Future of Genetics

     In Michio Kaku's video title "The Key to Immortality?", he discusses the theory that medical science will be revolutionized by the continued growth of development in the technology industry. As technological development makes technology more affordable and in the hands of a much wider range of socioeconomic classes, the average person could be able to have the sequence of their genes at an affordable price. With genome studies more available to the public, medical professionals can use these gene sequences to study aging and see exactly which genes are affected during the aging process. With this information, medical professionals can 'tune up' people so to speak (as if cars) so that they can prevent major troubles before they develop and prolong the life of people. To me, this is a very scary and amazing proposition, but it does make sense. I have probably done enough damage in my three decades that it doesn't really affect me, but it could possibly prolong the lives of my future children or grandchildren. It is wild to think how far medicine has come and could continue develop, especially when studying early medicine. It could go from very much a guessing game to an extremely exact science. Please view Michio Kaku's video below and see for yourself:

Scratch for the Curriculum

     Scratch is a fantastic programming language that students can use to harness creativity, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking. There are a ton of ready-made projects for students using scratch here. I've had the pleasure of exploring some of these projects and would like to suggest a few for different subjects/grade levels. I also would like to share with you my experiences with a particular project.


Middle School Social Studies:
Making Interactive Landscapes
With this lesson plan, students create a landscape design on paper and then try to recreate it using scratch. I would adapt this lesson plan to focus on either a specific geographic feature or region or let students choose a geographic feature or region to represent. Students create the landscape and then the avatar is able to stop and view specific items along the way. One idea that the author mentioned in his lesson plan that I thought would be pretty cool was to create the Mississippi River and stops along the way.

Middle School Math:
Scale Factor
With this lesson plan, students create shapes and then increase them by a 'scale factor' or number that increases the area by a certain amount. Students create lines of certain lengths using coordinates which creates shapes. They are challenged to put them on certain areas of the screen (or quadrants in an x,y coordinate plane).

Middle School Science:
Animated Biome Project
With this lesson plan, students create one of the 6 biomes. They add three animal and three plant sprites. Each of the sprites must be interactive or tell something about themselves when clicked on. This lesson plan is very informative and creates a really cool visual representation for students learning about biomes.

Middle School English:
Bud Not Buddy Project
With this lesson plan, students create an illustration based on the theme, characters, plot, and setting of this particular book. While I don't know about this book particularly, it is a great project that fits with whichever book that a particular class is reading. One that I didn't see, but thought about was creating a plot skeleton, as well. The possibilities are endless for scratch when it comes to displaying comprehension and analysis of literature.

Middle School Art:
Click and Tag
With this lesson plan, students create a canvas for users to use to make graffiti. As users access the student's scratch project, they are automatically able to create graffiti art. I would supplement the lesson by allowing students to create and save their creation on their classmate's canvas.

The Lesson That I Completed: 

3D Printing

     3D Printing is an awesome technology that is catching on in schools all over the country. It is especially interrelated with the STEAM movement. Students are able to utilize their creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking skills to develop things for fun or for use to solve real-world problems. I have done some research on bringing a Makerspace to my school (see links at bottom of blog post) containing 3D printers. I went all out on purchases on this example and let go of every cost-efficient and practical inclination for the purpose of the project, but I could see a cost-efficient makerspace created for the school. This is how I would like to see a 3D printer used in the school. It can be used for all classes through a booking process or even have faculty oversee the makerspace before or after school. The purpose of the 3D printer within the makerspace would be for students to either (A) create items to solve real-world problems through innovation. (B) Express themselves artistically in creating things simply for art's sake. This can be done through projects within classes with as many or as few parameters as necessary or through 'freestyle' creation. Students have an innate desire and ability to create things, but sometimes lack opportunities in school and/or at home. This makerspace would fill this void for the students.

      Within the social studies curriculum, I have a few ideas of how to use a 3D printer for different projects. For ancient civilizations, recreation of important inventions or creations to solve problems even more efficiently than inventions of those times (ie irrigation systems, housing, etc.). For wars and battles, students can recreate battles or war technologies. For geography, students can recreate the magnificent physical features of a region or human characteristics (culture) of a region. The possibilities are endless for how to integrate a 3D printer into the curriculum.. I would love having a 3D printer at my school that is able to be used by anyone.


