Diabetes mellitus - 5E Model - Technology

Technology Resources for Teaching Diabetes mellitus using 5E Instructional Model

Engage

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=93518

This site has diabetes and foot problems pictures slideshow and infopramtion on how to avoid serious complications. Has Scary Pictures…!!!

http://diabetes.webmd.com/guide/type-2-diabetes

Information on Type 2 diabetes overview, videos, news on diabetes, diabetes Q&A, living and managing, diagnosis, treatment etc

http://www.theteacherscorner.net/

This site has lessons plans, thematic units, seasonal items, bulletin boards, teacher resources, printable worksheets, The teacher’s lounge, book nook

http://www.webquest.org/index.php

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web.

http://www.webquest.org/index-resources.php

This site has concepts and definitions on webquests, implementations reports, webquest development, complete workshops, articles and papers. This is a wonderful website for teachers to create or find enormous resources.

Explore

http://www.schoolforge.net/education-software/web-based

Collection of educational software, Internet, multimedia, and Compilations

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

It has literature database, PubMed , bookshelf, journals database and NLM catalog.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/endocrine/type2.html

There is a movie on ‘what happens in diabetes?’

What is diabetes, types, who gets type 2, signs and symptoms, living with diabetes type 2, what’s new in the treatment of type 2 diabetes diabetes. It also has got related articles and additional resources on type 2.

Explain

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/prediabetes/DA00136

This site has podcast on prediabetes.

The Best Exercise for Diabetes:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1662683,00.html?xid=newsletter-weekly

http://www.schoolforge.net/education-software/web-based

http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/riskfortype2/

This is fabulous government website. It has A-Z information on diabetes such as Diabetes and eye disease, diabetes statistics, prediabetes, diagnosis, diet and diabetes, drug information, prevention, 4 steps to control and many more diabetic resources. Has Body Mass Index table for normal, overweight and obese.

http://www.diabetes.org/type-2-diabetes.jsp

Has information about condition and treatment, complication, your body’s well being, common concerns, guide to diabetes products, women and diabetes, health information for men (American Diabetes Association).

Elaborate

http://www.schoolforge.net/education-software/web-based

http://www.dnalc.org/mediashowcase/index.html?q=diabetes&s=Search

Has information on gene therapy on diabetes and many other diseases – text and videos

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001214.htm

This site has illustrations, definition, causes, symptoms, exams and tests, possible complications, preventions, references, support groups and treatment of diabetes mellitus.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000313.htm#visualContent –Illustrations

http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/;jsessionid=09CEAB138D404063F1ED094B52EDC23F –Teacher can collect web sites, add annotations for the students. Teacher can create hos/her own Track or use one of the hundreds of thousands already made by other educators.

Evaluate

http://www.schoolforge.net/education-software/web-based

Free web based software applications, for uses such as education assessment and evaluation, curriculum planning, and teaching education.

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

Teachers can save and edit rubrics online. Registration and use of this tool is free. Teachers can create their own rubrics (customizable) and individualize rubrics based on the needs.

http://www.schoolforge.net/search/node/evaluation

http://www.4teachers.org/

This site helps the teacher integrate technology into classroom by offering online tools and resources. This site helps teachers locate and create ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and classroom calendars. There are also tools for student use.

http://www.buddyproject.org/jfy/teachers/assessment.asp

This site has options for the teachers to generate rubrics online, use free assessment tools like quiz star, Easy test maker, castle tool kit etc.

Statewide technology planning and it's implications in schools

Some of the issues relating to teacher training in technology are;

1. Funding teacher training sufficiently to provide necessary infrastructure and professional development.
2. Need of expertise to train teachers to use technology efficiently in their classes.
3. Getting enough support from the state government-education department, in order to plan and provide professional development for the teachers across the state.
4. Establishing a regulatory body like an advisory council in every state in order to allocate funds and administer the entire training program and issue certificates for the technologically-trained teachers.
5. Introducing technology-training course in every teacher-education colleges in addition to the existing curriculum.

