Frustration again. Yes and another lesson learned. I was having problems with Louis accessing my room, I was sending him the address for the moderator instead of inviting him as a participate. So I went back, invited him as a participant and everything worked out great. It's the little things in life.
I enjoyed all the tools; but, the one I especially liked was the "follow me" box, by clicking on the box students will be able to follow the moderator to any site they are on. This is where you can show any videos. How cool is that, no more DVDs. As you know, teachers need to keep students involved with class activities and it's very easy to see if students are involved during a regular class; but for a online class not so much. By having many small group activities and assigning them into groups will help alleviate this problem. I also found under "tools" you can invite participates instead of copying the URL and emailing the address from your email account. It helps eliminate some steps from the process.
As a learn more and more there are some questions that need to be answered: like what applications does West Allis-West Milwaukee plan on using for their online classes? How is the online Health class going to be set-up: hybrid and all online? Time will tell and I hope the questions get answered before the online health class is offered.
Oh Lonnie, you crack me up. I will admit that sometimes I hate technology. I was having issues the very first session (couldn't hear anything, webcam wouldn't work) and I will also admit that there may have been some tears. :( But by week 5ish, I was so happy to have successfully completed my virtual classroom (with one prob - couldn't - and can't save content...poo.)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea for no more DVDs! The librarians are going to be a little happier not having to track down as many dvds, and it won't matter what room a person is in (if using an old-school tv/dvd player - aka, me). I am also interested in what our district will adopt and what our courses will look like (I know that talking to Joe with Hybrid Bio, there are a few changes that he mentioned that might help in student success and motivation.)
What specifically were Joe's suggestions? I am curious and in need of ideas.
DeleteYou make a great point that with an online class, it is difficult to get students actively involved so the breakout rooms help to alleviate that problem. I was very pleased with how simple it was to split the class into discussion rooms using the Blackboard software.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am a little curious as you mentioned what is our district's vision for online courses. Are most of them going to be hybrid courses like the Biology or are some going to be totally online? In addition, how many classes will teachers have if some of their classes are online? It will be interesting to see how everything plays out.