Online resources for content

For this week’s post, the first resource that I explored was MIT Open Course Ware. As we all know that this was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 with the aim to make their education materials available for both undergraduate and graduate levels. As of today the site has published study materials for 2340 courses and have been visited by almost 200 million visitors.

Since I wanted to design course for biology at undergraduate level I focused and explored more life science department courses. I was amazed to find out the number of courses that MIT open Course Ware offered in Life Sciences. There were 19 main divisions under life science department, and under each department there were many courses that were offered, which is not offered in most of the universities.

For this course I am interested in designing, a course in biology concentrating in genetics at undergraduate level. In MIT Open Course Ware I found enough content that can be used, especially the problem set. What I found that most of the study material consists of reading material, there are some lecture videos also, but there were no power point slides. I think power point slides are wonderful way to introduce the subject, as through power point the content can be shared in small and concise way.

When I am designing a course, my aim would always be to integrate biology curriculum with social issues so that students can make connection between classroom and real world, thus preparing biology majors to take social responsibility in the future. For this aspect I found materials or documentaries that I can use in YouTube.

For example, to explain the Genotype-Phenotype relationship and expression and transfer of heritable information, I would like to use the case of Sickle Cell Anemia and its public health policies in American history, which suggests that there is difference in cultural attitudes toward this illness especially in African-American community.

I then explored Khan Academy to see if I can find more resources. I found that Khan Academy do have couple of lecture videos and power point presentation on my topic. But those are very basic and I do not think I can use it to teach at undergraduate level.

I would like to mention that apart from Khan Academy, MIT Open Course Ware and You Tube, there are more resources that can be used to design course. There are many stimulation games, which acts as great experiential tool for students, for example, http://www.marketplace-simulation.com/capstone-simulations.

Another place where I found stimulation game for biology is https://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/

Looking at all the option available I feel that there is so much content available that teachers can use to teach students with different learning style, but again it is an educators work to utilize the resources carefully to design course to facilitate learning.  

reflectiononCMS

I found this week’s task, which required us to explore free course management systems (CMS) like Edmodo and compare it with other CMS very interesting and eye-opening, owing to the fact that I currently am not engaged in teaching. For this post I would present my comparison of Edmodo and google classroom, that I had explored last week.

As a future teacher when I am looking at any CMS, I look for certain basic features that will enable me to effectively deliver the content of my subject. Those features include the mode of assignment delivery, assignment collection, communication with students, set reminders to students, the ease with which different technology would be embedded in the system and grading rubric.

Google classroom is a part of google Apps for education suite and was for the first time used in 2014. One important feature that I learned about google classroom is that it can be accessed from multiple platform and does not require the framework of google classroom. Students can join the course by entering the class code and have learned that that this code do not expire. Google classroom works well with most of the google apps like google drive, google docs, sheets slides and drawing. Students can post their comments in the class stream or write comments to an assignment. Another feature that I explored in google classroom is that students can email each other; as a student I find this feature very useful.  Grading and providing feedback to student is in a click of button.

Edmodo on the other hand is there in the market since 2008 and was developed to use the idea of social networking in enhancing education. It is of course free course management system and is different from google classroom. Teacher can easily create and account and sign up using any email account. Joining Edmodo class is similar to google classroom, where a code is generated that can be shared with student to gain access. The class code expires in 30 days and new codes are required to be generated, which makes it less user friendly than google classroom. Similar to student class code, parents code is also created in Edmodo that enables parents to see their child’s progress, parents can also communicate with other parents. I personally like this feature, as it allows parents to actively participate in their child’s education. Edmodo also has all the basic features like that of google classroom like grade book, assignment area and ability to support various technologies. Another features that I liked in Edmodo is the spotlight, using this feature or the tool enables teachers to share various material which could be self-created or other resources with students. Another feature that I liked about Edmodo is the teacher’s community, which enables teacher’s also to grow professionally and be up to date, by understanding what is going on in their subject. The communication feature of Edmodo allows student to post in the group’s stream as well as send personalized message to teacher, enabling one on one clarification. The feature that is not present in Edmodo compared to google classroom, is that students cannot email each other.  

I feel the necessity to write here that both the system support designing lessons according to the TPACK framework, where the content, activities and tools could be well utilized.

In any interface design as the course management system, the ease with which user can use it changes the perceived affordance about it. Since I have not used any of the CMS in the real time, I do not know how much I can do justice is writing about affordance of this system.

The most importance affordance of CMS is that it increases the classroom time and provides more room to develop student-centered education. To talk about the teaching that I intend to do is The idea is to integrate biology curriculum with social issues so that students can make connection between classroom and real world, thus preparing biology majors to take social responsibility in the future. This would require student to explore more than that can be taught in the class, for example looking at various documentaries and CMS forms the best mode for this. An important affordance of CMS is that it offers teacher the ability to teach using various media.

Online discussion also is another affordance of CMS. This feature allows every student to express their opinion which is of course not an option is face-to-face class. The ease with which students can use this system allows students to explore more and motivate them to be connected with the subject even outside the classroom.

 I would like to end the post with the thought that CMS are great tool for the teacher to enhance the pedagogy.

Background: The idea is to integrate biology curriculum with social issues so that students can make connection between classroom and real world, thus preparing biology majors to take social responsibility in the future.

By asking to do similar type of exercise every other week on different biological topic I think biology majors would see the world in different way than they do now.

Objectives Directly Taught or Learned Through Discovery

Identified Learning Targets

Biology objectives: expression and transfer of heritable information 1.Students will learn about inherited diseases. (Heriditary) 2. Different forms of alleles. 3. what is genotype? 4. what is phenotype? 5. what is heterozygotes and homozygotes? 6. what is complete and incomplete dominance of allele? Social objectives: Learners will understand why it is important to learn this, by understanding how previous applications of genetic theories to social and public health policies in American history has caused difference in attitude towards various illness. Basic mathematical skills

What is sickle cell disease? What are the effects of sickle cell disease? How do you get sickle cell disease? Explain Punnett Square probability for a couple at risk for a child with SCD and other hemoglobin variants (X). Is there more than one type of sickle cell disease? How does sickle cell disease affect pregnancy? What are the risks of sickle cell disease during pregnancy? Why is it especially important for black women to know about sickle cell disease? Why is sickle cell more common in certain races and ethnic groups? Draw and analyze the Punnett square

 What must all students know and be able to learn as a result of this experience?

Know Chromosome, gene, nucleus, mitosis, meiosis

Will learn Allele, genotype phenotype, homozygous, heterozygous, heredity and expression of gene.

Overview

Students will be working in group of three, with each one preparing one of the first three topics. Each student presents the work of other student; this will help everyone in the group learning all the objectives of the project. The idea behind this is that students learn best from their peers. For the last question Critical thinking and reasoning where each student will provide their views about the question and audience are allowed to debate on the presenter’s view.

Google apps that I would use for this course would be google drive and google scholar. Google drive allows students to save files that can be accessed from anywhere that has internet connection. Google drive allows to create google docs google presentation, thus allowing each teams to be connected in online platform. For this course the students are also required to read some articles about the history of sickle cell anemia in the USA.

The learning theory that I would like to concentrate would be social learning theory of Bandura. According to this theory people learn from the interaction of their behavior, cognitive and their environmental influence.