The wonderful world of ICT in education

Whether we like it or not, e-learning is here to stay.  As a ‘digital immigrant’, the concept of e-learning and ICTs in teaching was initially daunting.  However for students of today, the ‘digital natives’, ICTs is what they know, and what they have grown up with.  As Prensky has suggested, if we don’t engage the digital natives, we will enrage them (Prensky, 2005).  Although this idea has been challenged, I think that we need to embrace technology and use it wisely to enhance learning outcomes for our students.  This, in a nutshell, is digital pedagogy – using ICTs to enable students to connect information from outside the classroom, use inquiry to develop knowledge and understanding, collaborate all over the world, support thinking, organising, managing and evaluating information, and create expressive and reflective products and solutions (Fasso, 2013b).  ICTs are considered so integral in education today, that ICT capabilities are embedded across the Australian Curriculum, and student and teacher ICT expectations and competencies have been developed.  A key component of the student ICT expectations is the use of ethical, safe and responsible practice when working with ICTs (Queensland Government, 2012). For teachers, a number of policies and documents detail how they can demonstrate and model safe, ethical and legal online practice.  This has been explored in detail in a previous post.

Although ICTs can be found everywhere in our lives today, as teachers, we need to remember that ICTs on their own do not lead to enhanced learning.   As Wendy Fasso sums up perfectly, “learning with ICT is beneficial only when appropriate learning approaches are taken” (Fasso, 2013d). For me, the TPACK framework explains this clearly, as it shows how the combination of using technology with sound pedagogical design and content specific knowledge will lead to enhanced learning.  I have explored the TPACK framework in an earlier post. 

When developing any form of effective learning, it is important to consider the learning theories to understand how and why students learn.  Four main learning theories, Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Connectivism all lend themselves e-learning (explored in an earlier post).  Even though some of these learning theories were created before the digital age, they all have ICT applications, and a range of theories should be used to help inform learning design (Fasso, 2013a). 

ICTs also have application for Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, especially in the Cognitive Domain.  This domain or type of learning includes knowledge and intellectual skills, ranging from lower order thinking skills (recall of information), to the highest order thinking skills (creating and designing) (Clark, 2010).  ICTs can be used across the spectrum of the Taxonomy, for example, online quizzes can be used for recall of information (‘Remembering’ category), online concept maps can help categorise information (‘Understanding’ category), commenting on blogs (‘Evaluating’ category), or designing and constructing blogs, wikis and podcasts (‘Creating’ category) (Churches, 2013).  

Similarly, a range of ICT tools should be used to cater for the learning styles of students.   Students are able to determine their learning preferences through online tests, such as Felder and Solomon and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences - ones I have tried and blogged about earlier. There is no way that all learning styles can be accommodated at all times, nor would that be appropriate.  It is important to have a healthy mix of approaches throughout the unit, and in the case of ICTs, students should be comfortable using a variety of tools.  ICTs can meet the needs of all learning styles, and when used within the TPACK framework, can contribute to improved learning for collaborative, individual, visual, auditory or interactive work (Fasso, 2013c).

A collaborative ICT activity we participated in was a wiki activity about the use of mobile phones in classrooms.  While I was not overly impressed by the functionality of the wiki, the fact that it allowed for collaborative and higher order thinking outweighed the function restrictions (as discussed in an earlier post).  The use of scaffolding with deBono’s six hats was crucial to the activity.  While a wiki as a tool lends itself to collaborative thinking, without appropriate scaffolding, effective learning probably won’t result.  For me, the scaffolding elicited more thoughtful responses using a wide array of “hats”, rather than just providing my initial thoughts on the topic.  This really highlighted the importance of scaffolding for when I use wikis or other ICT tools in the classroom.  While I want my students to have their own learning journey, scaffolding is needed to guide them in the right direction, and to think outside the box.  This should lead to a richer learning experience, and exploring other avenues that they may not have taken if the scaffolding was not there.