Makerspace Research Project

Makerspace Research Project Presentation

More Scratch!

Scratch

Teachers,

          I would like to introduce to you a fun program where students utilize a visual programming medium called scratch to exercise their design skills, critical thinking, and technological prowess. This program is located at https://scratch.mit.edu and sign-up instructions for scratch are included in video #1: signing up for an utilizing scratch (link at end of the blog post). Students will be enamored by the creations that they are capable of and, at the same time, will be developing tools necessary for all course subjects in school and tools for life.

     Scratch was designed for the field of education and, with students in mind, designed for use by people with all levels of programming background or no previous experience at all with programming. Users build blocks together to program their particular scratch project. Users are able to add a character or sprite which could be just about anything and also change the background. Users are then able to program the motions of the character on the screen or even create games.

     I have provided some resources below for using scratch. One good resources is the advantages and disadvantages of scratch which shows exactly why scratch is great for the classroom! I also have included a couple of short instructional videos for those who can't wait to get started with scratch. If you ever have any questions, you can also feel free to seek me out and I will be glad to work with you on integrating scratch in your classroom.

Scratch Resources: 

Scratch Website Link

Advantages and Disadvantages of Scratch

Introduction to Scratch

Video # 1: Signing Up For And Utilizing Scratch

My Scratch Instructional Video

Diversity, Cultural Understanding, Global Awareness

     Technology can be used to model and promote diversity, cultural understanding, and global awareness in many ways. It enables students to collaborate with students locally and globally. It allows students to hear a multitude of views and learn about cultures throughout the world. Teachers can model these attributes and values by providing students the opportunities mentioned previously and by seeking to broaden their own cultural understanding, global awareness, and diverse experiences.
        One way that I can accomplish this through technology is to provide my students with news from a local, national, and global level that is presented from different viewpoints. One program to do this through is newsela. Newsela provides a multitude of articles from different places and from different perspectives. Flipboard is another program that accomplishes this goal for teachers and students. CivilisationsAR by BBC is a program that provides history from around the world as it has hub points on every single continent. Storybird does this as well because it provides multi-cultural stories with the collection of stories on Storybird. With more information and news, students can truly develop a world-view and show respect for the lifestyles of cultures throughout the world.
     Another way that I can do this is through programs that allow interaction between students within my classes. My students represent a diverse group of people, but students can fail to gain cultural understanding if they are not encouraged to interact with each other. Ryver and GoSoap Box are programs that can provide back channels within the classroom. While face-to-face opportunities for discussion are important, sometimes students are intimidated by this format or are too polite to force their way into organized conversation. Backchanneling allows students to contribute to collaborative conversation within those stresses. For those that either can't attend class or are more comfortable contributing to collaborative conversation after having practiced some, Voice Thread and Skype could serve the purpose of video chat collaboration. Either way, it is all about developing a culture of respect for other students with a desire to learn about the experiences and ideas of fellow classmates and teachers.
     Lastly,  I could encourage students to interact with peers from other places to gain an understanding and appreciation for culture. Etherpad has organized chats that students can participate in with students from around the world. It is here that students can learn to appreciate the viewpoints, ideas, and culture of others. Another way is through One World Classroom or Conversation Exchange where a teacher's classroom can be paired with another classroom in a different part of the world to communicate on a regular basis. Students can also be encouraged to discuss his or her culture or ideas through his or her own blog such as through blogger.com and then utilize the site to view the ideas of other students throughout the world.

Gamification Delivery Systems Comparison

     The first gamification delivery system that I researched was 3D Game Lab (Rezzly). This platform allows students to complete quests to accumulate XP and level up. It allows collaboration through the grouping of teams and the discussion board feature. Teachers can allow students to have a ton of choice in choosing quests and completing quests at their pace or they can dictate quests in order. Different elements can unlock quests for students (XP accrual, completing certain quests, etc.). When completing quests, teachers can submit feedback after students have completed quests or send the quest submission back for adjustment. This is a great classroom organizational tool and way to measure student mastery. It provides student a gaming feel which creates an 'addictive' participation in classroom activities when using Rezzly.

