Week 9: Podcasts (Audacity)

www.somuchpun.com

Well, we're almost to the end of our Web 2.0 sessions, but this week's topic was really exciting!  I've always heard Podcasts being mentioned but really had no clue what they were.  This week was my chance to find out!

Podcasts are audio or video files that are available to the world via the web.  They can be uploading (meaning you can make your own) or downloaded (so you can listen to one by someone else).  And the best part.....it's FREE!  I definitely just caught the attention of any graduate students like myself out there!

I can see endless possibilities to use podcasting in education!  In fact, I had my own private handwritten mindmapping/brainstorming session (see Week 7: Mind Mapping) about all of the cool things I could do with podcasting in the classroom and laboratory.

So here's what I came up with. You could have podcasts on:

• Lab techniques
• Lab safety videos (this would save a lot of introductory time in first year laboratory classes)
• Background information on the lab session to supplement the lab manual and engage visual or audio learners
• Key points from lectures (created either by the professor or students as a group project!)
• Online quizzes (created by the professor and posted online as study material or mandatory assignments)
• Dissection videos: This is my big one, as my biggest pet peeve in science laboratory classes are figuring out an effective way to highlight the techniques, what structures the students must see, etc.  Not only would a podcast video allow a proper dissection to be shown it would also reinforce what they should be looking for, proper techniques, safety issues and would be a good example to use when studying later for an exam.  Basically this would boil down to less instructional time and more hands-on learning time!  What teacher wouldn't love that?!

While I think I would be hesitant at first to create my own podcast, I really believe that this is an invaluable teaching tool, especially in scientific academia.  Face it, we're living in a world of iPods, iPhones, iPads, laptops and smartphones.  It is easier than ever to reach students electronically!  And this may be helpful for the students as well, as a lot of these podcasts could be picked up when their schedule allows it.

Even Sheldon appears to agree with me on this issue.   He readily uses podcasts and various other technological advancements to better annoy his friends and control his surroundings.  Check it out below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLr_cnPJ7VQ

www.tvfanatic.com

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Also as a polite nod to science, today is actually the 200th birthday of Robert Bunsen, the creator of the Bunsen burner.

www.pinkfrosting.com

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Week 8: Google Docs

http://www.juniorhero.com

See my Blog Post in Google Doc

Too bad The Big Bang Theory gang didn't try to create this app using Google Docs....may have saved a lot of "Sheldon-related" mishaps, and Sheldon could have collaborated from his room!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivd7_6oqRlc

http://www.shadowlocked.com

 

 

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Just as a side note , in an article by Ken Thompson in Team Leadership Development he suggests using the video below as an icebreaker for team work and collaboration.  This might be another good lead in to Google Docs!

Week 7: Social Bookmarking With Delicious

From flickr user: topgold

“My new computer came with Windows 7. 
Windows 7 is much more user-friendly than Windows Vista. 
I don’t like that.” -Sheldon Cooper 

Delicious is a social bookmarking site that can be used to organize your favorite sites.  But, the catch is it all hinges on your ability to organize, mainly through appropriate tagging.  For example, if I assigned a project on starfish, my students could Google “starfish” and come up with about 14 million pages to visit.  And suppose they found some really good sites in all of that abundance which they want to remember to use later.  They can simply tag it using Delicious, which transfers the site to their Delicious page that can be accessed by any computer, whether they are at home or in the library or on their own laptop.  But here’s the catch.  If my students tag each site simply with “starfish” then when they go to find that site again they are still going to have to look back through the 100 sites they’ve tagged.  Instead, when tagging a site they must use key words like anatomy, reproduction, propagation, diet, predation, etc to be able to narrow down their search and make Delicious an effective way to manage information.   

Basically if you’re not organized, Delicious won’t be any better for you than simply bookmarking a page with your internet browser.  The only positive is you will be able to access this monstrous list of pages on any computer.   To be effective, Delicious users must be organized from the get-go.  If they can do this, then I believe it will be a very effective learning tool, in particular an excellent research resource!

Here's how my first Delicious search went: 

When I originally searched “Scientific Teaching Methods” I got 152 bookmarks.  By selecting the tag “Education” I got 116 bookmarks.  By selecting the tags “Science” and “Education” I got 109.  It would have been more effective if I could have filtered out the high school curriculum with a “university”, “college”, or “secondary education” tag.   However, if I just utilize the tag “Science” I got 22 bookmarks.  This was much more manageable and it seemed to eliminate much of the high school resource sites, but it also got rid a site that had all sorts of video lectures from schools like MIT which would have been very useful.  I can see this being a limitation of Delicious, in that not only does it rely on my organization, but also the organization of others!

Here are some interesting links I found using Delicious:

• The ultimate resource for information on Graduate Research from Iowa State University: http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~honavar/grad-advice.html
• Introduction to Journal-Style Scientific Writing: http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWgeneral.html
• Activities to identify the controls and variables within an experiment using the Simpsons! http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/controls.html
• Teaching the process of science: http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/process_of_science/index.html\
• How to use “R” in statistics: http://www.mayin.org/ajayshah/KB/R/index.html
• Teaching about evolution in science: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=5787
• The first scientific video journal: http://www.jove.com/

http://www.jove.com

Or you can look me up on Delicious, I'm user e_n_6913!

