Social Bookmarking in a Microbiology Classroom

Every semester, I get a student or two who sends me an article they found in the news about a topic we studied in class.  It's very rewarding to see students making connections between the classroom and their world.  An idea to encourage more of this would be to start a Delicious account and have students share interesting articles they find. This could lead to classroom discussion groups. 

One idea for Pintrest could be for students to find and pin photos that depict microbes in everyday life.  Another idea could be for them to post their own photos from lab as sort of a study guide for practical exams.  

Some challenges with both of these could be getting everyone on board to participate.  Perhaps trying it out as extra credit for the first semester could be a good trial for the instructor to see how apt students are to participate.  This could give an initial measurement of how much students are really interested in the class.  If points are associated with this assignment and it is required, maybe some students will post lousy articles. (But is all homework that great anyhow?) 

Could the opinions of other faculty members be considered a challenge for implementing these social media tools in the classroom? 

Skype

I was doing some online research about using Skype in the classroom and, at the same time, trying to think of ways to tie biology/microbiology into the picture when I found some inspiration! Here is a blog by a biology professor who uses Skype to help supplement his online labs: http://onlinescienceeducatorbylabpaq.com/2012/04/06/using-skype-as-a-tool-to-teach-online-science-labpaq-laboratories/ I really like his idea to use Skype to bring in guest speakers. 

First post

Assignment: Make your first post on your blog. You might talk about your reasons for taking EDHI9040, experiences teaching or learning with technology, or your preconceptions of blogging.

I 'm really excited to be taking this course! My use of technology as a teaching tool has been limited to powerpoint presentations, and using eLC as a means for students to turn in assignments. This is dissatisfying to me as a teacher, since I want to get creative and incorporate new and emerging teaching methods into the classroom, including different technologies.

When I was an undergraduate, I took an online course in medical ethics and I remember the experience being mostly a positive one. Learning the material was fun, but contributing to discussions was difficult for me in terms of usability.  I remember the threads being somewhat confusing to follow.  This was in 2008, I think, so I'm sure there's something out there easier to use than we did at that time.

This was my first time blogging, and I enjoy it!