Wallblog

Jessie Craig and I went to the national science teacher's Association confernce last Thursday through Saturday. Although the majority of of presentations and workshops were science in nature, there were some that were on technology. Sadly, the technology session was very lacking. The presenters talked about different systems that they use to try to get a large class to interact with the teacher. They however did not show any of the technology and just assumed that we new what it was that they were taling about. The only technology that I recognized was the clickers. It seems that the majority of speakers either are great research scientists that have great information but cannot get those ideas across, or they are great teachers and presenters, but lack in content. I believe that it is very hard to have both.
I also went to a workshop that was put on by a research institute that was trying to compile different sources on evolution into one localized site. I, nor most everyone else in the session, had ever heard of them, but it seemed that they seemed like they were trying to do good stuff. Which brings me to my next point. It seems that there is quite a gap between college and high school or research and high school. There is almost as big of a gap between high school and middle school. There is very little communication between any grade levels or buildings. If there could be more internet sites that compile information and act as a liason between different schools, I think that it would improve teaching overall.