Well, it's been a week and I haven't heard back from the "Ask a Scientist" website. This is a little disappointing because I was hoping to have received an answer by now.
Although I did not hear back from the website yet, I can see how this website would be beneficial to my students. They can use this website to get information on Science Fair Projects, Careers in Science, and Personal Health. There is even a section dedicated to Homework Help. In addition, there are the top ten questions of six categories AND an archive of questions previously asked, so some students may be able to receive immediate feedback on their questions.
I am still eagerly anticipating an answer to the question I submitted to the "Ask a Scientist" website last week, and will post their response as soon as I receive it.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Ask a Scientist
I submitted the following question to the "Ask a Scientist" website supported by HHMI:
"If the definition of a cell is changed to mean anything that has its own DNA, what other entities that are not considered to be alive would be placed in the "alive" category?"
After navigating the website and determining that this question is not already answered in the archives, I received the following response:
"Congratulations!
Your question has been submitted successfully. We will send a confirmation via e-mail and get back to you with a response as soon as we can."
I'm looking forward to the response, and will post the information as soon as I receive it.
"If the definition of a cell is changed to mean anything that has its own DNA, what other entities that are not considered to be alive would be placed in the "alive" category?"
After navigating the website and determining that this question is not already answered in the archives, I received the following response:
"Congratulations!
Your question has been submitted successfully. We will send a confirmation via e-mail and get back to you with a response as soon as we can."
I'm looking forward to the response, and will post the information as soon as I receive it.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Evaluating Web 2.0 Presentation Tools
I am a "mature" student in graduate school. During my current course, Investigating the Living World, I must create a course project on the endangered animal of my choice. This is great because I love projects, but it is also intimidating because I must use a Web 2.0 Presentation Tool in order to present my project.
So, now the task at hand is to evaluate Web 2.0 Presentation Tools in a scientific manner.
What in the world are Web 2.0 Presentation Tools? According to the Discovery Education website, these tools are "revolutionary new ways of creating, collaborating, editing, and sharing user-generated content online." (So far, so good.) The website goes on to say that "Teachers and students can master many of the tools in minutes." (I'm starting to feel better about this ;-) *NEWS FLASH* Web 2.0 is all about ease of use. (Okay...this is right up my alley 8~)
Now that I have finally taught myself how to use PowerPoint with animated clip art and music that plays throughout the presentation, I have just learned while investigating Web 2.0 Presentation tools that there are ways to jazz up the PowerPoint presentations even more. The tools I will be evaluating today are Picsviewr and 280 Slides.
Picsviewr allows the user to turn your Flickr photos into presentations. It is a free online service. I obtained information about Picsviewr from http://www.picsviewr.com/ First of all, there are ten slide show templates available to choose from, therefore it is very easy to use. This is good news for people that are looking for something that is not difficult, but it can be very limiting for creative individuals.
This tool seemed to be good for presenting a collection of pictures in a variety of ways, however, it did not seem to allow for music playing in the background, or text of any kind. Regarding collaboration, another user's photos can be accessed with their specific URL.
I do not recommend this presentation tool for the course project. It only supports Flickr photo collections and does not provide other tools such as text, music, or videos that some colleagues may want to include in their presentations.
280 Slides is a tool available and it does not require PowerPoint. There is no software to download and there are no charges for the service. According to http://280slides.com/, you can import existing documents, take presentations anywhere because they are stored on a secure server, add pictures or videos with a built in media search, download to PowerPoint if desired, and publish to the web. There are also built in themes to add a professional quality to the work presented. I do feel that this tool is feasible for the course project and I have already decided that my students will use this tool for their Astronomy project this year.
So, now the task at hand is to evaluate Web 2.0 Presentation Tools in a scientific manner.
What in the world are Web 2.0 Presentation Tools? According to the Discovery Education website, these tools are "revolutionary new ways of creating, collaborating, editing, and sharing user-generated content online." (So far, so good.) The website goes on to say that "Teachers and students can master many of the tools in minutes." (I'm starting to feel better about this ;-) *NEWS FLASH* Web 2.0 is all about ease of use. (Okay...this is right up my alley 8~)
Now that I have finally taught myself how to use PowerPoint with animated clip art and music that plays throughout the presentation, I have just learned while investigating Web 2.0 Presentation tools that there are ways to jazz up the PowerPoint presentations even more. The tools I will be evaluating today are Picsviewr and 280 Slides.
Picsviewr allows the user to turn your Flickr photos into presentations. It is a free online service. I obtained information about Picsviewr from http://www.picsviewr.com/ First of all, there are ten slide show templates available to choose from, therefore it is very easy to use. This is good news for people that are looking for something that is not difficult, but it can be very limiting for creative individuals.
This tool seemed to be good for presenting a collection of pictures in a variety of ways, however, it did not seem to allow for music playing in the background, or text of any kind. Regarding collaboration, another user's photos can be accessed with their specific URL.
I do not recommend this presentation tool for the course project. It only supports Flickr photo collections and does not provide other tools such as text, music, or videos that some colleagues may want to include in their presentations.
280 Slides is a tool available and it does not require PowerPoint. There is no software to download and there are no charges for the service. According to http://280slides.com/, you can import existing documents, take presentations anywhere because they are stored on a secure server, add pictures or videos with a built in media search, download to PowerPoint if desired, and publish to the web. There are also built in themes to add a professional quality to the work presented. I do feel that this tool is feasible for the course project and I have already decided that my students will use this tool for their Astronomy project this year.
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