Jim's USF Tech Cert Blog

EEND 676 Artifact #2: BIOLOGY FINAL EXAM PADLET STUDY GROUP https://padlet.com/jim_nielsen/biofinalexam I created the following assignment for this semester's final exam.  I have never used Padlet before, but am excited about the opportunity to try it in the next few weeks!!  I think it will be really beneficial for students to have a way to pick the brains of their peers without having to leave and meet up.  Although, I think study parties and meeting at a coffee house are extremely beneficial, this does solve the issue of getting students together.  Plus, students can come and go as they please at any time, leave comments, answer questions, even study live with another student.  I do expect some issues, mainly how do I convince or promote students to utilize this tool.  They have a lot going on during finals week so how can I make their time with this tool beneficial.  The key to the success of this tool really rides on how many students actively join and use the tool i

Google Communities: Artifact #1 Hello Class, One of the biggest take-aways from this course was my increased familiarity with Google Apps and Tools.  I had worked with Google Communities before, but have really strengthened my familiarity with this amazing tool!  I feel that even some Google Pros don't use or know about Google Communities and rarely hear about it's use in the classroom.  This year alone, I have set up 5 assignments with Google Communities, and am planning a 6th with a google study group. The artifact I submitted for this class was a screencast and Google Community for the amazing film Chasing Coral.  There are so many great eco-documentaries out there today, and I wish I could show them all to my students.  Because of the lack of time, and not wanting to use valuable class time to watch movies, I wanted to find a way to assign a film where students could watch, comment, ask questions, and collaborate with their peers while watching.  This would mimic the

Hello class, My name is Jim Nielsen and I teach Biology and Anatomy at Waubonsie Valley High School. Teaching was a 3rd career change for me as I worked previously as a zookeeper at Brookfield Zoo, and did medical research at University of Chicago for 5 years as well.  I am currently in my 12th year of teaching and truly get excited to come to work everyday and spend time talking about the study of Life with young adults.  The two courses I teach are extremely diverse in learning levels as I teach freshman co-taught biology and Senior Anatomy.  It really creates a fun challenge to create material that works for all learning levels.  Because of this challenge, and our districts move to 1:1 instruction next year, I decided to enroll in the Educational Technology courses at St. Francis.  This is my 3rd course at St. Francis, and my favorite aspect so far is that I am actually able to utilize many of the lessons in class. When students leave my classroom I want them to have a deeper ap