New Perspectives in Science Education

The digital age has fostered the rapid dissemination of information, and has provided various new tools for the access, transfer and use of information. One of its consequences is the consumption of fast and interesting information among young students. This enables new learning processes, and a new use of the learning environment. This innovative learning environment keeps the teacher’s essential role in classroom -  as a mediator, and not as an agent of information transfer. Therefore, teachers need broad, digital tools and should master how to use them within the teaching process for knowledge building.
The platform, that we would like to present, is a website that offers creative, scientific activities, based on short videos on a variety of science-based subjects. The platform uses an existing collection of on-line videos that aim to present science as interesting and accessible to the general public. We have tagged the videos according to the science curriculum and have developed activities, focusing on new, digital and pedagogic skills, teaching and learning tools.
All activities include watching one or more videos. They can be used in the initial introduction to a subject, as a resource for knowledge building, or as a summary of a topic. Some of the activities include interactive videos. The activities are based on active learning, self-discovery as individuals or teams, using scientific principles in everyday life. The activities include a wide range of skills such as: higher-order thinking, teamwork, collective knowledge building, gathering and integrating information, presentation skills and reflection on the learning process. Some of the activities offer the teachers an alternative assessment. The platform includes also a search engine that enables teachers to search for activities either by subject area, or by curriculum topics or by specific skills. We plan to offer “teachers as designers” courses to science teachers, presenting the activities, the rationale of developing them and teaching them how to develop their own activities. 

Keywords: digital videos, learning processes, alternative assessment;

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