Ed Tech 4 Science

This blog, will present ideas and issues with the goal of improving the use of educational technology to promote science learning.

In science, we have a rich collection of methods including hands-on science, demonstrations, student projects, and educational technology. I see educational technology as a tool that teachers can efficiently use to provide new ways of discovering, new ways of knowing. But when I visit classrooms and talk to teachers and instructional leaders, it becomes very clear that in most places, instructional technology has not achieved its potential for improving science teaching and learning. There are now brilliant computer technologies but in many schools it seems as hard or more difficult to get students onto computers for learning about science as it was for me 20+ years ago.

I entered the science teaching profession as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in 1982. My three years of teaching in Kenya helped me to appreciate the importance of teaching and the importance of living and working in other cultures for personal growth. I knew my time in Kenya was limited and I told myself that I wanted to work hard so later in life I could look back with pride about what I had accomplished. Last summer, we had our 25th anniversary as Peace Corps Volunteers reunion, and as I looked back, I was proud of what I did.

After Kenya, Teachers College, Columbia University had a Peace Corps Fellowship program that helped me to get my masters degree in science education while working as a science teacher in the Bronx. I taught at Lehman High School for four years, then went on to Ohio State University to get my doctoral degree in Science Education. I have been a professor of science education at Arizona State University since 1994.

Teachers who care and who are willing to work, quite naturally seek diverse methods to engage their students. In Kenya I remember having students use those black plastic viewers that look like microscopes, with images that slide across the stage. Although, it was a somewhat cheesy idea, students were engage in the novelty and in seeing some things that they hadn’t seen, and seeing some familiar things in new ways. In the Bronx, I remember the first time I had my students use science software. I signed up for the computer lab two weeks in advance and had my students do “Garden Grow” on the Apple IIe. It was simple and basic, but students were engaged and in the simulation we did experiments in 40 minutes that would have taken months.