We then moved from learner to creator, and got our hands dirty by developing our own wiki and website, as well as exploring blogs in more detail.  I have analysed and reflected on each tool in more detail in earlier wikis, website and blogs posts.   I found it hard to choose between the three tools, because each tool contains qualities that will have relevance to my teaching. But more importantly, each tool can be used by the students themselves to create, critically think and reflect.   These tools highlighted for me the importance of choosing an ICT tool specific for the task to enhance learning – that is, the Technology element of the TPACK framework is equally as important as the Pedagogy and Content elements.  However, according to Harris and Hofer (2009), the primary focus needs to be on the pedagogy and content of the learning goals and activities, and the technologies that best serve these learning goals and activities should be selected last.  They suggest that this approach allows teachers to develop their TPACK framework accurately, rather than technocentrically (which, they believe, is commonly the way teachers integrate educational technologies into their teaching) (Harris & Hofer, 2009). 

To choose one tool, I anticipate that blogs will be the most useful in my teaching.  I really like that students can document their learning journey and reflections in their ‘own’ space, and have the added benefit of teachers and fellow students commenting on and adding value to their work as they post it.  In Year 9 Home Economics, students could use a blog for their research, planning, analysis, and reflection for a new food group they explore every week.  However, because blog posts go online instantly, students will need to ensure their blog posts (and comments on other student’s blogs) follow ethical, legal and safe guidelines.  They need to ensure there is no inappropriate or abusive language generally or towards another person, no illegal content, and that they have not infringed copyright laws.  A blog (and comments on other blogs) are regarded as the thoughts and opinions of the author signed in, so therefore, students need to ensure they keep their password secure so that others cannot log in with their name. 

Blogs, wikis and websites are beneficial because they allow for multimodal learning.  Images, video and audio can be embedded in these tools, but are also are powerful learning tools on their own.  As I have detailed in earlier posts, images can be very effective in the teaching areas of Home Economics and Science, and audio has really been enhanced with the introduction of podcasts.  However, I feel videos have the teaching advantage over these two tools because of its ability to accommodate both visual and auditory learners (as discussed in an earlier post).  With the wide availability of ‘smart phones’ and iPods, videos are now even easier to create and share, making them more accessible to more students.  Although the video does not go ‘live’ until the student shares or uploads the video, students need to be aware of ethical guidelines while creating their video.  This includes not using inappropriate language or concepts, not using illegal content, ensuring permission has been sought from people filmed in the video, and complying with copyright laws.  These considerations are also applicable for images and audio.

Other tools that are powerful on their own or embedded within a blog, wiki or website are PowerPoint, Prezi and Glogster.  Having worked in a field where training sessions were ‘death by PowerPoint’, it was refreshing to learn new and interactive ways to include PowerPoint in the classroom (refer to PowerPoint post).  However, to be interactive and engaging, PowerPoint needs to be used on its own or within a wiki, because once it’s embedded into a Prezi or blog (as a video), it becomes a non-interactive slide viewer.  Prezi is more interactive, but I found it quite hard to navigate (as discussed in my Prezi post).  Glogster, however, was both user-friendly and web-friendly, and I think it will have many uses in my teaching (refer to my Glogster post).  I can see that students will also enjoy constructing glogs themselves to enhance learning.  For example, Year 8 science students could create a glog on volcanos, embedding videos of erupting volcanoes, audio from an expert or “survivor”, images of igneous rocks, and links to websites.  I think that by creating their assessment piece using a multimodal, interactive tool like Glogster, students may be more engaged than with a traditional science project, potentially leading to enhanced learning outcomes.

Animations and simulations are also interactive tools that can be used in the classroom.  While I enjoyed creating an animation in GoAnimate, I think for my teaching of secondary aged students, simulations will be more relevant.  The tools I explored (and analysed further in an earlier post) were in the area of Science, because simulations can be instrumental when students are trying to understand and apply concepts they cannot see (eg creating molecules).  ExploreLearning Gizmos is a fabulous educational science simulation tool that has the added benefit of being in line with the Australian Curriculum.  However, an anticipated negative of the tool is it’s potential high subscription cost. 

