So on Friday my Educational ICT prof. introduced me to a program called Inspiration. He said that I should do some reading up on it and try to use it, ‘cause the schools around there use the program quite a bit. So did some digging around and downloaded the trial version. Wow… this is a cool program. I created a quick concept map involving biology – my favorite subject!The above diagram depicts a VERY SIMPLE view of how glucose is turned into ATP. This topic is covered under the Biology 20, Unit C portion of the Alberta Education Program of Studies for 2008. The complexity of glucose metabolism is obviously quite complicated, but non-the-less very important to understand. This relatively simple concept map can be integrated into the curricula to serve as a scaffold upon which students can organize more ideas as we gain more details into each of the steps. The Inspiration program is extremely useful in this scenario in that I can forward this drawing onto my students and then have them in small groups elaborate on this diagram, and make new connections. Furthermore, each of the groups can post periodically updated versions of their concept map on a bulletin board so as to allow other students to compare and contrast. Without the concept mapping and posting tools, it is harder for a student to gain a sense of the entire metabolic pathway and to assess their own knowledge based upon their peer’s understandings.
By doing both the concept mapping and the sharing of ideas students can use organizational tools to manage inquiry. They can then access and use communication technologies to communicate in an engaging manner, through multimedia presentation, their research. They can also gain feedback which will extend and communicate their understanding of a very complex idea. This feedback and extension process is aided by technology in a collaborative setting.
humm… I wonder if I should begin to feel sorry for my future students already?
lol (with absolutely no hint of evil whatsoever) till next time,
Q
1 comment:
Holy cow, Qian you never fail to amaze me. I know I already commented on your blog but I thought I would look and see what else you'd added since I last checked it out. And of course your entry is wonderful. Oh and by the way I don't think you should worry about your future students, they'll be lucky to have you as a teacher. And I mean that 100%
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