     Classcraft is a program that was initially mainly geared towards classroom management, but has been enhanced to include classroom delivery and objective mastery. Students can gain or lose XP or health points based off of behavioral activities or classroom quests completed. Classcraft has a really cool presentational aspect. For example, users can defeat monsters by eliminating the monsters health points when answering questions on a review game. Students can receive punishments or rewards as a group, but there is no inherent group programs that I know of with classcraft. Student quests can be self-paced or completed in order as determined by the instructor. Students can take on different roles/characters within the game with have different strengths of powers.

     Breakout edu is a breakout/puzzle game platform for teachers and students. Teachers can create or utilize puzzle games made relating to their content and assign them to students. Students can also create 'breakouts' themselves for much higher-order thinking. Of the three, Breakout Edu is the least comprehensive as a gamification platform. Teachers can set-up classes and students can only be given access to breakouts after they have completed previous breakouts. However, there is no pure 'XP' or 'leveling up' type capabilities that other platforms offer. If assigned multiple breakouts, students can choose which breakouts to complete first.

     Conclusion: In conclusion, I wish that I could create a combination of 3D Gamelab and Classcraft. Classcraft is amazing visually and has a lot of awesome components, but I have found through experience that it is sometimes 'too much' for students in understanding what they need to do (steps for completion, what dictates increase of health points and XP, etc.). 3D Gamelab is solid visually, but doesn't compare to Classcraft in this respect. However, I believe that 3D Gamelab would be a little clearer to students. Both are solid options, but have their best qualities. I think that a teacher would do wonderfully with either with proper planning and diligent use.

	3D Game Lab	Classcraft	Breakout EDU
Price	The educator membership is $12.95 per month or $34.95 per quarter (3 months) or $119.40 per year.   The legendary educator membership (including teacher camps) is $79.95 per quarter or $245 per year.	Basic membership is free.   Premium membership is either $96 billed annually or $12 billed month-to-month. Premium membership includes student analytics, personalized learning quests, interactive class tools, and extra gear & pets which is not included in the basic membership.  School and district membership – A quote must be requested from classcraft. It includes everything in basic and premium membership, but also school dashboard, school climate index, enhanced security, phone support, and custom PD support.	Classroom kit and 1 year access code - $275  1 year online access platform only - $75  School-wide access code 1-25 teachers - $500  School-wide access code 26 – 50 teachers - $1000  School-wide access code 51 – 125 teachers - $1500
Collaboration	3D Game Lab has a discussion feature where students can contribute to discussion forums. Students also can participate in 3D Game Lab on teams. Lastly, teachers can gear their quests with requirements for students to collaborate with each other.	Students can receive group rewards and group punishments. It is cool when you have every group has a specific role (healer, warrior, mage, etc.) which each has specific capabilities within the game. Partcipants can be organized into teams. Teachers can make quests into group activities themselves, but it is not inherently a part of the game.	Students are able to collaborate by participating in breakout with each other (pulling desks together, etc.), but the platform does not have a function geared towards team quests or anything like that.
Leveling Up	Teachers can establish levels based on XP. As students acquire the required number of XP, they can level up to the next level.	Students have both health points and XP. Students can gain or lose health points or XP as reward or punishment. Students receive XP and health points based on behaviorally aspects or by completing quests online.	There is not a leveling up access, but users can create breakouts that can only be accessed when other breakouts are completed. So, there is an ‘unlock’ element there.
Quests	Students can participate in quests that allow for student choice and display student progress. Students submit quests to an instructor who can provide feedback if the quest is not completely fulfilled.	Students can participate in quests on the program. Quests can be self-paced or directed by the instructor. They utilize a map in displaying these quests.	Students participate in breakouts or content related puzzle games where they unlock locks to solve puzzles using hints.
Pace and Direction	Students can acquire XP through quests and make decisions on the order that they complete quests (or the teacher can predetermine quest order).	Teachers can utilize self-paced quests or allow students to choose direction or it can be dictated by the teacher.	Students can choose which breakouts to participate in when multiple are unlocked to them.

