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Science classrooms are often looked at as areas to experiment with new and exciting ways of teaching. Over the years they have progressed from rooms of notes and lectures to more hands-on, constructivist learning venues. Laboratory experiences have greatly increased over the years and now we are faced with still other possibilities to enhance science instruction.

Now that computers and the internet are so present in education, we have even more new and exciting ways to engage our students in the science classroom. Not only can they collaborate by completing a lab together. They can also document their findings in a class blog or a class wiki. This could lead to discussions from students not only in their own class or school, but in schools across town or even across the world.

Additionally, students can listen to and create podcasts to review concepts or to show their understanding of content and processes. Beyond the daily reality of the classroom students can also explore virtual worlds to participate in complex scientific experiments and simulations.

Web 2.0 tools are helping to extend science learning beyond the school walls and beyond the school day. The following will explore each of these powerful resources in greater depth.

Parents grew up relying on computer technology simply as an online research reference library, whereas their children use it as an integral part of their communication with friends through texting and blogging. Their lives outside of school center on using this technology with cell phones, iPods, Facebook and online video games, to name a few. The Web 2.0 generation is one that looks at these technologies as tools for communication, collaboration and sharing. Incorporating technology tools into the inquiry activities in classrooms is a good way to have students work as scientists (Novak & Krajcik, 2006, p. 76). Two such tools are wikis and web logs, more commonly called blogs. Wikis and blogs are tools of communication that are used by students in their personal lives, and can be used in classrooms as effective instructional strategies. Both blogs and wikis focus on written communication. Blogs are journals written by individuals where wikis are written collaboratively.

Students use blogs in their personal lives to express their personal comments, thoughts and ideas to select groups of friends. With student familiarity with blogs, especially through FaceBook, it is an activity that classroom teachers can use to effectively engage learners. Activities can include having students respond to questions, collaborate with peers or just using it to organize and store their assignments (Duplichan, 2009). The blog tool is also an effective way to have students become better writers.

Clearly worded written communication is an important skill for students to learn, especially in science. Teachers can encourage students to use critical thinking skills and collaborative debate to blog responses to questions, hypotheses, or potential solutions to real-world problems. Their active engagement in this process is an important learning experience and an excellent learning strategy. In the classroom it is often a challenge to get shy or less confident students to participate or express themselves, but blogging allows these students to fully participate in a comfortable format (Kajder and Bull 2003).

In her article entitled “Using Web Logs in the Science Classroom”, Stayce Duplichan offers several suggestions for integrating blog activities into science classroom instruction. Some of these ideas include response to current event topics, having students post summaries of the events, a book club reflection on a favorite science book, or students posing science questions for other students to answer. Blogs provide a tool for student collaboration, feedback and reflection on different topics centered around real-world situations. Classroom activity uses with blogs can focus on creative writing topics, like writing a complaint letter from the heart to the cholesterol molecule, or debating the legal ramification of DNA testing (Duplichan, 2009).

Beyond just text, students and teachers can embed things like videos or photographs into their blogs to enhance discussion. These could be further used as visual references for lab reports and research papers.

Wikis and blogs are often referred to in the same breath. The distinct difference between these two written communication tools is that wikis are a more public, group collaboration tool. This digital tool is ideal for ongoing conversations, project collaboration discussions, and group learning through written reflections and responses. Collaborative projects are best served in the wiki. In the science classroom, this may include activities like group lab reports, group research projects, or discussion forums.

In education there is a growing cry from the workforce to support the increasing need for students to be able to work collaboratively to complete projects. This stems from the idea that "groups of people can be wiser than individuals" (Moxley and Meehan, 2007)). Use of wiki group work in the science classroom promotes and encourage use of higher order and critical thinking skills, deepening conceptual understanding ( Shapiro, 2010). Use of these tools, like wikis, also actively engages students, providing them with opportunities to participate in thinking and problem solving activities (Trowbride, Bybee, & Powell, 2008).

Wiki collaborative work helps provide peer lead instruction and learning. Below is an example of the role a wiki can play in a science classroom.

//"After completing a section on the water cycle, Jeffery goes in the wiki and posts information about each of the stages. Jeffery happens to not be your most studious child, and he mixes up the concepts of evaporation and condensation. Allison logs on and reads the water cycle page, catches the error, and is immediately able to go in and fix the mishap. Allison also notes that there is more than one type of collection, giving details of surface runoff and percolation. Brittany, who hates to read, logs in and embeds a video from YouTube showing the stages of the water cycle." (Lightle, 2008 ) //

Another web 2.0 tool that requires very few resources is the podcast. A podcast can be defined as a recording distributed across the internet as a downloadable mp3 file (Piecka, 2008). Because podcasts are so accessible, they allow teachers to reach their students outside of the school walls and beyond the traditional school day (Putman and Kingsley, 2009). Podcasts can be teacher created or student created. When teachers prepare podcasts of lectures, or even just highlights of current topics we allow students to learn at their own pace and to determine their own listening frequency. If it takes some students one time to learn it, that’s great. If others need to listen to a podcast 2 or 3 times, they would have that option without everyone knowing they needed the extra help, or without even asking for the help. This would be particularly helpful when dealing with new science content, as there are so many totally new concepts in seventh and eighth grade.

