Malak's Blog

Web 2.0 Tools

Chemistry is not one of these subjects that are not popular. Most students don’t just have a natural affinity to it. Every once in a while though, there comes a student who has had a good experience in learning chemistry and therefore develops interest in it. Although I am a chemistry graduate, in high school, I hated it! Yes I did!! And if I weren’t forced to take it for my IGCSEs, I probably would have never changed my mind about it! The thing is, a chemistry professor changed the way I saw chemistry. The problem with Chemistry, I believe, is that there is a lot of visualizations that is required from the student, but what makes it even more complex that they are asked to visualize things that are very abstract, such as molecular orbitals for example. In my search for a web 2.0 tool suitable for use in chemistry, I look for as many animations as possible. They definitely have the biggest impact on student learning in chemistry so one of these very useful tools that I came across is called “Learner’s TV”.

In another attempt to make chemistry more fun, students can become engaged in a project of creating a comic strip around a certain new concept, such as mass, or mole or anything that they might want to explain and express themselves through images. And it is for this reason that I think that Pixton comics, another tool in presentation, can be used for project based assignments actively and successfully to engage students with different learning styles.

My final tool, although very simple, but I believe is very useful to any chemist or scientific researcher and that is
an interactive periodic table that has all the information you can possibly want for all the chemical elements.

More details can be found on my embedded web 2.0 presentation and the link to each of these three websites are also in the presentation. Hope you enjoy working with these tools and that you also find them useful in your classrooms because they do cover other disciplines as well!

Still more web 2.0 tools..

So many interesting web 2.0 tools still keep coming up! and although it was a shorter session, I feel like it was packed with so much information. The plagiarism prevention tools are a must have for teachers who assign their students papers. They are one of the fundamental tools that have to accompany the integration of the internet into education these days. Vimeo is also, the other tool that grabbed my attention. I do not like publishing anything on the web that is open to everybody. I like to have some certain control and to be able to share what I want with whom I want only. So needless to say the idea of being able to password protect videos is definitely important and useful.

Assignment #2: State of Technology at Hayah

I worked in Hayah international academy as a second grade co teacher for a couple of months. The school has four classes of grade 2 students and in each classroom there is a desktop available for the class teacher to use, however there are no projectors nor smart boards at this grade level even though I know the school has them for higher grade levels, probably middle school and higher. I am sure there is a desktop computer for the teacher in class for all other grade levels as well, just like in grade 2.

In addition to the classroom computers the school has a computer lab with a desktop available for every student to use in their computer sessions. The elementary school have a lab of their own and I would safely say that so do middle school and high-school. So there are plenty of desktop computers available around the school but laptops are not offered for students or teachers.

All Computers at the school are PCs and what seems to be obvious that the newer machines are used in middle school and high-school classes whereas the older ones are found in the elementary classrooms and I have no idea whether they are on a replacement cycle or not.

The school runs office 2007 on its computers and provides limited access to the internet to prevent students and teachers from wasting time on some sites, for example, Facebook and hotmail cannot be accessed using the school’s internet connection.

Learning more about web 2.0 tools..

Jing and Zamzar, my best picks from yesterdays’ session. Jing is such a cool tool for screen-casting graphics and videos and its unbelievably simple to work with. In my work in schools and in corporate, I enjoy and actually dedicate lots of time to incorporating visuals in my work and I am sure I will be using this tool quiet actively in designs, presentations and whenever possible. And Zamzar, oh how I hope you work as great as you sound, but I sure am relieved that I will not have to worry about file formats any more!

I never knew that there was an idea that existed such as “Custom” google search engines. It should be very useful with students because I feel that sometimes a lot of time can be wasted on the search itself and the filtration process. i think I can use this for a more guided kind of research.

Going through the hardware and the software concepts of computers were mainly things that I learnt about previously in my undergraduate courses with little bits here and there of new information. None the less, it was like a refreshing session that helped me organize the information I already had and add to it!

Wow!! Was I this far behind?

What a great introduction to the course!! So much has happened technologically that I was an aware of and I just realized, only today, that I was so far behind and that I had a lot of catching up to do.

I am fascinated with so many ideas, the zooburst, the livescribe (that I definitely want to buy ), the world lens, Layar and so many more. More than anything, I am so happy that I now have this blog and even though I am a bit anxious about having it open for all the class to see none the less I am looking at the up side of it and I am encouraging myself by saying that its just a small number and would therefore be a good start to practice and get ready for more open blogs!!

Its unbelievable all this technology that can be integrated into all educational subjects makes me want to go back to school as a student and experience the difference. Maybe I won’t hate history and geography as much as I did! I used to find them so boring!!

As a teacher though, I must admit I am a bit worried that students can get a bit carried away having fun with the technology itself and not really learning much about the content itself. I also wonder, how can I keep up with technology. I mean if it weren’t for this course that I am doing for my masters degree in education, I wouldn’t have found out all about the sites and technology that I can incorporate into my classroom. So how can I as a teacher know which direction technology is going so that I can move along with it? I don’t want to be an “old” teacher!

Seeing Chemistry..

This video shows how you can get the tools you need to use augmented reality to better understand chemistry. There is no need to try painfully to visualize things that you have never seen through your teacher’s explanations. Now, you actually see the orbital and molecular structures as well as chemical reactions taking place and so much more. This tool will definitely help make your chemistry concepts less volatile!

My First Blog..

Welcome to my first blogging experience!

I have heard about blogs and blogging for quiet some time now and I had no idea what they were or how to do it!! Now,  I can finally and  proudly say that I am officially a blogger

I hope you enjoy going though my blogs as much I am enjoying this experience!