Collaboration between K-12 and higher education institutions would absolutely help in training teachers to integrate technology. K-12 schools are supposed to teach their kids using technology. Higher education institutions are training the future teachers to integrate technology in their subjects. So, collaboration would provide a platform for the future teachers to know how the technology could be integrated into their curriculum by working together with the experienced K-12 teachers. On the other hand, K-12 school could also benefit, if they provide necessary feedback to teacher education institutions in producing quality teachers. If they both work together and help each other that would create new avenues to provide better education for the future kids.

Governor of a state forms ‘State technology advisory council’ to enhance technology literacy among teachers. One of the criteria that every district should meet is to have a ‘district plan for technology’ in order to introduce faculty training, provide infrastructure, and collaborate among k-12 schools. Next, it is necessary to get approval from the state legislature to implement the plan for integrating technology into schools in order to receive fund from the government. Community also plays a vital role in providing fund and offering support to produce high quality teachers.

Training from technology experts should be offered to teachers. K-12 schools and teacher education institutions should come together tointegrate technology with the school curriculum. District level or school level education technology facilitators should assist teachers to help them integrate technology in their classroom. Teachers could also try to obtain certificates from the district level-technology education council for getting training in educational leadership.

Teachers need support and continuous encouragement from their school administrators, district education council, and state education department. Teachers would also seek for guidance from the educational technology experts to successfully complete their professional development training. Teacher training certificates, leadership in technology-training programs, monetary stipend, and an opportunity to take part in future professional development are some of the supports that technologically trained teachers would seek for to continue their professional development.

If all teachers have full technology support and proper professional development in using technology; there will be a healthy atmosphere in the schools. Trained teachers will know how to blend curriculum with technology and strive hard to better teach their students. Teachers would get confidence in efficiently using technology in their classrooms. Technology eases teaching, since it creates interest among children and motivates them to learn. With technology, teachers could offer a good learning atmosphere and reach diverse learners.

Universal Design

The following are some of the advantages of universal design in education; not only students with disability benefit from this universal design, it also helps the normal students to enhance their learning. Universal design electronic textbook information is scalable, modifiable to fit every child’s needs. The control panel could also be adjusted to enhance students’ accessibility. For example, ‘Universal Design-Slider’ in a computer could be turned on or off in order to assist with student’s learning need. The user could customize and make adjustments in the contents of their interest from this design. Moreover, any student could use and benefit from this design to achieve higher level of learning.

The universal design textbooks allow the users to manipulate the control panel which allows modifications in a computer setting to assist specific needs of a child. The students with physical disabilities would access the computer at their pace and learn the required material. Students with cognitive disabilities could also be assisted with this design. Since this book allows customization, teachers could modify the contents to meet the needs of a child. This book is also user friendly, so the user could also do some adjustments to study the contents. Traditional textbooks do not allow modification and so customization is not possible. Students with emotional disability would not benefit from the traditional books, but this e-books allows them to do some changes in their computer environment and adjust according to their learning style. So, using this book motivates them to learn.

Every individual learn differently and follow different strategies. Same curriculum does not fit all instructional material, but integration of universal design will definitely ensure individualized learning. It helps to enhance learning process. The dimension of Education changes which also ensures quality, if used appropriately. To achieve this, teachers should be well informed about the integration of technology in assisting the students with special needs in teaching the material. As a teacher I would benefit from this design to satisfy many of my students’ needs. This design would help me to assist my teaching to reach every child in my classroom.

Florida Virtual School

The students attended ‘Florida virtual school’, which is an online school. Students who attend this school found the following advantages over traditional schools.

One student had transferred to a new high school but she did not get some of her classes transferred from the previous school. But, she had an option to complete her credits for the courses that she had not taken in her previous school by attending a virtual school. She chose that option because she need not repeat her grades or attend the summer school. The student and the parents found that the enrollment was easy and the instructions were clear to follow in a virtual school. The student liked to study in the virtual school. Moreover, absence of classroom conflicts was one of the important factors that the student liked about the virtual school.