Studnicki, Parker, et. al (2008) cited a study in which seventh grade science teachers worked in conjunction with the computer teacher to guide students in the creation of a podcast related to the ozone layer. Training for teachers was the first part of the plan and then the study detailed a five-week breakdown. During this time the students learned about the ozone layer in Science class and learned how to create podcasts in computer class. Students were charged with doing research, viewing and sharing other podcasts related to the topic and then preparing their own podcasts to present to the class.

A project of this sort could be done with almost any scientific concept. For example, students could study Newton’s Laws of Motion in science class and the technology integrator could be invited in to help students prepare podcasts on one or more of the laws. Numbers could be from a hat to determine which law they would investigate. Two class periods would be needed to do the research and to review other podcasts or videos on the law. Students could pick one other podcast to share with another group doing the same law and then have a group discussion about the shared podcasts. After the discussion students would prepare scripts to produce a three minute podcast. Groups would be expected to time themselves reading the podcast prior to actually recording it. They would be given an additional two days to work on and edit the script and then two days to record and edit the podcast. Individuals would be graded on group involvement, accuracy of information presented, use of podcast software as instructed and final product quality.

In addition to doing podcasts on specific topics in science, another area that can be enhanced by podcast creation is that of science vocabulary. A study was done to investigate the effect of weekly vocabulary podcasts on the retention of science specific vocabulary among students (Putman & Kingsley, 2009). Students were pretested on the vocabulary and then randomly grouped. One group was given access to the podcasts and the other was not. An ANCOVA statistical analysis was done after the students retested, and it was shown that the increase in test scores was significantly higher in the group that had access to the podcasts. Although the scores were higher, they weren’t significantly higher. However, the teachers had so many positive comments from the students that it reinforced their thoughts that podcasts can help us motivate and reach learners in a different way. Using podcasts, “ we have a unique opportunity to grab students by the ears, but unlike the pioneer school teacher, this time it is in a positive manner.” (Putman and Kingsley, p. 108, 2009).

All of the previous tools we’ve discussed deal with the here and now and are all two-dimensional. Although they are engaging, a further level of engagement can take place when students learn through virtual worlds. Until the end of 2010 the Teen Grid on Second Life was a top virtual world with many educational components. This was closed down at the end of the year. Peggy Sheehy, a media specialist, who has used Second Life to help educate students called it a “tragic error” to shut down the Teen Grid because younger students are in such need of the new forms of pedagogy that second life brought to the forefront (Harrison, 2010). Second Life now welcomes students as young as sixteen into the main grid. There are significant examples of science related learning opportunities in Second Life. Genome Island allows students to complete complicated genetic experiments that otherwise could not be done. Additionally, NASA and NOAA both have very informative sites on Second Life.

Using desktop computers to access virtual worlds like Second Life is only one way to tap into the resource of virtual reality. Total immersion virtual reality is still another avenue for this new type of teaching and learning. In total immersion virtual reality head mounted stereoscopes are used to interact with a projected world (Strangman). Some of these units include movement sensors on the head and hand to enrich the interaction with the virtual world.

The real appeal of using virtual worlds in science is that they allow students to manipulate typically inaccessible objects and variables. Using computer simulations and virtual reality also provides students a look into a more intuitive type of learning and supports a more constructivist approach to learning (Strangman). Imagine students being able to test the effects of radiation on a population or the effect of speed on a car crash. These could be done with computer simulations, but not in the classroom under any circumstances.

Virtual reality can also help scaffold student learning. When students can revisit activities at their leisure, as they can with virtual worlds and computer simulations, it helps them have more control of their learning. Virtual worlds and computer simulations can tap into the learning of individuals who may have difficulty with reading and language, but are skilled at using symbols and manipulating objects. I have seen this first hand with a student I currently teach. He can barely read and write, but he is a master at Runescape, which is an online role play game. I have an account too, and I feel totally incompetent in comparison to this boy. If I could put his science content into that world he’d be at the top of the class. Virtual worlds and computer simulations truly are educational outlets that must be explored.

Demands on schools to support the needs of the workforce and higher education are greater now more than ever. This includes preparing students for real world skills, including being able to work collaboratively and to have experience using technology tools. These technology tools in a science classroom may include use of scientific probeware, digital microscopes, and computers. Web 2.0 technology creates a forum for analyzing and sharing the data and information. Technology based inquiry lessons are an effective way to prepare students for the 21st century and beyond.