Botany lab thirteen floral morphology

The lab opened with a brief Crime pays but Botany Doesn't clip to once again try to make a definitions and concepts course relevant in an era of image recognition models. This also provided a buffer at class start to allow students to settle in. The full clip was not shown. Then a video on inflorescences was shown because inflorescences are not covered until the day after the laboratory.

In an earlier laboratory the students learned to use the SnapSeed mobile app to reduce the size of leaf images and then build a Google Forms quiz using their leaf images. In this laboratory students learn to use SnapSeed to label images. 

The intent of these two laboratories is for students to learn how to work entirely from apps on their smartphones. College courses continue to focus on desktop applications and desktop computers, learning that is appropriate to a laptop toting generation. No course intentionally teaches students how to use productivity apps on their smartphones. Yet few students carry laptops and nearly all students carry smartphones. To be digitally agile while being mobile will be essential to students. 

Designing a mobile app course would be a suboptimal approach, the better approach is to integrate mobile technology across the curriculum. Hence these two laboratories. 

Many of the students in botany are likely to wind up in natural resources management careers either in government or non-governmental organizations. Some will wind up in agricultural extension work where they will be involved in training and facilitating. Presentations in one form or another will be a staple for content delivery in their work.  

Using labeled images with appropriate reduction in memory footprint/bandwidth consumption will be a part of those presentations. And this can be done from their smartphones - no desktop, laptop, or computer laboratory required. If the students know how to use their phones, then there is no need to move into a computer laboratory - long a traditional approach to this sort of work in the college. 

Ashley viewing the assignment in the learning management system (Moodle)

The act of labeling the images also reinforces floral structure terminology. The students had nine elements to be labelled including:

•     Pedicel
•     Sepals
•     Calyx
•     Corolla 
•     Petals
•     Filament 
•     Anther
•     Style
•     Stigma

Also include an inflorescence type other than a solitary flower.

Where visible or appropriate, suggested labels included:

•     ovary
•     bracts
•     receptacle

Litana labeling Hymenocallis littoralis

The laboratory went well up until students attempted to submit their presentations. For some students this could be done directly from the learning management system - the LMS presented a file picker that included their Google Drive. Other students had to save the Slides as a PowerPoint or a PDF and then download those to their phone in order to upload the file to the LMS. For some the Google Drive app was sufficient, others had to use Files by Google. 

More than one student was operating in their personal Gmail account which was out of cloud space. This prevented generating the Google Slides. These students were shown how to change to their college workspace account.

There were a few students with iPhones which do not allow Google apps to save to their phone, those students will have to use a desktop or laptop to submit their assignments. 

The complications of the many different ways students had to use to submit caused an addition to the end of the presentation to try to cover some of the options. Very few students had the Google Drive and Files by Google app installed. Samsung phones had both apps but both were in a disabled state. These had to update once enabled. 

Students use their phones primarily for social media, few realize how much of their daily work can be done on their phones. Apps such as Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Snapseed, Files, and Drive provide a capable office suite on a phone. Nowhere is this intentionally taught at present.