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Gail R. Luera


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School of Education
University of Michigan-Dearborn
Phone : (313) 593-3762
Email : grl@umich.edu








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Overview
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Science can be fun!


Welcome to my MITTEN Portfolio!


I am an Assistant Professor in science education at UM-D in the School of Education.

My graduate work is in environmental/outdoor education, so I teach courses in those subjects as well as science education courses and the occasional educational technology course.
Through various grants we have been able to purchase lots of hardware and software that assist science education and natural sciences faculty in the science education courses.

The technology we have in our classrooms include:
  • 12 laptop computers with Internet access
  • probeware that connects to the laptops that students can use to investigate different science phenomena
  • digital cameras
  • wireless printer
  • data analysis software
  • meteorological software
  • Microsoft Office suite
Technology is used as an instructional tool throughout all of the science courses. There are three primary ways that technology is used in the science courses that education students take:

1.  As a model which demonstrates to future teachers ways that technology can enhance the learning process or improve teacher productivity.
2.  To improve student learning of the science content.
3.  To implement the “Learning for Understanding” model that is the philosophy of the SOE (barriers between student and teacher are broken down; both can be learners)

Specific examples of technology integration include: 

WEB related:
The UM-D campus uses a commercial program called ERes (the Electronic REserve System) as a template for faculty members who wish to easily create course web pages or on-line resources for students.  ERes also contains a discussion board and chat room.  Use of ERes discussion board and chat room features means that students and instructors can communicate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (not just during the class anymore). Nearly all classes are web-enhanced (use ERes or other on-line support); this means students have access to multimedia presentations that they can use to reinforce/introduce what they are learning in the classroom. Today many text books used in the science courses have CD Roms or web sites that supplement the text. Our instructors make use of the technology enhanced textbooks.
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Instrumentation: 
We have a set of 10 laptops, a portable projector, probes that attach to the laptops and the software to use the probes. The probes are various instruments for gathering/documenting data (i.e., digital cameras, microscopes, motion detectors). We use these in the various courses. We also have a flex cam that attaches to a microscope and an overhead television. We use this to project small objects onto the television where they can be seen by everyone in the classroom.

Presentation: 
Use of laptops for instructor presentations (i.e., PowerPoint lectures) and for student presentations (i.e., to show results from experiments). Students also use a variety of software programs to present or to analyze science concepts.
Students are also required to develop a Science Electronic Portfolio (SEP). Each of the science classes has assignments which contribute to the SEP. This portfolio documents the student's growth in science content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge.


You are also welcome to visit School of Education homepage

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Last updated 4/20/04