One last time for this course....

This is the last blog post for this course, and I've really enjoyed it, and gotten some really meaningful and thought provoking feedback in the last 6 weeks. As my role in teaching has recently changed, my target has shifted a bit. My last link is physics related, since I'll be teaching physical science along with chemistry next year. The site I found was http://www.learner.org/exhibits/parkphysics/. It talks about the physics behind different parts of an amusement park. The interactivity isn't as high as there has been on some of my sites, but it does a pretty good job of instructing, then giving the kids a fun way to be assessed.

I'm really looking forward to next year, as I design lessons, and I take the time to integrate the things I've found (or new things I discover) into my teaching. I can't see anything but benefits to using these ideas, and though there have been setbacks, I look forward to expanding my teaching with this technology.

Starting to wrap up

It's been an interesting semester looking into virtual labs and their use in the classroom, with a lot of ups and downs with respect to their actual implementation in the classroom. I found one more online virtual chemistry site at http://www.chm.davidson.edu/ChemistryApplets/index.html from Davidson.

Their applets are not nearly as nice as some of the other ones I've seen, but they cover a very broad range of topics. I like that they have coverage of topics I haven't seen elsewhere, but I'm really unimpressed with the quality of them. They work, and show what they're meant to show, but I don't see how they can help students who don't already know what's going on. That does bring up a major issue with simulations, and that is the importance of appearance and ease of use. Without a flashy appearance, you can't get the kids to stick around unless it's really easy to use. If you have neither, your material is not really useful.

The Media Equation

It took me forever to get to this blog, with so many things going on in my life right now. I found the premise of the article interesting. Does media=reality? With the total pervasion of media into today's society, I'm sure it can be difficult to differentiate between what is real and what has been created. So much media today is intended to reflect reality that the line continues to blur.

Within the context of my study this semester, the question is an excellent one. Does the experience of laboratory work on the screen equal the experience of laboratory work in the classroom? Is it possible for one to replace the other. In many ways, it seems like a possibility, but as the studies have seemed to flush out, it just is not the case. Students don't learn as much about the experiments they do, and they really can't connect with the concrete topics as much as they could. I think that connection, if a software can make it happen, can provide the impulse to push the quality of digital simulations over the edge.

As someone with a great deal of experience in the lab, I really didn't buy the experience as authentic. The science geek in me thought it was a killer game, but I never felt like I was experimenting. My students reported the same feeling, and really did not enjoy the assignment. I'll give the idea another chance, but it will definitely be in another venue, as I won't be teaching AP Chemistry for a while.

More of a Personal Blog Today

I'm sorry that it's been a while since my last post, and tonight's post is not yet the Media Equation one. I'll have to do it tomorrow, as I can't print from this computer at home (I love my district PC), and I can't read that PDF online.

Here's today's link:
http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol16.2/kennepohl.html.

Kennepohl, D. (2001) "Using Computer Simulations to Supplement Teaching Laboratories in Chemistry for Distance Delivery." Journal of Distance Education. Retrieved from (link above) on March 25, 2007.

This study provides an interesting quantitative comparison of students using a prelab simulation to those who do not. The data showed slightly higher performance and somewhat increased understanding of the material, but not at a huge level. The biggest benefit was a reduction in required lab time. This can be a good result, but is definitely not the primary desired result of the use of laboratory simulations in most cases.

On a more personal note, I'm not nearly at 100% right now. I took a group of 6 kids to Disney for the state academic tournament, where they came in 5th, but 5 days with 6 teenagers and a very pregnant wife took a huge toll on my energy level. On top of that, my mother, who has been on oxygen for the last 2 years just found out that her doctor had not mentioned an additional underlying condition to her, and her second-opinion pulmonologist gave her 2 years if she doesn't get a transplant (the average wait is 2.5 years). She's 48. We've known she's bad, but it's a little more real to have such a terrible prognosis, especially since I have a 2.5 year old, and another daughter due in 33 days.

On a good note, I was offered (and today accepted) a position at Beth's school for next year. I am really looking forward to working in an independent school, with the ability to really get more involved with the students and really make a difference. I hope we will be able to work together as I try to implement a lot of this technology. Unfortunately, it renders the direct application of the material I've been talking about here as useless for my new position (this is AP level stuff and I'll be teaching chem I and 8th grade physical science). I know that simulations and the like will definitely be helpful, and I'm really looking forward to working in a new school with new curricula.

