AN EXPERIENCE IN GENETIC ENGINEERING USING THE "CIBER-GENETICA" BLOG

The "Ciber-Genetica" blog (http://ciber-genetica.blogspot.com/) was constructed with the aim of supporting different courses related to genetics. The blog served as a platform to provide biotechnology information to Genetic Engineering students at the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, during the period from August to late November of 2010. The blog provided a useful tool to encourage students to further explore the topics covered in classroom. The information at the Blog was updated every day. The students could also access the material reviewed in class, such as videos and PowerPoint presentations. The blog contains links to several journals associated with research and classes in Genetics and Biotechnology, as well as in health sciences. The blog also contain RSS subscriptions, which are widely appreciated and used by the students who are more interested in genetics. More importantly, RSS allows this blog to be re-purposed in other ways across the Internet, thereby giving the blog the potential to reach well beyond the immediate links above, thereby exposing them to larger audiences. The blog can be reposted on other websites and subscribed to in RSS readers, such as Google Reader (which is the one used by us). The students are invited to write a summary of a paper directly related to the course and we post that abstract as well the link to the original journal. The reason for this is that students of Biotechnology required some new writing skills, and this new medium can generate more creative and deeper communication. If students cannot write a coherent sentence and paragraph, then they will not be able to effectively communicate in the real world when they graduate. You cannot gain professional respect unless you are able to write at the level of your professional peers. A great advantage of blogging as a teaching tool is that students can log on at different times from different places other than with their teacher. This gives a student a chance to reflect on posts, do research and respond once they have time to do so. This takes teaching and learning to a level beyond the classroom time schedule. As a communication tool, students will learn to summarize answers, clarify thoughts, and express them accurately. Communication by writing must to be clear to be understood. After completing the course, an evaluation of the usefulness of the blog during the school period and the degree of integration of the blog material with the topics covered in class was done. The results showed that the blog is a tool that enriches the class and helps students to better understand the issues reviewed in class, as well as improving the quality of the course. Students indicate that the blog offers clear, accurate and complete information and also state that the frequency of updating of the blog is excellent. Finally, students agree to use the blog on other subjects.