A few weeks ago, I registered for a free web seminar on NSTA.org (the website for the National Science Teachers Association). I am a member of NSTA, so the seminars are free. I can't recommend joining the NSTA strongly enough for all teachers of science; the depth and breadth of the resources--free and otherwise--is impressive. I find it to be indispensable in my work.
In any case, the webinar I registered for was something like "Stop Faking It! Teaching Force and Motion". I was interested in how the content was being presented and the technology used to present it interested me as well. I was creating a workshop on the same topic and I wanted to see how teachers were reacting to the content and what types of questions they would ask.
How cool it was! There were people participating from all over the world: the US, South and Central America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. All in real time! There were interactive video presentations and demos...each participant got to manipulate the 'virtual manipulative demos' on their own screen. There was no waiting in line to use them... The presenter used some interesting features in the software to formatively assess the understanding and learning of the participants and adjusted his teaching on the spot.
Even better, you get all sorts of free digital resources to use (for one year) in your classroom or for your own learning when you have finished the web seminar and filled out an evaluation.
Go to it!
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