Hot Topics 3D printing and Augmented Reality - Activity 16 - We made it!

This is it!  We have made it.  My last blog of this class is on 2 hot topics in Technology - 3D printing and Augmented Reality.

3D Printing

I love science fiction, especially Star Trek.  When I watched some of the older reruns I realized that the once fictional technology, is now here!  If you watch Star Trek, their hand held devices are just like iPads and even technology that I thought was impossible like a replicator is now here as 3D printers!



Star Trek Deep Space Nine - 04x24

How it works

So how does a 3D printer work?  It starts with a 3D computer drawing.  Google even has a free program called sketchup you can use to make your drawing.  The drawing is then "sliced" into horizontal layers about 0.1 mm thick (varies) and the printer then prints (but not with ink) one 3D layer at a time, putting successive layers on top until the object is formed . Various materials are used instead of ink to make the 3D layers. The material is typically a powder of metal or polymer that is then fused together after each layer (often with a laser), a polymeric liquid that is solidified by cooling or cured by a laser or a solid laminate that is cut to the size of each layer and stuck together with an adhesive.  Specialty printers have even used food (chocolate) or skin cells as the "ink".  The Yoda below shows the process of the polymeric material being added 1 layer at a time.

Applications

The applications of the 3D printing are growing everyday. Hobbyists use printers to make special toys and prototypes like the above Yoda.  They can also share their projects on a google+ community.  You can own your own printer for about $200 from a company like Makibox or you can buy a kit to make one from pieces that were made with a 3D printer!   But 3D printing also can be so much more.  It can be used to make cars/car parts, bionic ears, bikinis, chocolate creations, bone reconstructions, buildings, furniture, chemical compounds, hip replacements, aerospace parts......NASA recently paid a $125,000 grant to a firm to build a food replicator to make pizza in space and the Wake Forest University Military Research Center is using 3D printer to print skin cells on burn patients as shown below.  Several sites list these interesting uses of 3D printers: 7 cool uses in medicine, 10 weird uses and top 10 world changing 3D innovations.

Augmented Reality (AR)

Google Sky Map App
by Danie van der Merwe

What is augmented reality?  It is the real world (live or video) that has been enhanced (overlain) by computer generated input of sound, graphics, text, pictures or even smells.  You have seen it as the first down line of a televised football game or in numerous smart phone/iPad apps (OK, I need to get a smart phone!).  I believe our school uses AR in our astronomy class.  If you place your phone/iPad camera towards the night sky there are many apps that will identify the stars/planets/constellations you are seeing.  Just as with 3D printing, the applications are growing everyday.  As they often say "There's an app for that!"  Many of the current apps revolve around geography/traveling.  You can see street names, distances, longitude/latitude, building names, nearby restaurants, directions, subway locations, friend locations and much more depending on which app you use.  There are numerous list of apps such as -40 best AR iPhone apps to find just what you need.  There are also cool apps to see what your house would look like if you bought that new coach, that directly translate signs in another language and numerous one to play video games that are set in your street or home (you can fight Zombies in your own yard!)

One of the latest trends in AR is to move away from hand held devices and see the augmented world through glasses.  Google is currently testing some glasses which will have a viewing device on the side.  You can talk to the glasses (like your smart phone) and have it display information or take pictures or movies.  The Google Glass view is shown below.

Applications to my classroom

I don't know how 3D printing and AR will impact my classroom, but I am looking forward to finding out and I am glad I know more about them.  I plan to continue to be a life long learner after this class and there seems to be so much to keep on learning!  That's a good thing.

My So Called Computer Life - Digital Storytelling - Activity 15

I am not going to be a voice over actress!  Sad but true - because it took me about 100 takes to get this down.  I really want to flip some of my classes - but I will have to get better or it will take too long!  I recorded this using screencast-o-matic the program itself was really easy and I highly recommend it. My digital story is about "My so called computer life" and looks back at my first computer memories and looks forward to how this Web 2.0 class will hopefully impact my teaching.

Professional development on the couch (not usually in my PJ's!) - Activity 14

I found 2 great sessions at the 2012 k12 online conference, both on flipping a classroom.  I chose them because I definitely want to do some flipped classes next year. The first one I watched was entitled The Flipped Class for Administrators by Jon Bergmann and the second was Sreencasting 101.  Even though the flipped session was listed for administrators, I thought it would have some tips for me and it did.  The major question he posed was "What is the best use of face-to-face time with students?" -which he states is  for active engaged learning not lecture.  He also talks about myths of flipping.  One of the myths was that flipping is all about the videos.  He says no! It's not about the videos, it's what you have time to do in the classroom.  I really liked this because I want to do more labs and activities with my students.  I also liked that he was a chemistry teacher!

The second video I watched was about screencasting by Laura Constantini.  She gives 7 reasons why to record and share a video (like saves repeating insturction and students can learn at their own pace).  She then describes several programs you can use to do your own screencasting and gives tips for making a good screencast (like put the dog outside and have a plan!).  I thought the information was helpful and I hope use information from both.  These professional development tools online for free are great and its almost pajama time!

Formative Assessments - Flubaroo, Socrative, and Padlet - Activity 13

Google forms - flubaroo

I'm really excited about these formative assessments!  Last year I wanted to add more formative assessments, weekly homework quizzes to tell if the students mastered the material and to give a way for the students to judge how they were doing.  Unfortunately, I didn't follow through with my goal - mostly because of time.  Even short quizzes, seemed to take 20 minutes or so and then add the discussion afterwards and half a class period was easily gone.  I love the idea of quick short quizzes students can take online and I also love all the tools for gathering the data.  The only drawback I see with these quizzes is that it is too easy for students to look up the answers and not do the work unaided.  I think I will just stresss academic honesty, not count them for points and just use for gathering information.  The google forms with the flubaroo grading application was easy to use to gather information.  I made a quiz for significant figures, a topic that feedback would really benefit students. 

