bioonline

I completed the reading and viewed the videos regarding my education style.  I conclude that I am much more comfortable with providing the students with lots of content in the lecture format.  I use the textbook as a reference and assess mostly through exams that evaluate the student’s acquistion of knowledge: terms usage, concepts and connections.  I don’t have too many in class discussions and only one project per semester.  I have asked my students many times over the course of my career what aspects of the course they like and dislike and most students are still telling me that they prefer the lecture format.  I do provide the powerpoint slides to them so they don’t need to write all of the stuff down but they like to be “spoonfed”.  Does this mean they are learning?  For some it works well for others not so much.  I almost wish we could have different teaching styles be a way for students to select the course they will take.

Well i am already hopelessly behind in this POT course.  I had good intentions but find that I have so many demands on my time that I just haven’t found a perfect time to sit down and work on the material.  I got through the assigned reading ok but can’t figure out RSS feeds.  Maybe it’s because I don’t regularly visit any blogs or other online news sites.  I still get a newspaper delivered to my house and listen to NPR on the radio while I drive (long distances) to classes.  I can see the value of the consolidation if you are an avid online user.

I am still committed to the course though as I see the value of incorporating online interaction with students.

I am beginning a blog for my POT course.  I am not much of a writer and don’t really express random thoughts.  I am better with conversation and question answer.

Here is a question that I pose to my students on the first day of class:

Compile a list of common features shared by all living things.  What makes something “alive” versus inanimate?

From this list choose one feature that would be essential for evolution.

Defend your choice with several sentences that explain your reasoning and provide examples.

What do I expect?  I expect you to begin your answer with:  The common characteristic of life most important for evolution is ___________.

Then state your reasons.  Then provide examples.

50 words. go

Welcome to your brand new blog at Edublogs.

To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.

Also, if not already, please consider becoming an Edublogs Pro User – you can easily create and manage additional blogs (which also get extra themes and mobile blogging – perfect for students!), a massive storage space of 10GB for files, images, and videos, and access great features such as wikis and forums and many additional ‘Plugins’.

And you get premium email support and over 130 extra cool themes too.

Pro users are what keeps Edublogs running and providing free blogs for education, so give it a go today

For assistance, visit our comprehensive support site, check out our getting started with Edublogs guide or stop by The Edublogs Forums to chat with other edubloggers.

You can also subscribe to our brilliant free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.

And finally, if you like Edublogs but want to be able to simply create, administer, control and manage hundreds of student and teacher blogs at your school or college, check out Edublogs Campus… it’s like Edublogs in a box, all for you.

Thanks again for signing up with Edublogs!