in classrooms, are they safe? Are they beneficial? Well as I’m studying biology as one of my disciplines, it can sometimes mean I have to put interactive activities for students when teaching as it is a very ‘content heavy’ subject. However, ways we can incorporate technology into the classroom is by using YouTube videos to visualise aspects of biology and also make it fun and interesting for the students. For example, this video is a music video about evolution of single cells organisms to complex humans, and this YouTube video visualises the human immune system in a way that students can find it easier to understand, the video also explains each of the ‘jobs’ the different cells have and how they work. However, with having these YouTube videos comes with ads that can be skipped, as YouTube is a large organisation the ads are never inappropriate, they are more so irrelevant to the topic. You cannot remove these ads unless you pay for a premium subscription. On YouTube you are anonymous to all users on the platform unless you create an account meaning the website is very private. It is also very easy to operate as all you have to do is type into the search bar either a key word or topic and it will bring up hundreds of videos related to the topic. It is also a very good source of information as it has a lot of different videos created by organisations and governments on the platform meaning they are reliable. They also have a lot of teachers and teaching channels on the platform which provide quality information such as the two videos I linked before. 

Interactive websites that students are good for teaching students’ content heavy subjects such as science as they can either interact with them during the lesson or study at home. This website goes into to detail and lets student explore the human body. They are able to interact with the website through the varies videos and the multiple different activities such as moving organs into the correct positions, putting the correct labels in the correct places to test their understanding of a specific system. This links to the augmentation of technology in the SAMR model which is sometimes all that is needed especially for a biology lesson.

An interactive activity for students which couldn’t be done without the use of technology is where students experiment with the law of ‘Natural Selection’. The simulation shows a lab that explains how to interact with the simulation and then gives them the opportunity to they experiment with it. As shown in the picture below, students can choose different factors such as mutations and predators etc. and simulate the population growth, decline and how different factors such as climates, predators, limited and/or tough food resources would affect the rabbit’s population. 

Without technology this wouldn’t be possible as textbooks and research can only show the affects and results of natural selection after they have happened where this simulation shows it happening in real time. The website is safe and secure as it is from the University of Colorado and also has ad free adding to the security of the website, it is also free to use to everyone and easy to navigate.

Overall I feel like the advancements in technology are essential to help improve educational outcomes and also helps maintain that the teaching strategies are relevant and 'up to date'. 

References

NSW Department of Education. (2020, January 12). Exploring the human body. Sites.google.com. https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au/exploring-the-human-body/home?authuser=0

Terada, Y. (2020, May 4). A Powerful Model for Understanding Good Tech Integration. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/powerful-model-understanding-good-tech-integration

University of Colorado. (2019). PhET Interactive Simulations. PhET. https://phet.colorado.edu/

YouTube, & A Capella Science. (2018). Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody) | A Capella Science. Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqReeTV_vk&t=3s

YouTube, & Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. (2021). How The Immune System ACTUALLY Works – IMMUNE. Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXfEK8G8CUI&t=3s