Data projection in the classroom

Over the last week I have been reading a lot of data projection in the classroom.  Many of us use this tool on a regular basis in our classrooms.  We know that it often makes things easier and it helps with student focus, but how often do we think about why it does these things.  Everything I read talked about how communication is key in education and data projectors can be a great tool in helping to achieve this by adding a visual (and sometimes audio) element to our teaching.  Increasing the ways that information is accessible to students has a direct connection to the numbers of students that can be reached.  As pointed out in Teaching and Learning with Technology by Judy Lever-Duffy and Jean B. McDonald, a traditional computer monitor is too small to share with an entire class (p. 147).  Data projection allows an entire room of people to share something created on that computer or something on the web.
Utah
There are some really good websites out there that can help students visualize what they are learning.  Biology is often the favorite science of many students.  there is not as much math as in Physics or Chemistry  and you can picture what you are learning about easier.  One topic that students struggle with is DNA.  DNA is also one of the hardest things learned in a typical Biology 1 class to visualize.  With that in mind I set out to create a lesson that would help students imagine in their minds what is being discussed in the classroom.  The Learn Genetics site by the University of Utah has many interactives to help make genetics more comprehensible.  I have decided to utilize on of the interactives and a few of the short video clips for a lesson on DNA.
The interactive whiteboards sound exciting to me, but I decided to create a lesson I could use right now.  I have the computer and the projector so it will cost nothing to do this fall with my students.  I do think the lesson could be easily modified to utilize an interactive whiteboard and that the use of an interactive whiteboard would make the lesson even better.  The mimio Interactive Xi Bar and Stylus appeal to me because they are portable.  This would allow me to use them in multiple rooms and they would not take up alot of space. To get the mimio Interactive Xi Bar and Stylus would cost just over $600.

handheld technology lesson plan

Students enjoy using technology in class, especially technology that they like to use personally.  I really wanted to explore ways to use iPods or iPads in the classroom.  iPads start at $499, iPod touches at $199.  Both are fairly expensive.  Their compact size and available apps make these technologies very intriguing for the classroom.  Text books could be downloaded, the internet can be accessed, the paperless classroom becomes more of an option.  While I could think of many ways to utilize these applications in my classroom, but I was really interested in finding a way for the students to tap into their creative side in the science classroom.  I think being creative helps the students remember the information as more than just a fact.  It also gets the more right brained students involved in science. While I was looking around for ways to use the iPod or iPad in class I found a free app called Story Kit.  Story Kit lets users create a digital story.  I made a quick little Father's Day one for my dad and it was fun.  Learning about the cell organelles is a tedious topic in biology.  I thought "why not pair up the fun app and boring topic?"  After the students spend some time learning about the cell organelles they are going to create stories where the characters are organelles.  I think that the students will get a lot out of creating something fun.  The students can then take their stories to the elementary school across the street and share them with the students there.

Supporting Diverse Learners

There are so many technologies out there and new ones coming out all the time that we have a superabundance of resources, often at our fingertips, to help diverse learners.  The one-to-one (in theory at least) laptop program at my school provides me with access to a multitude of web-based resources in addition to the software on the macbook itself.  One of the greatest tools that technology has given me is flexibility.  I like to have my students tap into their creative side to help them think about the science we are learning.  I used to give an assignment and that was it.  Make a poster about..., some would create works of art and some wrote some words on a big piece of paper instead of a piece of notebook paper.  Now, when i do the same assignment the students can create a poster, an animation, record a song or skit, or anything else they gt approved by me.  One student, who is a bare minimum type of guy, will spend hours at home creating an animation of a physics topic using doink.com (a free animation creation site on the web). 

I would really like to get more Vernier probeware to use in labs for my classroom.  To get a class set of any puts you in the hundreds of dollars range, so I buy a little each year.  Vernier does a good job of keeping their older stuff usable while the improve and come out with newer versions.