Overall, there is a plethora of ICT tools available for educational use.  The key is to ensure they are used within the TPACK framework so that they are intertwined with pedagogy and content knowledge to enhance learning, and are used appropriately to complement the range of thinking skills as per Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.  A mix of ICT tools is beneficial to appeal to all learning styles of students, however, regardless of the tool used, students (and teachers) need to be aware of and follow ethical, safe and legal guidelines.  For enhanced learning using the ICT tools, teachers should establish appropriate scaffolding.  Without scaffolding, students may enjoy using the tool, however, the intended learning may not result. From here, my next e-learning stage will be to design a unit of work - to put into practice the TPACK framework, use ICT to achieve higher order thinking skills as per Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, consider learning theories and their ICT applications, and accommodate multiple learning styles when choosing ICT tools throughout the unit.  As we begin our first EPL placement, I am looking forward to putting the ICT tools I have explored into practice, and to plan (and implement) a ‘real’ unit of work with ‘real’ students using sound digital pedagogy.

 

References

Churches, Andrew. (2013). Bloom's - Introduction from http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+-+Introduction

Clark, Donald. (2010). Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains. from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive

Fasso, Wendy. (2013a). A Brief Overview of Learning Theory.   Retrieved 3 March 2013, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491: ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115326

Fasso, Wendy. (2013b). Digital Pedagogy.   Retrieved 2 April 2013, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491: ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115235

Fasso, Wendy. (2013c). Know Your Learner.   Retrieved 2 April 2013, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491: ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115325

Fasso, Wendy. (2013d). Teaching in Digital Environments. 1 April 2013, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491: ICTs for Learning Design http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115334

Harris, Judi, & Hofer, Mark. (2009). Instructional Planning Activity Types as Vehicles for Curriculum-Based TPACK Develop Research highlights in technology and teacher education (pp. 98-108). Chesapeake, VA: Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education (SITE).

Prensky, Marc. (2005). "Engage Me or Enrage Me" What Today's Learners Demand. Educause Review. from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf

 

Glogs rock!

Here's the glog I created using GlogsterEDU:



And here's my SWOT analysis to explore glogs in more detail:

Strength ·         Multimodal – audio, images, video, text, web links ·         Easy to use and navigate (simple tools bar) ·         Can embed into blog and wiki ·         Fun! ·         Can personalise glog. ·         Lots of borders, images (including animated images), fonts etc to choose from. ·         Can easily change colours of text or backgrounds once they have been inserted. ·         Can select discipline and year level ·         Can tag students (or others) ·         Can attach Word documents ·         Private and “safe” – teacher controls account and student glogs restricted to “class only” viewing ·         Can create presentation with glogs ·         Various templates to use, including assignment sheet, handouts.

Weakness ·         Can’t embed PowerPoint – have to convert to a movie. ·         Glogster EDU requires paid subscription after 30 day trial.

Opportunities ·         I think students will engage with glogs because of the multimodal allowances. ·         Easy to add references by attaching Word document – helps students to ensure they appropriately reference work. ·         Use in place of traditional poster projects. ·         Contains all info about one topic in one place – can create new glogs for each new topic of work.

Threats ·         Students may not develop their own thoughts – potential to just embed resources they have found on the web. ·         As an online resource, need to be cautious of unethical, unsafe and illegal content – ensure students understand and comply with appropriate behaviour standards. ·         No avenue in glog for scaffolding – will need to be done in another tool (eg wiki).

I love glogs.  I have never used (or heard of) one before starting the GDLT program, and was skeptical at the start, but now that I have used them a few times, I am rapt.  There is so much potential in education for glogs, particularly in the digital age we live in.  Glogs are interactive, multimodal, fun, engaging ways to create a resource on a topic.  As a teacher, we can create a glog as a resource for the students (eg literacy and numeracy in the kitchen for Home Economics students), or better yet, the students can create their own glog for a project or assignment.  In Home Economics, students could create a glog on a nutrition related issue such as diabetes.  They could interview people who have diabetes and embed the videos (or audio) in the glog.  They could put in photos of complications of diabetes (shock factor of missing toes etc), they can include text about what is diabetes, how it is caused, and how it is treated.  They could provide links to websites like Diabetes Australia for the reader to find out more about the condition.  And all presented in a creative, engaging and personalised way.  The functions within the tool (range of colours, images, borders, frames to choose from) allow the student (or teacher) to be creative in the design of the glog.  GlogsterEDU also has the option of creating a presentation from the class glogs – this could be a novel way to present the class’s work over a unit.