Overall opinion: Used in the right way (i.e. organization to the extreme), this could be a really useful tool.  I would suggest it to my students to use.  The one thing I did like about Diigo that I didn't see with Delicious was the ability to create a class account so that all of the students in that class could tag good sites on that particular topic in one central location.  If there is a way to use Delicious to do this, I believe it would be an awesome tool for groups to use when collaborating on a research project. 

I believe that Sheldon Cooper may be an expert in the field of organization, much to the utter exasperation of the rest of us mere mortals!  I think Delicious (or any social bookmarking) would be something Sheldon would excel at.  It combines his love of organization (he organizes his cereal according to fiber content, see “The Big Bran Hypothesis”) and his requirement of limiting user friendliness.  Plus he could “virtually” socialize with other organized people, or just refuse to share his bookmarks! 

Leonard: We need to widen our circle.
Sheldon: I have a very wide circle. I have 212 friends on MySpace.
Leonard: Yes, and you've never met one of them.
Sheldon: That's the beauty of it.

Week 6: Mind Mapping

www.whatthegregg.com

This week’s session was on Mind Mapping.  I have to be honest here; I looked at the topic and had no clue what it was referring to.  So…drawing on my past learning (see Week 4: Wikis) I did a quick Wikipedia search.  Basically, mind mapping is a way to get a lot of ideas out of your brain and onto paper without writing a novel.  It’s a concise way of not only getting your thoughts down on paper, but also discovering the connections between ideas and how they are related.   Mind mapping can range anywhere from a basic model of thoughts (i.e. circles connected by lines) to the extreme, with different colors and sizes of fonts, pictures, graphics, and shapes. 

A lot of people believe that mind mapping is the best technique to use to record your thoughts.  For example Peter Russell mentions these points on his website (http://www.peterrussell.com/MindMaps/Advantages.php):

• Mind-maps work the way the brain works -- which is not in nice neat lines.
• Memory is naturally associative, not linear. Any idea probably has thousands of links in your mind. Mind-maps allow associations and links to be recorded and reinforced.
• The mind remembers key words and images, not sentences -- try recalling just one sentence from memory!   Mind-maps use just key words and key images, allowing a lot more information to be put on a page.
• Because mind-maps are more visual and depict associations between key words, they are much easier to recall than linear notes.
• Starting from the center of the page rather than top-left corner allows you to work out in all directions.
• The organization of a mind-map reflects the way your own brain organizes ideas.
• Mind-maps are easy to review. Regular review reinforces memory. Best is to try reviewing in your imagination first, then go back and check on those areas that were hazy.

I used the site https://bubbl.us/ to play around with creating mind-maps.   I decided to try to make a mind-map for Sheldon Cooper in the Luminous Fish Episode. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dPJS7m75DQ

Basically in this episode Sheldon gets fired for insulting his new boss Dr. Gablehauser and is forced with the dilemma of what to do with his time, while still being a productive scientist of course!  I’ve always wanted to know the inner workings of Sheldon’s mind, so here’s a peek.

Overall this was a pretty easy tool to use.  However, I had trouble making the connections between thoughts and I don’t think I would be able to brainstorm as easily using this program as I would on paper.  I think that for me, this tool would be best used to clean up my messy chicken-scratch maps that I have drawn on the back of the latest take-out menu.  When putting down my thoughts, I much prefer the freedom of the completely creative and unhindered technique of handwritten mind-maps.  They may be messier, but I can put in different shapes, add picture or even just graphical representations of ideas instead of struggling for a word or phrase. 

I can see Mind Mapping being a useful teaching tool.  Students could use mind mapping to:

•  Brainstorm ideas when writing group papers
•  Brainstorm and organize group presentations
• Discuss possible experimental methodologies
• Summarize the general knowledge in the literature on a specific subject
• Exploring the far reaches of the implications/applications of a specific study or experiment.
• Explore the many possible ethical issues surrounding an experiment’s methodology.  

Basically if students found this type of brainstorming and organization effective, there are endless applications as an effective learning tool.  It also may encourage more active learning processes and support effective group work.

I came across this photo and it struck me that since I tend to have a bit of a “Post-It” obsession, this may be an effective way to create a mind-map.  I could simply write my ideas on the post-its and would have the ability to move them around as I pleased.  I could even add photos or graphs into my mind-map when it would be more effective than words (also great for visual learners!).  

From Flickr user: keaggy.com

My only criticism with the site https://bubbl.us/ is that I had a hard time exporting the mind-map.  I ended up having to hold down CTRL and select every bubble I had made to be able to save it as a complete picture.

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If Mind Mapping interests you, here are some great sites to visit:

100 reasons to use Mind Mapping:

http://www.mindmapinspiration.com/100-reasons-to-mind-map-paul-foreman/

Difference between mind mapping and brainstorming:

http://www.logicoolsolutions.com/learnDoMasterChallenge/?p=1325

Good mind mapping site

http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/strats/mindmap/index.html

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