Thing #19

Virtual Classrooms

I have a couple of ideas about how I can extend my classroom. I currently have a Moodle site for all of the classes that I teach. I have really liked Moodle, and I have gotten comments from students where they tell me it's so nice to have all the class "stuff" available to them online and how they wished that every teacher would do that. One of the most used things that I find on my Moodle site is the course PowerPoint presentations that I've uploaded. Since a lot of what I teach is very visual (diagrams, images, etc...), I've had students download the PowerPoint, e-mail it to themselves, open the e-mail on their phone, and then flip through the slides like flash cards (most students did this during the skeletal and muscular system units since we had lab practical portions to their tests). When I told a fellow teacher about this, the first thing they were concerned with was students using this to cheat. However, I just really didn't think that would be a problem. I monitor kids very closely during tests, so I don't think it happens often. I was just more impressed with their use of technology to enhance their learning.

Another thing I would like to do is create a class website (Weebly, PBWorks, or something like that) and then connect my Moodle site to that. I found that the Weebly site I created would allow me to post more content on the actual site (rather than just links to documents and other resources). Sometimes I feel a little "trapped" by my Moodle site. I think that creating this Virtual Classroom would help meet a number of the NETS-S for my students including Research and Information Fluency, Communication and Collaboration, Digital Citizenship, and Technology Operations and Concepts.


Navigating the Land of Online Learning

The "Navigating the Land of Online Learning" activity was a nice summary of some of the questions, issues, problems, and advantages to incorporating online learning components into a course. To be a succesful online student, there are a variety of skills you need to have and questions you need to ask. I think that one of the biggest skill an online student needs to have is self-motivation or self-direction. As opposed to sitting in a daily face-to-face class where the teacher might have the due date up on the board, announcing it in class, forcing students to write it in their planners, and then requiring things to happen during the 50 minute (or whatever time frame) period of time each day. A virtual class gives students the opportunity to be more flexible with their time; however, it does require some self-motivation and self-regulation. I've moved to having 5:00pm or 9:00pm or midnight deadlines. I have found student responses to be very positive towards this since it recognizes that students are busy and need to sort of prioritize things they need to do in their life. In addition, I get a lot fewer complaints about due dates which has made my life easier.

One more thing that I think will be required and new for "new" online learners is a technology learning curve. Since a lot of the learning will be done at home or some other location where the tech person/help desk does not live, students will have to figure out what to do with something breaks down and how they are going to deal with technology problems.

I do not think that online learning should completely replace face-to-face classrooms. I haven't really enjoyed all the aspects of the completely online classes that I have taken. However, I do think that there are some great things from the face-to-face classroom and the online/virtual classroom that can be combined nicely into a blended classroom.