In another case, four students in a family attended Florida virtual school and they also found it easy and interesting to work with the virtual school. Since all four of them were in a crew team, their schedule did not allow them to attend a regular school. But they wanted to continue their education, so they attended the virtual school. They found time to study as well as to work on their hobby every single day. They were all happy that they used their time efficiently.

Parents and teachers also liked this instructional method. For instance, if students are interested in learning different subjects other than the subjects that are taught in a regular school they could attend this virtual school and benefit. Besides, this school also helps the students who often have to transfer from place to place for students who are seeking flexible school timing in order to work on extra curricular activities, this online virtual school would be the best choice. If communications between students and teachers works well, this is an excellent choice for many students.

If states offer more online courses, the following benefits would emerge;

1. Many students with physical disability will attend this school, if access to school is the real problem.
2. Many students would get excited about the technology that are being used in virtual school and that would increase the enrollment.
3. Students who excel in other curricular activities could also continue their education since the instruction is flexible.
4. Students who wish to take classes that are not offered in their school but are offered in the virtual school will make use this instruction.
5. This method of instruction is a good choice for students with multi-tasking ability, so they get an opportunity to demonstrate their talent.

The following limitations would also be seen in this instruction;

1. There are certain subjects which could not be taught efficiently using this method like math and art.
2. Both the students and teachers should have good communication skills otherwise expected teaching outcome would not take place
3. Everybody will not be able to afford to have access to virtual school
4. This method works out if the students are committed to learn as there are a lot of chances for the students to lose interest in learning.
5. There is a chance for less accuracy in evaluation, since there is no personal interaction.

These limitations could be resolved if both the teacher and the students show equal interest in the teaching learning process. The teachers should plan the curriculum carefully, and use the technology efficiently to carry out the process. Good communication between student and teacher will ensure proper evaluation.

Using Class Web Page for Learning

The French Teacher created a ‘class-webpage’ for the students to visit and get to know what homework they are assigned to do. Students’ could email any questions regarding the assignment and also submit their assignments through the class-web page. The teacher further linked WebQuest to the class webpage, so that the students could go to the WebQuest and do their research for the project and finally submit their ‘WebQuest- project’ through WebQuest -emailing system. In the WebQuests students’ would use the pre-selected websites to gather information for their project on a ‘Francophone Person’. The teacher instructed her students to present their final project using some sort of visual presentation such as power point, posters or videos.

The teacher provided all the web-resources (both English sites and French sites) to do the research through the WebQuest. In the WebQuest, students’ could get to use a lot of materials that explains French culture and language. On the Webquest, the teacher provided them pre-selected French sites which also had option to show corresponding English text. I think that was interesting, because students could also check if they are getting the correct information.

She could have provided some sort of recorded videos/photographs/graphics of French to help students understand the language and culture. The teacher could have shown a French Channel during every class period (for about15mins) which would have let them understand the culture and use of French easily. Some of printed material (like magazines and books) could have been used and provided for the students to use, which would have provided students an opportunity to get to know the way of writing in French.

Students were excited to use the technology in learning French culture and language because; they were given three options to choose for presentations. Some students were tempted to use online-translation devices to report for what they learned. Students were asked to follow the steps mentioned in WebQuest and are free to do their own research and could print or save it on the disc, so students felt easy to work on the project.

Digital audio technologies like internet audio and audiocassettes; non-projected visualsprojected visuals like OHP, digital projectors, and cameras could be very well incorporated into teaching a foreign language and culture. The music (audio) will help students learn how different words in a language are pronounced; videos will help them learn the culture of that language speaking people; printed materials will help them learn how the language is used in writing. like real objects, models, printed materials and photographs;

Using Technology to teach reading

Digital text, Text readers, Spreadsheet, Maps, Posters, Kurzweil, Raft, Internet, Video, Newspaper and WebQuest are some of the technologies used by the teachers on the video clip. In order to make students interested in reading about Civil War, teachers used selected websites on Civil War, and map work on some of the battles that ended Civil War. Using Kurzweil (a text reader) the students listened to the material pertaining to Civil War, followed along with it, and finally wrote a short paragraph about what they learned about Civil War. So by using Kurzweil, teachers provide complete reading, writing, and study opportunities to help all students to overcome learning challenges.

