Ask a Scientist

Well, there isn't much to tell for this blog entry. I posted the following question on the website Ask a Scientist: how are signals produced and formulated for specific proteins to control how certain organelles in a cell function?  However, I never received an answer. I will continue to wait or do my own research if an answer still is not provided for my inquiry.  Based on my experience, I am not sure I would rely mainly on these sites. I prefer to find actualy professionals in the area of study my students are working and have them either come to he classroom or communicate via e-mail.  Although if my only source was such a site, I would have my students experience it for themselves and then reflect on their experience as well as think of other ways to find out what they want to know.

Ask a Scientist http://www.hhmi.org/askascientist/

Teacher Web Tool Reviews

In today’s teaching field technology is a necessary tool to engage this generation of student.  There are many applications available on-line to produce interactive and engaging presentations of materials to get the students attention before, during, or after a lesson.  I am going to write a review for three of these presentation tools.

First, I tested the Animoto presentation maker.  This tool was fairly easy to use. They have a short tutorial, but that would not run when I tried to open the link, therefore I had to rely on the pop-up instructions to make my video, which made the process a tad bit cumbersome. The special features are free 30 second videos, free video (if you have the latest Flash Video) and free images.  When I was done with my video, I was e-mailed the finished product.  The website provides links to share one’s video on Facebook, Youtube, twitter, and e-mail.  As I mentioned earlier the 30 second video is free, but one must pay five dollars a month to create a full length video and thirty dollars a month to gain access to specific images, videos and interactive screens.  This website is accessible from anywhere, and works best with high-speed internet.  The multi-media capabilities are video, pictures, music, and anything you can either link or upload onto the project.  The types of slides you have access are what make this tool engaging and that the speed of the pictures and video are determined by the music uploaded or chosen.  Overall, a relevant tool, but I was a little disappointed that only thirty second videos are free and that an educator would have to pay for a two to five minute video. 

Second, I tested the Glogster which was pretty easy to manipulate. The neat feature that Glogster has is the presenter’s ability to upload their own video, picture, or recorded voice-over for the presentation.  Glogster does not have a data bank of videos or pictures, but it does have a data bank of various backgrounds.  This program is free and one can make a presentation over five minutes or more in length. There are guided notes as you work on your Glogster presentation. The technical requirements are just fast internet and video applications.  This tool is accessible from home, school, and the classroom. However, there were a few glitches when I tried to upload pictures onto the presentation. The loading was a bit slow. The motivational factor for this tool is that anyone can use it and can make their presentations more personal to connect with the audience; one just has to be willing to take the time to work through some of the glitches to get it done.

Last, I tested the Prezi tool. This tool was easy to access and provides a decent number of GB to create a basic Prezi presentation for free.  The site has various tutorials and cheats sheet used to quickly develop a presentation. Adding text, images, and video is simple. However, Prezi does not provide a bank of images or videos that one can copy and paste. One must search on-line or upload these things from their computers to be used in the presentation.  This tool was easy to manipulate and the presentation was ready to play in a matter of seconds. The presentation can be shared on-line.  One does have to pay thirty dollars or more a month for more Prezi applications and an increase in the number of presentations that can be saved.  This tool is accessible from home, but due to security measures at my school I would not be able to access the Youtube videos that this tool asks you download in your presentation. Therefore, I may not be able to include videos in these presentations. I did not see a feature for sound included in this Prezi presentation, but there is video and images. The manner in which the Prezi showcases the pieces of a presentation is intriguing however I will need more training to get the full benefits of this tool.