However, in order for effective learning to occur, scaffolding needs to be put in place by the teacher.  Otherwise, the glog may end up being a ‘cut and paste’ locating exercise of resources on the web, rather than a higher order designing and creating activity (as per Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy).  The glog itself does not seem to lend itself to scaffolding, so another document or tool (eg a wiki) will probably need to be developed for the scaffolding (and the planning for the project).   

The other potential risk of glogs is that unlike blogs and wikis, glogs do not allow for regular commenting from peers and teachers (as the glog doesn’t go “live” until the author clicks publish).  Because of this, there is the potential that students will not collaborate and review each other’s work and be able to add value to their learning.  The scaffolding will be crucial here to encourage students to collaborate with their peers and people outside the classroom.  This opens opportunities for linkages with other students in other states or countries who may be researching the same topic, and also linkages with the community as students can engage with people who may be experts in the field, or who may have experienced first-hand the topic (in the case of diabetes, it may be people in the community who have diabetes).

Like all ICT tools, students must follow ethical, safe and legal guidelines when working on their glog (see earlier post for more detailed considerations when working online).  Because it will be a resource that will be shared with the rest of the class, particular attention should be made to ensure students do not use defamatory or abusive language in general and towards another student.  In addition, students need to ensure they comply with copyright laws, and reference all material adequately.  The glog has the added benefit of allowing documents to be attached to the glog.  I have found these attachments as a convenient and transparent way to reference the glog.  This way, the sources of images or video etc are there, but do not take away from the impact of the glog (I would imagine the glog would look very cluttered and messy if references were included under every image or video etc). However, saying that, my references would not upload to this glog, so I have included the references at the bottom of this post.


Glog references

• Cake. [Photograph] Retrieved from http://in-my-moments.blogspot.com.au/
• Government, Queensland (Producer). (17 March 2013). Literacy and Numeracy Fact Sheet: Supporting your child. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/literacyandnumeracy/pdf/factsheet-l-n.pdf
• Numeracy in the kitchen - cooking with fractions.wmv. (2011, 14 March 2013). [Video file] Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZVsYQb0CE0&list=WLzAL48ET3432NPZkAIFw543dTLAUsLY7p

Beware... stranger danger!

Working legally, safely and ethically online is fundamental to e-learning.  For teachers and students working online (ie all of them!), we need to understand these issues, and understand the consequences of not complying with the rules.  

In today’s digital age, ICT and the online world are part of everyday life, including being an essential part of schooling.  I think it would be safe to say that every student has some involvement in the online world.  And with ICT being so embedded and essential in schooling today, the Queensland Government have developed Student ICT expectations to specify the ICT learning that is expected of all students in Queensland state school by the end of Years 3,5,7,9,10 and 12 (Queensland Government, 2012b).  These ICT expectations are in line with the Australian Curriculum General Capability, ICT competence, whereby it is recognised that students need  to be ‘creative and productive users of technology’ in order to be successful learners at school and beyond in this digital age (Queensland Government, 2012b).  A key component of the student ICT expectations is the use of ethical, safe and responsible practice when working with ICT (Queensland Government, 2012).  Even by the end of Year 3, students are expected to understand that it is not appropriate to copy large amounts of information on the internet, be aware of ethical and unethical ICT communications, and recognise the significance of private passwords (Queensland Government, 2012).  I think that when I was in Year 3, I didn’t even know what a computer was, and even if I did, it was not connected to the Internet.  While I am supportive of using ICTs for enhanced learning, it does make me think how children of today have to deal with ‘adult’ issues earlier in their lives.  Stranger danger is no longer the man in a van parked out the front of a school yard; it is so much more subtle, sinister and hard to track over the Internet.  This is why children in lower primary years (and possibly even younger) need to be able to identify stranger danger in online environments, and be equipped with safety strategies. 

Image courtesy of http://www.pc1news.com/articles-img/small/children_online_safety.gif

The Department of Education’s Acceptable Use of the Department's Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) specifies that teachers need to ensure students understand what is meant by acceptable use, and are able to demonstrate and model suitable behaviour at all times (Queensland Government, 2012a).  The procedure outlines that all EQ staff and students need to keep their username and strong password secure.  Teachers need to model suitable behaviour, as well as provide direction for the use of ICTs within the classroom, including ensuring students understand and demonstrate acceptable, safe behaviour.  Inappropriate behaviour includes (but not limited to) online or email harassment or abuse, accessing any offensive, pornographic or illegal material, infringing copyright laws, forwarding spam, accessing or using restricted Department information without authorization (Queensland Government, 2012a).

