Curriculum and Instruction doctoral candidate Lizoon Nahar and Crystal Machado, Department of Professional Studies in Education and Curriculum and Instruction, conducted a roundtable session at the Society of Information Technology and Teacher Education conference in San Diego in April 2022. The paper is titled "Enriching Science Classes with Virtual Laboratories: Lessons Learned from Self-motivated Science Educators."

Abstract

Post-pandemic education worldwide has become heavily reliant on technology-infused instruction; this suggests that virtual science laboratories (VSL) will become an integral part of high school science teaching and learning. While some self-motivated science educators worldwide have embraced VSL, many have not. We will use a  snowball sampling procedure to select 15 high school teachers from the U.S., Turkey, India, and Bangladesh. Using a qualitative approach we will explore interviewees’ firsthand experiences with free VSL, the factors that motivate them, the process of integrating VSL activities into science courses, and their recommendations for the VSL developers.

Department of Professional Studies in Education