Virtual Classroom

[Erin Nash]

Our work has certainly come a long way this year. In our short time working in this space (since only September 2009) we have attracted quite a bit of attention for our open approach to learning.  Your sharing, reflection and synthesis have earned two nominations for Edublogs awards in as many years.  Impressive is a good word.

In the thread below, please reflect upon our use of free, open online tools to enhance our classroom this year. I'm always proud of how your work ends up being all about the content and the learning process, and not about the technology used to accomplish those goals.  In reality, this is the mark of a good learning technology...  one that doesn't get in the way, but instead allows the classroom environment to flow in the best way possible.  In our world, classroom technology is a tool to facilitating thinking and acting.  I like that.

How has the use of this online public learning network, and educational technology affected our work in Dual Credit Biology this year?

[Amanda Dixon]

i think the use of this online public learning network has affected work in dual credit biology this year because instead of just taking notes and memorizing what the teacher tells us we have to go out on are own and find information then make the decision of what is right and wrong through discussion.

[Hannah Rush]

Technology in the classroom is definitely one of the many drastic changes that Benton High has made since I have been here. I'm really grateful for it though that's for sure. I must say that although DC Bio was my toughest class, I also learned the most in it. At the beginning of the year, Nash showed us a quote that said "We learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, and 90% of what we teach to others." At the beginning of the year I would've said "Yeah right Mr. Nash.", but now I KNOW that that quote is true.

Using this ning sight allowed everyone to share their thoughts on the topics we covered. We learned most of our information from each other. By teaching and learning from each other, it made the understanding process a lot easier for me. Some teachers just expect their students to know the information that they know, but at 17 and 18 years old, there is absolutely no way that that is even possible. Being able to relate to each other, and correct each other when wrong has been so helpful. I've learned which sites I should trust and which sites I shouldn't. I learned that wikipedia isn't as bad as what everyone seems to think. I can definitely say that I have benefited from learning through the ning this year.


I remember an assignment we had to do earlier in the year about carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acid. Half of the class got to do their assignment on the ning, and the other half had to write it like they would an English paper. I unfortunately got stuck with having to do the whole hard copy. I didn't realize just how used to writing a blog post I actually used. I seriously envied the half of the class that got to do their work on the ning. It allowed them to get feedback from their classmates, and even to get a little help when editing it. I didn't get that. I really think that technology has so many advantages that pencil and paper can't offer us.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Nash for giving me the opportunity to learn in a completely different and much better way than what I have been for the passed 3 years.

[Laci Shoemaker]

I think that this online classroom has effected us in positive ways because it gives us a chance to do our work online & it's an easier tool to study for tests rather than looking over notes we've taken in class. It gives us a chance to see other student's work too as an example & as something we can compare & contrast our work to. I'm sure that it makes it easier for the teachers to grade rather than having a bunch of papers sitting on their desk. It gives people a chance to look at our work that is outside the classroom & that makes me want to do my best so that others can see that I try hard. :) I like it because it makes me search for my information, kind of like I'm teaching myself & that is good. It's set up like a college class would be, even though that's kind of the point. :P Over all, I liked the idea. It's been a fun year.

[james d green]

It is good to use while IN the classroom i think, and yeah it helps if its a public site we can look at if we're sick or something one day. However i think it could be improved of we had two different sites where one) just our class and benton high school can see, and two) we have the other one open to all public, after we revise it in our personal website..

[Miranda Lynn Stanton]

The use of the online learning affected the work in dual credit biology this year is by you could see all of the up to date facts about things. Instead of looking through a book that is 10 years old you know what is happening now. On the online thread you could see the different ways of how people understand what were learning. If you don't understand it you could see how other people understood it and it will help you.

[Kylie Warner]

There are so many great things about our web page, post and blogs. For one, I think this has helped the students out a lot. When ever we have post or research here lies a great place to ask for help and see subjects more on just how we see it ourselves. I could name a number of times that I have wanted to study for a test and looking back on what we have posted has been a great resource. I enjoyed using this as a place to express our own opinions. There are many classes where what the teacher says is what is right and there is no room for discussion or for what we think. Using this was the pretty close to the opposite. Where we can say whatever comes to mind and whatever questions we many have.

For the public, I think this works in more than one way. It's awesome to know that people from different states, even countries, come to our website for research, for ideas, and to see what we are doing. It's good to know that what we do isn't just something to get a good grade or something our teacher will grade just to had it back to us so we can throw it away. Our work, our ideas, and views are being taken into account. Other people are getting information and ideas of how we see the world and understand topics.

I have never in the last 3 years of high school learned like this. I was used to the teachers telling us what we should know and them giving us work sheets that we jut look up the answer and circle a letter. At first, this idea was not so appealing to me. I had no clue how to self teach myself or how to study without the answers right in front of me. But now as I look back I realize that I probably learned more from doing my own blogs and post than I would have any other way. It's also great to go back and to see what I put after 6 months. It's a good accomplished feeling and makes me feel smart. =) haha.

I truly have enjoyed learning and expressing what I know..or think I know. This has been a great way to learn and to see what everyone else has to say. =)

[Taylor Woodruff]

Being able to use this online public learning network as something that I really loved about this class! I felt like it gave us freedom to be able to explore more of the things we were interested in while still learning what we had to. I thought using this was awesome because it allowed us to link to different web pages, watch YouTube videos, see cool pictures, and see the other stud ho ents thoughts and ideas about what we were learning.

To be honest this was one of my favorite classes because of the use of online learning! I think it gave us the chance to be able to explore the internet more, which is amazing because in the future this is probably what a lot of classes are going to be like... so in a way we are getting a head start. I also think that when you are able to do things on your own then you learn so much more because you are doing the researching, not the teacher just giving you boring information!