Top Hat vs. Nearpod

     Though Top Hat and Nearpod are both venues for content delivery and wonderful tools for formative assessment, they have plenty of differences. Top Hat is more geared towards use by college professors and college students. Like Nearpod, Top Hat has the features of asking questions in various formats to record answers of students and pose discussion questions that can be answers. Top Hat has a cool feature of grading the discussion participation either by participation or graded for correctness. Top Hat offers a testing feature (for $10) where you can have tests securely taken on the Top Hat website or app. Top Hat has a whiteboard sketch feature which is great for visual accompaniment for lectures for professors. Like Nearpod, Top Hat has the ability to put presentations online. On Top Hat, they can either attach a file or create a presentation through the 'slides' feature. Like Nearpod, Top Hat allows users to embed questions, discussions, or polls within presentations. Top Hat has a feature that allows professors to link courses with existing online textbooks (with paid membership or additional fees per linked textbook to course). Unlike Nearpod, Top Hat has an attendance feature. Students can 'check in' to lectures so that professors can know who is present.

     Nearpod is a little bit more geared towards the secondary and elementary level. One cool feature that I found on Nearpod that I could not find on Top Hat was virtual field trips. With Nearpod, students can visually take virtual field trips that can be used with virtual technology implements like v.r. goggles. Nearpod offers access to pre-made lesson plans that are arranged by topic, subject, or grade level. When you create lessons, you can add to the collection of resources that can be accessed by Nearpod teachers everywhere. Like Top Hat, Nearpod has the features of presentation where users are able to embed videos, images, websites, etc, without the clicking on a link and the pause of waiting for a website, video, etc. to open. Like Top Hat, Nearpod has formative assessment features such as polls, discussion questions, and quiz questions (of various formats).

	Nearpod	Top Hat
Formative Assessment Features	Teachers can utilize various types of questions (fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, short answer, etc.) that can be embedded into lessons. Results can be displayed for teacher use and for class use. Users can respond anonymously.	Teachers can utilize various types of questions (fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, short answer, etc.) that can be embedded into lessons. Results can be displayed for teacher use and for class use. Users can respond anonymously.
Discussion Features	Students can contribute to discussion questions to create in-depth discussions. Discussions can be embedded in presentations or posted separately.	Students can contribute to discussion questions to create in-depth discussions. Discussions can be embedded in presentations or posted separately. There can be an assessment component of discussions which give students credit for participating or for correctness or a combination of both.
Presentation Features	Users are able to upload previously made presentations into the presentation feature of the app. Users are able to embed pictures, videos, websites, etc. To presentations rather than just linking them. These presentations can be shared with students.	Users are able to upload previously made presentations into the presentation feature of the app. Users are able to embed pictures, videos, websites, etc. To presentations rather than just linking them. These presentations can be shared with students.
Attendance Features	There is no deliberate attendance feature on the app, but a teacher could create a poll or question each day to record attendance.	There is an attendance feature where students can check-in to a given class or lecture. This is very beneficial for professors with extremely large classes and multiple classes.
Virtual Field Trips	Users are granted access to a variety of virtual field trips which can be viewed in collaboration with virtual reality implements.	There is no virtual field trip feature, but videos can be embedded to try to recreate this feature.
Online Lessons	Users are given access to a large number of pre-made lessons which are arranged by topic, subject, and/or grade level. Users can access and use these lessons.	There is no clear sharing of lessons on Top Hat. However, there are pre-made courses geared towards existing textbooks (discussed below).
Linking Lessons to Textbooks	Though there is no inherent linking of course content to existing textbooks, lessons can be created that are geared towards a textbook that a teacher is using.	There are pre-made courses that are already linked to existing college-level textbooks. However, this feature costs money whether you buy a membership for access or pay for an individual course (which professors can ask their students to do).
Whiteboard Sketch	There is a whiteboard sketch feature. Users can create visual how-to's such as working math problems.	There is no whiteboard sketch feature per say, but users can embed videos with visual demonstrations or user other apps and embed results within a given presentation.
Cost	Paid for by students (usually).   $26 – 1 semester  $36 – 1 year  $75 – 4 years  $10 for tests	Many features are free for use of up to 30 students. This app is usually paid for by the teacher, school, or district.   GOLD - $120 per year per teacher