Jim's USF Tech Cert Blog

Hello class, Wow, that summer went fast!  This course was the first course I have taken in over 10 years and to say I was a little rusty being a student was an understatement.  I knew I always wanted to go back to further my education, but when I found this technology certificate through St. Francis I knew it was an excellent opportunity because of our schools move to 1:1 instruction next year. I was worried that taking this course first would be an issue, but it was the only one available so I signed up and now can say that it was one of the most beneficial courses I have taken in my graduate work.  My bachelors degree is in animal science, and teaching you could say is a third career for me.  When I went back to get my masters in education I was extremely excited to learn about the profession and how I would get the opportunity to share about the amazing biodiversity on the planet with thousands of students.  Honestly, I don't remember much from my gr...

Hello Class, One of the assignments for this class was to make an online assessment that we could use in our classroom.  After looking through a variety of resources for online quizzes, and having experience with a few already over the years, I decided to try a new website called ProProfs Quiz Maker.  I made two quizzes on this site and am going to talk about the second quiz that I made for my eLearning blended unit called "Punnett Square Quiz". Artifact Link: https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mtk1mtg0oacohj During a google search for free quiz generators I came across this site.  It was easy to set up a profile and free to use the basic features.  It is similar to other quiz generators I have used with a few positives and negatives in comparison.  The first positive is its simplicity, although some students might also view that as a negative.  It really looks like a typical pen and paper quiz or test, just online.  There reall...

Hello Class, For my first artifact, or artifacts, I decided to talk about the two screencast videos I created for this class to use in Biology.  I wasn't sure if they counted as two separate artifacts so I will talk about both of them here cause I learned a lot about making these videos in between them.  A couple of years ago I went to a professional development class about "flipping the classroom".  This concept really interested me because it was a way to reach students beyond the 46 minutes in class everyday.  Also, students could go back and review the videos if they needed extra help or use them as a review for upcoming assessments.  Maybe the biggest bonus though is it gives the students more time in class to apply the material in labs or activities rather than sitting in a lecture experience.  Because of this, screencasts really appealed to me because they would have an immediate impact in my classroom.  These videos were my first and seco...

Hello Class, Here is a link to my final eLearning Unit.  Although we weren't required to post it here, I switched units half way through the class and thought it would be better for me to use my genetics unit in biology as it leant well to online content.  Here is a link to the new elearning unit: Patterns of Inheritance: Punnett Squares and Pedigrees: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzLtiCze06ehcXpjOW9HdTk1Smc/view?usp=sharing Thank you, Jim Nielsen

Module 7 Discussion: Hello Class, Interesting topic for sure this week and one that I think has just become a way of life for most people nowadays.   I think my answer for the first 2 questions this week really depend on the application.   I think multitasking in general can be very beneficial.   Especially as a parent, if you don’t multitask throughout the day you might not get everything done that you need to.   In fact, I think multitasking skills are an important skill all parents need to master.   Teachers as well need to be able to multitask while working.   You are often wearing multiple “hats” at the same time and need to be able to multitask to do all well.   Students, at least at the high school level, think they are master multitaskers.   They will multitask during class whenever possible, but most of the time their multitasking means doing both tasks at a lesser level than if they focused on one or the other.   This b...

Module 6 discussion: When I thought about making a new RLO for my class, I asked myself what is something students struggle with that a video or screen cast could help them as a reference.   I also wanted to make a resource that they could go to any time throughout the year, an important quality in a RLO.   Lastly, I wanted to provide a tool that   other educators in my department could benefit from by using in in their class or molding to fit their needs.   My classes, and school have chosen to rely heavily on google as our online platform for… pretty much everything.   I started with a google classroom, and then quickly switched to a google site for both of my classes.   Although maybe not considered a Learning Management System, as mentioned in the resources this week, I think it does a pretty good job along with the help of eSchool plus and Atlas programs of managing our online content for the class. This RLO is probably the most important ...

Module 6 assignment: Class Road Map/ RLO My current classroom is definitely not an online classroom, and to call it blended would probably be stretching it a bit as well.   With our school’s move to 1:1 I knew I needed to make some serious changes in order to keep up with the direction not only our district but education in general is going.   One of the biggest reasons I enrolled in this program was so that I could step up my class’ online presence. One of the big ideas that I took from this module was how important creating a culture of engagement, comfort, and collaboration is to a successful blended classroom or even a single online assignment.   Learning Management systems: My classes, and school have chosen to rely heavily on google as our online platform for… pretty much everything.   I started with a google classroom, and then quickly switched to a google site for both of my classes.   Although maybe not considered a Learning Management System...

Module 5 Discussion: Hello class, So far, I felt like this module benefited me the most as far as future application in my classroom.   With our school moving to 1:1 next year I would like to start moving towards the “blended” classroom and I felt like the PDF’s and videos we watched this week were very helpful.   The main focus of this module is on building a sense of community with your students, which is often much easier in person, and difficult without face to face interaction   This is my first online class as a student, and I found myself having many of the reservations outlined in the presentations this week.   I really liked how many of the resources highlighted how to make the material engaging and how to include group and collaborative work among students who aren’t present with one another.    Although I have used “google community” as a sort of Wiki page with my students, I really liked playing around with the suggested wiki in thi...

More About Proteins- Genetic Science Learning Center http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/ For this assignment I decided to dive deeper into the OER I discussed earlier this week, the University of Utah's Genetics Learning Center Website.  One of the most difficult parts of our Genetics unit, and honestly the entire class is understanding what proteins are and how they are made.  Students come in thinking that proteins are just for building muscle, when in fact DNA is an instruction manual for building proteins.  Proteins carry out everything that your body does, everything that you are physically and mentally is because of proteins.  That is why it is such an important topic for students to understand.  The "More about Proteins" section of the website does an amazing job of giving the students extra exposure to the material and allowing them to interact with and engage with models dealing with protein synthesis.   Furthermore, ...