According to this procedure, teacher’s need to ensure their students understand what appropriate online behaviour constitutes, ensure their students can demonstrate appropriate behaviour, and adhere to the schools online requirements and policies (Queensland Government, 2012a).  Students need to demonstrate acceptable online behaviour, maintain the security of their usernames and passwords, and understand and sign the school’s online agreement/guideline annually (Queensland Government, 2012a). The procedure also requires that parents of students provide consent for their child to access and use the school’s ICT services and facilities, and to also understand and sign the school’s online agreement/guideline annually (Queensland Government, 2012a).

For a more “reader friendly” version of safe, ethical and legal online guidelines, The Australian Government's Cybersmart website is worth going to.  This website provides information to students, parents and schools about online safety and legal issues, including how to deal with cyberbullying, identity theft, sexting and trolling (Australian Government, 2013). The website also offers online counselling (through Kids Helpline) and can provide professional development to educators.  This is a great website because it talks about all the issues and guidelines in terminology that students understand and use, making the information more accessible to the target audience. This website could be used when the class is developing their own class guidelines/rules for their work in wikis, blogs, videos, images etc.

For copyright guidelines, I found the Australian Copyright Council’s website very helpful.  In particular, the Student page outlines the copyright guidelines for students generally, and specifically in regards to copying and downloading videos and DVDs, using music in videos and films for assignments, and taping TV and video.  The information sheets are clear to understand (with limited legal jargon) and include frequently asked questions that were helpful.  These information sheets could be used by teachers when proactively instructing their class on legal guidelines, and by students (and teachers) when they are creating resources and their class ‘online’ guidelines/rules for working in wikis, blogs, websites etc.

 

Image courtesy of http://mrbartlett.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/061013_internet_citing1.gif?w=460

 

References

Australian Government. (2013). cyber(smart :). from http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/

Queensland Government. (2012a). Acceptable Use of the Department's Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Network and Systems Retrieved 2 April 2013, from http://ppr.det.qld.gov.au/corp/ict/management/Pages/Acceptable-Use-of-Departments-Information-Communication-and-Technology-(ICT)-Network-and-Systems.aspx

Queensland Government. (2012b). Student ICT Expectations.  Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/enabling-learners/ict-expectations/index.html.

 

 

Science Simulations ... what fun!!

Animations and Simulations – Tool 4

I chose to investigate some Science interactive learning objects / simulations for Tool 4.

The first one I explored was the Science Quest app by Jacaranda on iPad

This app contains interactive activities that support the topics covered in the Jacaranda eBook Science Quest.  This textbook is commonly used in Australian schools, as it is in line with the new Australian Curriculum for Science.  The app is free and follows the chapters of the text book, making it very user friendly.  I downloaded the Year 8 and Year 10 Science Quest apps, as these are the classes I will have on EPL 1.  Some of the interactive activities included constructing DNA, timed quizzes on chemical reactions, an online board game on how to care for the environment,  rating the rock formations from oldest to most recent, and a digestive system jigsaw. 

I used a PMI tool to analyse this app:

Plus	Minus	Interesting / Implications
Clear, easy to read instructions for each activity.	Specifically designed to complement Science Quest text book, so may not be easily used if class isn’t using this text.	May engage more students in junior science through the fun, interactive activities.
Free	Requires students to have iPad, iPhone or iPod and access to internet to download app.	When used within a larger learning context, the activities I looked could support a range of remembering, understanding and applying skills (as classified by Blooms Revised Taxonomy).  The activities did not appear to lend themselves to the use of higher order thinking skills such as analyse, evaluate or create.  Other activities would need to be used in the learning context to ensure students could practice and demonstrate these higher order thinking skills.
In line with chapters of the Science Quest textbook, so very easy to link with textbook.
Activities directly relate to Australian Curriculum (as textbook written in line with Curriculum)
Fun!
Made intangible concepts in science able to be seen and “played with”
Can be used to supplement in-class learning, or as a revision tool (and can be used at a time that suits the student as the app is always available).

