Class Visitation Reflection

      I enjoyed observing the use of technology being integrated into science classrooms at Oceanside High School. In both the chemistry and physics classes that I observed each student had access to an ipad locked into their tables. While there were several apps available on the ipad, for chemistry in particular, the majority of the ipad use was for practicing problems. This was really great to watch. All students had the same type of problem, but all of the numbers were different. This meant that each student had to actually do their own calculations. Students at table groups were discussing the steps they take to solve the problems, what they did, why, and how they did it. Students were actually working with the concepts instead of coping down the same answer as their peers. One of the teachers had a program up that allowed him to see his student’s progress. He could see what problem they were working on, which they missed, and a red flag popped up if a student had been working on one problem for to long. This assessment was instantly available so the instructor could see which students needed help and on which specific concept.

     Obviously the use of technology to customize assessments and learning unique to this classroom. Being able to have ‘live’ data about your students understanding as a formative assessment is incredibly valuable. This will help you focus your teaching on commonly missed concepts and zero in on the students that need the most help. This should help increase student learning as well as test scores since students are able to receive help exactly when they need it.  

     It's easy to see you this would be helpful in classes like physics and math where you have a specific numerical answer. It might be harder to use in biology since where assessment questions will have a non specific or word answer. I suppose that you can make a program that allows for spelling or grammar errors but still more difficult to customize assessments. However, I would love to have students have access to all of the animations and interactive activates that are out there for biology concepts.