Jim's USF Tech Cert Blog

Module 2: Audio Recording for Fluency and Self-Analysis Audio Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XI4f-aCqBH3XCPjwCRwrsj0TgCcq9nOK/view?usp=sharing Great Barrier Reef Grief For this assignment I decided to read an article from one of my favorite magazines, Coral Magazine.  I often times use the magazine in class for articles about the plight of our coral reefs around the world.  Every Thursday students have an opportunity to earn extra credit by summarizing a current science article in an activity I call “Science in the News”.  I often bring an article as well as I think it is important for students to be exposed to “real” science happening in their world.  Here is my review for my reading of this amazing article. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t excited to critique my own reading as like most I have never liked my voice recording.  Currently on my 4th day of the Flu, I really didn’t know what to expect.  I was surprised to like the tone of my...

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...

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 ac...

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.  ...

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 classro...

Hello class, Although I have used programs like Screencastify to flip the classroom or had students use their webcams to make WeVideos, I am yet to host or even be a part of Video Conferencing.  I really didn't know exactly what they meant by video conferencing until I watched and read the resource section of this module.  Right away, I began to think of how amazing of a tool this could be for both my biology and Anatomy classes.  The first application that the video in our resources mentions really got me excited about this tech tool.  I take my students on 6 field trips over the course of the year, but we are limited to Illinois museums or local forest preserves.  Field trips have also become extremely expensive.   The opportunity to conference with other students, classrooms, or professionals from around the world opens so many doors and opportunities.  Can you imagine talking to other classrooms of like-aged students from other countries f...

Hello Class, As a life science teacher that still believes getting your hands dirty with the material is the best way to learn biology or anatomy, I often times ask myself if we sometimes include technology in the classroom just to say we included technology in the classroom.  Don't get me wrong, I think technology can be a great way to enhance the curriculum, but many times this year I did think, "Did I just change this activity to a tech centered activity to increase engagement, or did I change it cause it is the "IT" thing to do now?" My question to my group is: Do you feel that the content or the experience in the classroom is ever negatively impacted by the drive to make everything technologically driven in the classroom? I look forward to your replies! Thank you, Jim Nielsen