NACOL’s Position on Advanced Placement Science

Article link: http://www.nacol.org/docs/NACOLPositiononCollegeBoardAPScienceCriteriaFINAL.pdf

This position paper comes from the North American Council for Online Learning or NACOL. It was released as a response to the Advanced Placement Audit being conducted by the College Board. Ostensibly to protect its' reputation and copyright, the College board has created a process by which AP courses must be approved in order for a school to have permission to use the AP designation on its transcripts. To enforce this, colleges and universities are sent a list of all schools approved to offer AP courses and the courses they are approved to offer. Here's my short commentary on this process before I move on to the paper:

Colleges are NOT going to look through a list to ensure that classes were approved by an AP audit. Schools that have no qualms about putting inappropriate AP designations on classes are not going to change that fact. On top of that, the audit process is a joke, with identical submissions receiving different feedback and the process does not evaluate the teacher in any way, just the curriculum. I don't see what good they expect to come out of this process.

Rant over. On to NACOL's position. My present annoyances aside, I've been a pretty big supporter of the use of virtual labs, and I still hope to get them working in my class. I'll always use all sorts of simulations as demos, but I really hope to get them working in my class. NACOL is arguing that a virtual school offering virtual labs is equivalent to a face-to-face school with wet labs. They cite their higher AP pass rate as a prime example of why their system works. I think they are wrong, and they fail to build even a mediocre argument for their opinion.

Before I taught in the high school classroom, I taught in an undergraduate chemistry lab at FSU. While most students didn't do much more in the way of chemistry lab classes (maybe one more class), many did continue on to further chemistry courses, and they needed all of the lab skills they acquired to be successful. AP exams do NOT measure laboratory skills, nor do they measure the understanding students gain of concepts in the laboratory. Students in a virtual course should have no disadvantage, because the lab requirements of the program are not assessed. The pass rate at a virtual school should be higher than the national average, because it is above average students who choose to take an online AP course. Virtual AP courses are true electives, while county and state initiatives currently push severely underqualified and underprepared (and undermotivated) students into AP courses, then tell them they have to pay money NOT to take the exam.

In the grand scheme of things, I think AP is being ridiculous with their force behind the lab requirement, and shame on colleges if they choose to grant lab credit to a student who has never touched a buret. The onus of enforcement of AP lab requirements should fall on the colleges and not on the high schools. If a student wants to take the AP exam, and wants to take an online course to prepare him for it, the inability to do wet labs should not prevent it. Those students, however, should only receive lecture course credit, instead of lab credit.

Virtual Labs and Distance Ed

The potential of virtual laboratories for distance education science teaching: reflections from the development and evaluation of a virtual chemistry laboratory

http://science.uniserve.edu.au/pubs/procs/wshop8/outws004.pdf

This poster presentation discusses the use of a virtual lab by a school in Australia to help prepare their distance ed students for intensive residential lab programs. Rather than using a totally virtual lab component to the course, the school brings distance ed students to the school for several intense days of lab work, when they complete the same labs done by on-campus students, but they do it in a condensed period. The goal of this system is to help prepare the students for the lab.

While I will never be able to create my own software as they did, recreating in detail the schools actual laboratory facilities, this speaks to something I spoke of recently, where I discussed using the virtual lab as a pre-lab. This allows students to become familiar with what equipment they are going to use, and what procedure they are going to undertake. They found, just as would be expected, that the students were better prepared, and more likely to succeed.

On another note, I tried my first virtual lab today. I spent hours tweaking it, and between hardware and software issues in our school computer lab and a small but important error, I felt like it was a failure. Talking to my students, I think they will be able to make use of it, and will be successful with it, but they have to take it home and do it there, rather than being able to do it in class as we'd hoped. I'll get back to you on it once I know more about long term success or failure.

NSTA Position Paper on Computer Use

http://www.nsta.org/positionstatement&psid=4

The NSTA is probably the largest group of science teachers in the country, and their opinion is very influential in the world of science teaching. If they accept something, then it's something that is either mainstream and acceptable, or will be there soon. I decided to look at their position on computer use to see if it has any comments on animations, simulations, and virtual labs.

Simulation software should provide opportunities to explore concepts and models which are not readily accessible in the laboratory, e.g., those that require:
a. expensive or unavailable materials or equipment
b. hazardous materials or procedures
c. levels of skills not yet achieved by the students
d. more time than is possible or appropriate in a realtime classroom, e.g., population growth simulations.

This list discusses a number of the reasons for using a simulation, but they also make it clear that simulations should not replace an experience in the laboratory if it is possible. The lab I've developed will be used in exactly that manner-- I don't have the time between now and the AP to do a lab as intensive as the one I want to do (a full qualitative analysis scheme with an unknown), but they need the experience. Additionally, they need the opportunity to practice their work on predicting and describing chemical reactions. I think this position paper is both supportive of the use of such software and limiting of it all at the same time. I'm really finding it difficult to balance when using virtual labs is helpful and when it isn't. Clearly, there's a bigger role for it than simply as an enrichment activity, but I have to be sure I'm not using it too much and trying to replace the full laboratory experience.