Ask A Scientist

The Ask a Scientist website opened a lot of opportunities to myself and my students to actively engage with others in the scientific community. It gave the opportunity to bounce questions off of other scientists that were directly related to what we were currently researching. One down side to the website is it seems like the responses to our questions were not in a timely fashion or received at all. This can be a huge setback toward its use in a classroom. The unpredictability of the website doesn't lend itself to effective unit planning. I did a little research on my own for the question I asked so I gained some insight on that front, but the website did not provide any feedback to help me answer my question. Students not receiving an answer to their question can be detrimental and cause them to become frustrated with the material. The website has a lot of potential for classroom use but it need to resolve some of its inconsistency before I would commit to using it in my classroom.

Web 2.0 Applications

One of the hallmarks of emerging technology is familiarity, ease of use and features. Using these three criteria I have gone through several of the web 2.0 applications offered and have found a few that have peaked my interest. Google docs and slide share provide a familiar platform that works almost seamlessly with microsoft office products. This is an extremely valuable advantage to a user that doesn't want to go through the transition period of learning new software. It provides comfort and reliability that applications can easily be uploaded. Likewise, Prezi is another application that provides user friendly tools with a minimal learning transition period. Most of these applications are free or free to try. All of these programs have numerous special features, such as picture, animation and video manipulation, that allow you the ability to create whatever you can imagine. They have minimal browser and technical requirements while allowing for access almost anywhere. Cross collaboration with anyone on the web are important features that help to engage audiences and colleagues in the presentation.