Socrative

I also was really liked socrative, especially for the live quiz, exit strategy options.  We have clickers in our department but you have to check them out.  I find anything that is not in my room is used less often.  Before I had the projector in the room, I rarely checked one out.  Once it was mounted in the room, I found myself using it all the time.  I will have to see how many of my students have smart phones.  If enough of them can access the internet, I would like to try the live quizzes and exit slips.  If not, then socrative is also just another online, take later, quiz option like google forms, gnowledge and quizstar (all programs I have looked at and there are many more).  I plan on using some online quiz form next year on a regular basis.  I will not have time (except my own!) as an excuse anymore.

Padlet

Padlet was not a quiz program.  It was like a live bulletin board, where many people could simultaneously post comments or videos or pictures.  I tried one with a colleague (Jaime).  We first just talked back and forth and tried it as a straight feed or a random wall.  Then we thought our students could use it to brainstorm a question.  We imagined what they might said and I captured our wall below. 

 

More free stuff! - TedEd, Khan Academy, MIT, and PheT - Activity 12

Last year, I was really envious of one of my colleagues (OK, I can often be envious!) who flipped his class.  What a change in the classroom!  He often lectured before and the students took notes.  Now when I go by his class, students are always up and about doing a variety of tasks and not all the same ones.  Some will be on computers, some working on a lab and some discussing.  It is so much fun to see the transformation.  He had spent years perfecting his PowerPoints for his lectures, but now he taped his lecture with the PowerPoints and put them online.  Homework is watching the lectures and class time is everything else.  I wondered how I could do something similar, but I did not lecture as much and I have few PowerPoints that I could easily narrate and put online.  I would have to start from scratch - too much time! Here is where I might be able to use sites like TedEd,  Khan Academy, and MIT.

TedEd

I searched TedEd and they have limited chemistry resources currently.  I found one on Mendeleev that I might use, but not for flipping, more for just added info.The video is below by TedEd.

Khan Academy

Then I went to Khan Academy, and the problem is finding a video that you like the entire content or I should say that you like how they present the material.  I tried one on periodic table trends and it gave an oversimplified view of why alkali metals have low ionization energies.  They state that it is because if they lose an electron then they can become like a noble gas.  This fails to include the real reason - that due to the increased shielding (lower effective nuclear charge) and distance from the nucleus that the energy needed to remove the valence electron is small. (I know -Blah, Blah, Blah for the non-chemists).  Finding the right video, and the right content became a little bit more difficult.  I then tried another video from Khan and the lecturer kept calling the chloride ion, chlorine.  It is these errors that I am having difficulty with.  One way I have used a video in the past is to add disclaimers for students when viewing if the disclaimer is small.

MIT

The MIT open courseware is quite amazing.  The site has full classes online with lectures, notes, exams and everything.  It also has a section on chemistry demonstrations.  I put one of them below, by MITopencourseware.  I usually prefer to do the demo myself, but I may have the students go watch the detailed explanation of the demo from the videos after we do them in class.  I may also have my students watch all or part of some of the 1 hour lectures provided.

PheT

This site has great animations.  I really like to add these so that students can see what is happening on a molecular or atomic level.  This one shows what happens to gas molecules if you heat them in a closed container.

Me?

After looking at so many sites, I was still envious of my colleague.  I think if I want it (the lesson) to be like I want it -it would be great if I could at least do a few of my own videos.  I would like to learn more about how to do that too. 

Creative Commons - Reflections on copyright, fair use - Activity 11

By: www.lumaxart.com/

Oops! I am sure I have not always followed correct practice for using internet material, or properly informed my students of how to use it.  I hopefully was covered most of the time in the past by fair use and educational use because the material was not openly posted on the web, but what if we openly blog, or Google+, or create Weebly web pages?  I need to follow and teach proper copyright, fair use policies.  The creative commons site was great!  I had no idea! Now I can search and use material properly and feel more confident if the work is displayed online. I'm glad the creative commons quiz, did not involve questions about my past use of internet material!  I did get a 10/10. 

One thing that also struck me while learning more about copyright was ownership of material.  Do I own my own lesson plans, or does district 113?  I always assumed I did- but now I am not sure. 

Prezi, Voki, Blabberize and Gickr - Activites 8, 9, and 10

This week at Northwestern where I am doing research, I need to submit a short PowerPoint describing the project I am working on - I thought perfect! - I hope they will take a Prezi instead!  So I made my first Prezi (also below) .  It took awhile to get started but then it got easier.  I like the idea of an overall picture - story that the presentation is telling.  In my classroom, I can use it myself or have students create their own. I am sure I will do both next year.  Then after they are created, we can share them  in class or put online and share that way. For the Voki,I just learned that in the other Web class that I am concurrently taking so I included it here, but I also did the blabberize website (see Koala below!)  Both are fun little attention getters, that I hope to periodically use to spice up posts online (I haven't decided if I want a class blog or Google+ community - currently I am leaning to a community?)

As for the animoto, I also had done this in class last year.  My students made presentations on scientific instruments. They watched each others and graded them too.  Instead of doing another animoto, I tried Gickr.  You can make a little slide show, like flash, from pictures. I took some pictures from a bridge build project that I use to do in chem/phys class several years ago.  This too, may make a good element on a web page, blog or post (but it also kind of makes me dizzy!)  The Gickr can be found at animated gif maker.