AR.2 Article Review Technology Integration

Using Apps to Integrate Writing into Science Education, Pytash, Annetta, Ferdig, May 2016, ScienceScope Magazine

Writing about science is an essential skill for increasing student’s knowledge base, helping students to formulate ideas around science and research, creating arguments, and sharing results with the community. The NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) have clearly stated goals for science and technology integration “”develop and strengthen writing abilities while using digital tools to produce and publish writing.” The CCSS (Common Core State Standards) also require students to “use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing.”

Using digital apps is timely, as students have access to and understanding of their smartphones, and other digital devices. Apps provide an easy way for students to formulate and plan their ideas, brainstorm for solutions, collaborate with peers, receive feedback from teachers, and the opportunity to learn in different physical spaces. Apps can both prepare students for writing in science and improve the quality of their writing.

Brainstorming or mind-mapping apps can help students to manipulate and move their thoughts on screen. They can play with hierarchy, revise, and organize. Teachers can give feedback prior to writing to help students refine their thoughts.

Apps can also be used for annotating text. Argumentation is a key component to scientific writing. One must be able to analyze and synthesize evidence in order to support their positions. Complex texts are a natural part of science writing and students must be able to identify essential information within the texts. Annotating is a tool that helps to chunk down the text, and gives students tools to find meaning within the text. This includes the main ideas, key vocabulary and concepts. With annotating, students interact with the text on different levels, allowing them to decipher the information and ideas represented within the text.

DIgital tools  allows teacher to upload passages, and students can annotate, Some tools even allow students to annotate videos. Highlighting and commenting, as wella s sharing are some of the digital annotation features.

In the science research class, students learn through writing in their science journals. There are digital journal apps that can serve as science notebooks. The great thing about these is that it gives students the chance to personalize their journals, and then share their writing with others.

A great way to present science writing is through multimodal composition. Information is learned and presented best when it includes a variety of media, including verbal language, as well as visual imagery, visual data and more. Digital storytelling gives students the chance to consider the use of how images, sound and text individually carry a particular meaning (Pytash, Annetta, Ferdig, 2016) and can be used together to convey a new meaning (Kress, 2003).

Properly used, digital tools can be an integral part of the science writing and presentation curriculum, as it offers students the tools they are accustomed to using to learn, integrate, synthesize and share information.