 

Knowing that the school I am doing my first EPL at uses the Science Quest textbooks for Science in years 8-10, I will definitely consider including the interactive app into my teaching (assuming the activities were in line with the content and pedagogical outcomes of the unit/class being taught).  Many of the activities would be suitable to do in a group setting, so even if not all students had iPads/iPhones/iPods, there may be enough for a few groups to be formed in the class (and assuming the school permits the use of mobile/tablet technology in the classroom).  As mentioned in the PMI table, the app activities  I explored would probably only support the lower order thinking skills of remembering, understanding and applying.  However, the app would be a fun and engaging way for students to consolidate or apply their learning in class.   

 

The next science simulator program I investigated was Explore Learning Gizmos.  Similarly to the Science Quest app, this program followed the Australian Curriculum for Science. 

Again, I used a PMI tool to analyse this program:

Plus	Minus	Interesting / Implications
Student exploration sheet and vocabulary sheet included in each gizmo for free version.	Free version (not registered for 30 day free trial) only gives you 5 mins per gizmo per day.	May engage more students in junior science through the fun, interactive activities.
Free 30 day trial	Requires students to have computer and access to internet to use gizmos.	When used within a larger learning context, the gizmos I looked at could support a range of remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating thinking skills (as classified by Blooms Revised Taxonomy) – the full spectrum of thinking skills.
Student exploration and vocabulary sheet have options to download as pdf or word doc.  Word version allows teacher to make specific to his/her class.	The cost may be a minus, however, it is unknown as there is no cost information on the website, only a contact to obtain price from a company representative.	Awesome learning tool, but because I am not sure how much it costs, the implications may be that if it’s too expensive, it won’t be easy to access (as can only buy a school subscription, not individual teacher subscription).
Activities directly relate to Australian Curriculum (as gizmos created in line with Curriculum)
Fun!
Made intangible concepts in science able to be seen and “played with”
Can copy pictures (graphs / maps etc) or the whole screen from a gizmo into a Word or Powerpoint document.  This allows the teacher to use information from the gizmos to personalise the student exploration sheets or use in class presentations etc.
Can export raw data from tables in gizmos to Excel.  Allows students to use data to create other graphs or do further analysis on the data.
Tool tips when hovering over each icon/button assists the user to navigate around the gizmo easily.
Allows students to carry out science experiments from the beginning to export the data collected for further analysis.
Learning objectives and vocabulary is outlined clearly on each gizmo.
Registered free (and paid) version includes assessment questions for each gizmo.
Can be used to supplement in-class learning, or as a revision tool (and can be used at a time that suits the student as the website is always available).

 

This was by far my most favourite science simulator learning tool.  It was extremely professional, and because it was developed in line with the Australian Curriculum for Science, it could easily be used “as is” in the classroom (but also is flexible in that the student exploration and vocab sheets can be adapted as required).  As mentioned above, the acitivies in this program can support pedagogy and content knowledge that requires higher order thinking skills such as creating, evaluating and analysing.  This would also be enhanced if students completed the gizmos as a group, as the studetns could negotiate, question and comment on the path they are going to take to solve the problem at hand (for example, create an electrical circuit).  

I think the only downfall with this program may be the price.  Because the price was not listed on the website (you have to speak with a rep), I have the feeling it will be very expensive.  I did have a quick look further online and found this general price list on a wiki not authored by ExploreLearning (so I cannot be sure of the accuracy or validity of the information).  However, if this general price list is anything to go by, it does seem quite expensive, ranging from a teacher (and his/her students) subscription of $674 for 12 months, through to a Science department 12 month subscription for a minimum of $1995.  Yikes! Schools seem to constantly struggle to find extra funds, so I could imagine it would be quite difficult to obtain a department level subscription when there are more pertinent competing priorities. If this is the true cost of subscription, it's not a very useful tool because it’s access will be restricted significantly to the more financially advantageous schools and teachers.

PS  Sorry again for the LARGE gaps between tables .... I am not sure how to fix this (and it only happens with tables in some posts, so I'm not even reliably getting it wrong!).