Commercial Hypermedia Products
The impact that a teacher makes in a student’s life not only comes from the personable student/teacher relationship, but most importantly, through leadership in the classroom and FUN lectures. Many teachers still cling to the traditional style of teaching such as writing on chalk boards and standing in front of the class to teach. Yes, I had two college professors that wrote on and covered FOUR chalkboards with the lesson for that day.
I prefer more of a "hands-on" style lecture, as do most of the young students today. Roeblyer and Doering (2013) stated, “dramatic changes in the capabilities and development of tools, and internet media formats have changed the focus of this classification (hypermedia systems) system from the delivery medium to the development platform and to the type of capability the products have to offer" (p.174). With that being said, Instructional software, such as simulations, can greatly improve the “fun” factor and keep the students attention. Because multimedia presentations can include movement and sound, simulations can be even more realistic than textual narratives and imagery of a concept or context (Roeblyer & Doering, 2013, p.174). I’ve included a link to a simulation of how plants and animals work together to produce substances used for energy consumption. Seeing the cycle in this format, it's much easier to comprehend the purpose/function for each phase rather than looking a generic picture in a science book.
Multimedia Authoring Tool
Full immersion systems allow the
user to engage in a more realistic experience. Through a headset (head-mounted
display), the user “sees” the computer generated environment or the user can
also have the same experience when the environment is displayed on a large,
curved projector screen (Roeblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 194). I found this software very interesting
because the versatility not only gives a “life-like” 3D experience in all
categories in education but it’s also user friendly. Roeblyer and Doering (2013)
mentioned a source that stated "this software is also being used to help teach
special education students and those with attention deficit disorders"(p.196). Incorporating
this software into a biology class will allow the students to “see” and
“explore” life as it is. Giving the students the opportunity to practice,
exploration (i.e. dissection or see the various types of cycles “in motion”),
communication and collaboration with fellow students showed an increased
achievement of high school students (Roebyler & Doering, 2013, p. 196-197).
“Hands-on” experience trumps time spent staring at words in a book.
Here’s a YouTube video showing how full immersion software can be used for dissections in a Science class or medical school. I couldn't help but wonder if doctors and surgeons will one day adopt this software to pair with our xray, CT scans and MRI scans to aid in diagnostics and surgical procedures.
References:
Roeblyer, M.D. & Doering, A.H. (2013). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching (6th ed.). Pearson Educaton, Inc.
Malek, Karem (2013, December 11). Individual Virtual Dissection.
Retreived from https://www.cyber-anatomy.com/
I know we talked about this in class, but VR technology is very expensive. Roblyer and Doering (2012) assert that immersion systems are “not often used in education” (p. 194). Haptic interfaces seem a bit pricey as well. I agree that the idea of VR technology is great, but how would you get around the price tag?
ReplyDeleteVR systems are expensive. Roblyer & Doering (2012) proclaim that, "views of the 'real' world are replaced with views of the virtual one, and the senses create an illusion of actually being in the environment the [full immersion] system displays" (p. 194). I am confident that, in the long-run, full immersion systems will be less expensive than buying animals for each student in every class for actual dissections from year to year, but to what extent would virtual dissections be more beneficial to the student than actual, "real-life" dissections?
ReplyDeleteSo I studied math in undergrad, we didn’t have very many presentations or instructional software. They usually used several chalkboards. Even for our senior seminars we used chalkboards, we could have used presentations, but we were not use to seeing them. Roblyer and Doering (2012) stated, systems “allow users to summarize and display information and knowledge using a combination of text, video, animation, music, graphics, and sound effects” (p179). I think all classes become more entertaining when visuals or sound is added into the classroom. Sometimes it can be something simple like a presentation or, as you talked about, full immersion. Do you think students enjoy class time more when they have something to look at or hear, rather than just seeing something the teacher does on a smart board or white board?
ReplyDelete