So far, my online teaching has been relatively limited to what my students can do online in the classroom. One of the large issues with my district is that not everyone has internet access and if they do, some of them have only a certain amount per month (because they live in some rural areas). I've tried to start flipping parts of units in my classroom and though I haven't been able to flip an entire unit yet, I like the potential. In the future, I am hopeful that I can flip more so that class time can be spent collaborating and doing hands-on extensions of the learning journey they've already begun. As a middle school teacher, I don't know that I could ever teach exclusively online.
Providing more online learning opportunities is a goal of mine and there are a few applications I use so far to help me do this.
[1] Weebly
I use Weebly as the website creator for my class website. My students start at my website every day to find the agenda, helpful links to other sites, and a way to upload assignments. Initially this was all I used Weebly for. Then I discovered that I could create student accounts and so I know use this as a way for students to create digital portfolios.
[2] Edmodo
Two Words: Instant Feedback. I love using the quiz feature on Edmodo in that I get feedback so promptly and an pie charts that give me a quick overview of what my students did and didn't understand.
As many people in this class have reported, one of the largest barriers to online teaching/learning is the lack of internet access in many of my student's homes. Right now I'm able to overcome some of those barriers by providing time before school, during lunch, and after school for students to watch the flipped classroom video. Another barrier is administrative support which is ironic considering we will be a 1:1 iPad district next year making flipped classrooms a great approach to work with the iPad.
As many people in this class have reported, one of the largest barriers to online teaching/learning is the lack of internet access in many of my student's homes. Right now I'm able to overcome some of those barriers by providing time before school, during lunch, and after school for students to watch the flipped classroom video. Another barrier is administrative support which is ironic considering we will be a 1:1 iPad district next year making flipped classrooms a great approach to work with the iPad.
We will discuss flipping classrooms next week, so you'll have a chance to describe your efforts in that regard. Flipping is becoming more common and will probably be how many teachers first experience elements of online teaching.
ReplyDeleteAnd, "instant feedback" is one of the killer apps (so to speak) of using technology in the classroom. Teachers cannot give whole group individualized feedback like technology can do, so "instant feedback" is something that we should all try and incorporate into the technology that we embed into our teaching. Kudos to you for doing it.