I seriously believe I learned the most out of this class because I was able to look at other people's post and take from them what I thought was important. Plus, all the videos and pictures helped us get a visual idea of how things work and just a completely different understanding on our lessons. So, this definitely affected our work in DC Biology! :)

[josh steltenpohl]

I believe that having an online class was a lot better idea then just coming in to class and writing down notes everyday. I think the best thing about the website is that the assignments on it could turned in anywhere there was internet access. over all i think that having class online was a much better idea this year.

[Shandis Cruz]

Oh. My. Goodness. I can’t and don’t want to think of what DC Bio would be like if we didn’t use our online resources. The tools you have given me have opened a vast world of information that I had no idea existed before this year. I thought the only online info sources were Yahoo and Google; now I am pulling a bulk of my information from UC Berkley’s website as long as using countless science journals.

This has allowed me to become a much more independent learner. I have developed my own learning method, which is way easier to understand than a guided worksheet like we get in other classrooms. I am the type of learner that hates feeling like I’m constrained to a specific learning style, everyone learns differently, so I love that you guys give us the option to explore on our own.

Learning on my own is going to be a crucial part of my future. Since I am going to college next year I’m going to need to know the best method of understanding, I think that I have started on that path to finding that this year!

All in all I really like this. Times are changing, technology is growing and we must learn how to use all of the resources that are available to us!

[Hunter Ewart]

I think its a good thing. This way our community as well as the people in this building can better there education to make this world a better place. The way we use Google docs and ca-coo to create diagrams and presentations in stead of just getting handed a work sheet with questions over some boring topic that we could care less about. By creating a website this allows us to be more hands on and to provide pictures and link to different sources that helps to advance the discussion. This makes this class more enjoyable and it just advances the learning of technology and the proper way to search and find a good reliable source.

[Shelby Hawkins]

I LOVED the way this class was technology oriented! I always look forward to this class, because I know that not only will I learn biology but online tools that will help me in college and a career! The world is moving so fast in technology, and I think it's hard for some classes to keep up with that. This ends up being a general failure when the student gets to college because they start behind!

Our generation grew up with technology, and I think that is how a lot of us learn best. Another reason this is important is because the information on the internet can be way more up to date then textbooks, especially considering the age of some of our books. It was really good that we had Mrs. Corey teach us about the databases and finding valuable and credible information on the internet. I wish we would have used the databases more.

[Marcy Withrow]

I never really thought of completely learning from the Internet. All my other classes are textbooks, worksheets, and homework out of a book and on paper. But, in Biology, we can reflect and blog about what we learned. We can use sources outside of textbooks to explain our reasoning and thinking. I like doing reflections, because you can also tell people your opinions and what you've learned and got from the lesson.

I think "Ning" is great for learning! We can reflect as a class and see where everyone is at. It's like we work as a team, if someone has a question another student may know the answer. We can comment on each other’s posts to get everyone thinking. The students can view other student's work, so they can get a better understanding, because maybe they forgot to mention something in theirs, but someone else did mention it. Then everyone wins!

Reflecting is a great way to learn something new! Usually, students add pictures and links into their reflections. Pictures are a great way to visualize the topic; it makes it stick in your head, so you can remember it for later. I absolutely love links! Links can show you where the student making the post found his/her support. This is important, so students can believe what the other student is saying. Also, from reading the links, it can go way more in depth.

In all my other classes we don't really use that much technology. But, I know I've learned the most in this class, because of the technology we use. Sometimes we've had reflections where everyone has to find something different to post. This helps, because as students we don't have to research every topic said. When we're done we can come back to the site and read others' posts and learn about the certain ones we want to. We don't have to learn about every single thing. Not only that, but if we researched all of them, we wouldn't be able to get as in depth, because we would get tired. But, if everyone does two topics apiece, then no one gets tired. You can get links for the two you researched and pictures. This makes work easier for students and the outcome is more efficient.

There's a lot of great stuff out there that no one is even aware of. There's tons of websites that have animations to show you how things work. If students have a visual of the topic, then I think they'd be able to learn it easier. It would stick in your head for the next test and for the future. We've also learned that science is always changing, new things are being discovered, so textbooks aren't that accurate. This is where we can use the Internet to find new articles that deals with what we're talking about. Also, in using new articles from the Internet, we can see what is happening in our modern world today. We don't really get updated about the new things found in science, so it's cool to have the Internet that has articles that came out that morning.

Not only is Ning great, but also we've discovered other online "goodies". We found Cacoo, pages, Flickr, and we've even used some Twitter. Also, we've seen the blogs Mr. Nash does. We also used a site for making quizzes, but I forgot what site that was. There are tons of websites we use besides Ning that has improved how we learn.

I think it's also great that we have teachers (Mr. and Mrs. Nash) that know how to run these sites. A lot of teachers haven't been trained correctly and don't understand that the Internet can affect students in a positive way. Teachers are against YouTube and simply using the Internet. But, there's so much out there that can help us with our education. I think one day teachers will understand and schools will use a lot more technology that we use, like the Ning site and Blogging.

Blayr and I got the opportunity to go to our state capitol and see what technology does in schools. When we got there it was a surprise to see younger age groups, there were barely any kids our age. They were mostly all in Elementary. There were little third graders learning about the ocean through a program their teachers found. When I saw this it made very happy! Third graders using technology and the Internet to help them learn! I wish we used programs like this earlier too, I think I would be much more smarter.

I've taken a lot from this class and how we learn! I see learning in a whole new perspective and I can't wait till other teachers used this strategy too. I also like how the public can see our work. They can see how highschoolers are learning in public schools. Other teachers can see what we are doing and that can give them ideas to help their students. All in all learning online is good, because it is free and you can learn tons from other people.