Thing 18--Virtual Classrooms

Teacher: 

Good News!! The process of extending the classroom beyond traditional brick and mortar walls IS for the faint of heart, AND you don't need to be a 'tech guru' to get started. 

My plan begins with the cornerstone of any good education program; communication. Start with an e-copy of a newsletter, and set your frequency. Your audience will quickly start deleting important info if you constantly bombard them. Monthly works best for me. Better yet, set it up in the form of a blog that allows for interaction. (NETS-S; 2.a,2.b,5.a,5.b,5.c,5.d,6.a,6.b)

In your newsletter, include links to resources bundled on your favorite social bookmarking tool, your classroom YouTube channel, course calendar or...

Create a Web presence via classroom blog / Wiki / Website or  district LMS. House all these resources in one place and provide your students and parents with a 24/7 link to your classroom. 

Time management of all these resources can be tricky. Try establishing 'office hours'. This set time let's your students know when they can reasonably expect to communicate with you and gives you the necessary boundaries so your online work doesn't become all-consuming. 

As you start expanding your classroom take it slow. As you integrate more tools, you'll also pick up new ideas for implementation and what starts as a static communication (newsletter) will quickly morph into collaboration as students begin to engage in more dynamic ways.

Teaching and learning both benefit from making these small steps. All users become more comfortable with hardware and software processes. Fresh, dynamic resources bring new perspective, ideas and opportunities to the classroom experience.

Student

So what about the student? Unfortunately, online learning is NOT for the faint of heart and DOES require the ability to work with technology to a certain degree. Navigating the Land of Online Learning provides all stakeholders the opportunity to experience online learning from a different perspective than their own. The student view highlights how students should, and should expect to be, part of the process in online learning. 

Unlike any other form of education, online learning really lets students take control of their learning. Students choose when, how, where, to study in order to meet course goals. This can be thrilling at the beginning -- isn't it every teenager's dream -- control!! To frustrating mid-stream and downright defeating in the end. However "With great power comes great responsibility" (Spiderman) 

Successful online students need to be independent, self-starters willing to rise to a challenge and problem-solve on their own. That doesn't mean online learning is an isolated process, quite the opposite. What it does mean is that online learning is a new and different process that requires a new approach.

The role of various adults in the online learning process can not be ignored. Mentors, counselors, teachers and district admin provide all the traditional supports. Students still need support in managing time, course loads, content and equipment.

Thing 14.2 -- Productivity; Google Calendar

So why a shared class calendar? Keep students and parents up-to-date with all your classroom happenings.  Standardized test dates, field trips & guest speakers, assignment details & due dates, and, most important of all,  VACATIONS! You can also link files and class resources via Google Drive. You could create one standard (school) calendar that links to all your calendars and then a separate one for each class or content area as needed. 

I created and shared a Google calendar for my Website. I've used shared calendars via 30 Boxes. I like a lot of the features in 30 boxes; it seems more robust. But the Google calendar is more convenient as it comes with the whole Google package and if you check out the google calendar labs you can see how to add 'flair' (event icons) and access other gadgets to beef up your calendar items. I'll have to return to this after exploring more. 

The West Mi Ed Tech calendar is public on google. Follow this link to access the html version.

Thing 4 - Skype

my contact list

Skyping the Experts 

Sychronous video tools are not for the faint of heart! (Or those of us who are intra- rather than inter- personal learners.) There's a certain disconnect with writing.  I'm safely absconded behind the words on the page.  Video -- yikes! Is my hair sticking up? What if I say something ridiculous? so exposed...

So how do us introverts get F2F with experts in the classroom? Like everything new -- start small and have a plan!

• Invite the expert down the hall, your good friend expert and others who will help you get comfortable. 
• Skype calls with experts have to be scheduled. Make a plan with a time frame, create goals for your conversation, have questions at the ready, assign roles, role-play, practice!   
• Once you've dipped your toe in the water, let your gregarious students take the plunge for you. They can drive the conversation while you moderate. 

Who are the Experts?

• student teacher who's left to do a semester abroad
• friend / family member
• colleague
• 21 Things cohort
• conference presenters
• authors
• scientists
• TED speakers 
• students in other countries

Recently in my district, the drama club coach at one of our high schools attended a tech conference and discovered the key note speaker was also a playwright. He chose the play as their spring production, connected with the author via twitter and set up a skype session for the kids. Suddenly, not just some words on a page to be randomly interpreted, but the opportunity to get direction on the intention of the actual author!

Thing 3 -- Extra! 5 step Process: Add Contacts from G-Spreadsheet

Ok...this is one of the fun wonders of all things Cloud / Internet. Today I wanted to add all my cohort-mates to my gmail contacts via the spreadsheet shared by our facilitators, however, I had no editing rights to the document. So...

My first thought:  

Save a copy of the spreadsheet so I can copy / paste emails. 

But this isn't really what I want to do. I want to upload all the info from the spreadsheet to my gmail contacts (first name, last name & email). I don't want to have to toggle btwn screens laboriously copy / pasting.

My second thought: 

There MUST be a way to auto-upload this. It IS a Google spreadsheet, I AM using Google Drive and I DO want them in my Gmail contacts. Surely the mighty google can connect all those dots for me. 

Third thought: 

Google: 'add contacts to gmail from google docs spreadsheet' :)  

Thought 3.5:  Top return looks good-- click on that...

#4

huh?? That's not English! 

Final Thought: 

Who needs English? This guy made a screencast that I can easily follow regardless of the fact that I do not recognize his spoken language.  And what does that say about communicating with kids? (ELL, or otherwise), and the true power of tech tools?

Voila! :)