Raft technique, an online instructional strategy is a system that helps students understand their role as a writer, audience they will address, various formats of writing, and the expected content. Teachers used this tool to provide learning materials that help students’ understand the whole scenario of Civil War (like what happened at the time of civil war, who won the war and the who lost the war etc.,) Students had to choose a role and pick some important points to write, analyze and report the audience with various formats of writing about the lesson on Civil War. Students also analyzed and compared the Civil War casualties’ data with World War II casualties’ data and plotted a graph using spreadsheet. Finally, students submitted their reflection or response paragraph about what they learned. This is how the above instructional technologies helped the students to develop their reading, comprehension and writing ability.

Apart from the above technologies, teachers also used political cartoons portraying Civil War, music of civil War period, videos of Gettysburg War to teach the impact of Civil War to their students. Teachers used political cartoons from the Civil War and asked students to analyze two of them and create their own. Music of that time was considered to be very important in a country’s history and teachers’ thought that music symbolizes that period and thus the students were asked to listen to those songs and do some analysis on them. I think bringing these music and politics into this lesson will help the students to relate and understand the whole scenario of Civil War with that period of time.

As a teacher in that classroom I would see students (using different technologies) getting interested in navigating through the pre-selected websites, excited to using Kurzweil text reader in listening to a variety of natural-sounding voices, actively involving in the learning process by making cartoons, posters and also through reporting and reflecting on the videos. This sort of atmosphere where technology is incorporated into many activities for teaching social studies will evoke interest among students to learn.

A Dinosaur WebQuest

There are many advantages of using WebQuest in education. WebQuests are mainly developed by educators and are freely available on the internet for anyone to use. Some of the advantages are;

1. WebQuests help the students to stay focused on their task and they don’t get lost for finding the information.
2. WebQuests saves time for both students and teachers; because it does not need any special software or hardware installed except for the internet connection.
3. The teacher need not prepare the assignment starting from the scratch. Teachers could use already available WebQuests or they could make their own using web-editors to suit their needs.
4. It interests students to learn because students are motivated to learn by the use of technology.
5. WebQuests are reliable because they are mainly developed by educators and it is ‘structured’.
6. It reduces teachers’ stress because the activities are in ready to use format. WebQuests activities offer complete guideline for an activity starting from the introduction up to teachers’ evaluation.
   

If WebQuests are not used in learning students would encounter the following problems;

1. Students miss the opportunity to explore things.
2. Students miss a learning environment which enhances individualized learning.
3. Students will not be able to stay focused if they are asked to use internet to learn something, as there are thousands of things out there that would distract them from learning. There are chances for the students to get lost in finding the appropriate information. WebQuests’ pre-selected websites help them to collect relevant materials from reliable sources.
4. WebQuest are structured so that students find it easy to follow, understand and accomplish the task.
   

WebQuest activities are designed in such a way that students cooperate and work among themselves in a structured learning process, which helps them to understand how to work in a group and accomplish a task. WebQuests activities are user-friendly and the students need not completely rely on teacher for every instruction. Students learn technology ie., how to use computers and how to do the activity. So, they not only learn the subject but also the technology. It makes the students actively participate in the activity and do their assigned role in accomplishing the task. This helps them to develop self-confidence in accomplishing a task.

If I were to design a WebQuest, I will first select a topic appropriate for WebQuests. Then I will design some worksheets or activities that suit to my topic and content. I will also plan for a rubric for that activity. Next, I will design the whole process of the activity in a step by step manner so that students will find it easy to understand and follow.