I'm currently enrolled in an online English class. This week I have to make a presentation in an online classroom. I have to admit I'm still very nervous for this presentation. I've never taught a lesson through an online classroom, but am excited to see how well it works out. As I was procrastinating working on that presentation, I started thinking about how online classrooms could benefit elementary teachers.
The first thing that came to my mind was absences from school. If a student was gone from school, he/she could log in and either watch prerecorded lessons or watch a live lesson from his/her classroom. This would save the teacher a lot of time because he/she would not have spend time reteaching the lesson to the student. Of course, this brings up several questions like what if a student is too ill to participate or what about the students who don't have access to computers or internet. I will admit I don't have the answers to those questions. It could be a situation where whoever has the access and/or is not too sick to participate will do so.
Another idea that I thought of was use an online classroom to connect with students in other states or countries. How cool would it be to teach the students about Washington D.C. and be able to video chat with students who live in D.C.? I think students would love doing something like that. It would not only benefit my classroom, but another classroom as well. I think it would be neat to not only discuss each other's culture, but to discuss school topics. I think it provides the students with another perspective which is an important part of teaching.
These were just two of the ideas that I have came up with. Do any of you have any other ideas or have you seen suck technology used differently in classrooms?
Both of these are great ideas for an elementary online class. I took an online learning class while at Iowa State that I found was more challenging than I thought. There were about 10 people total in our class. Our biggest project was to get into small groups (I think 3-4) and design an online class. Ours was geared toward middle school because these students could take it as one of their "option" classes. It was actually a lot more work and a lot harder than I thought it would be. There is definitely a lot to think about when designing an online class: planning lessons, web design, how to link things together, communication between professor/student as well as student/student, grading, posting assignments...the list could go on. Our class was paired with a graduate course and the graduate students took our online class when we completed it, acting as if they were the middle school students. They gave us feedback with how smoothly they thought the lessons went, etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how this idea of an online class would work for elementary students because they don't really have a choice of which classes they take. I do, however, really like the idea of communicating with other schools through video chat. I'm not sure that would be considered a "class" like the one my group had to design, but definitely something to test out.
Good luck on your presentation-I'm sure it will go well :)
That does sound like it would be challenging and we know that we as teachers already have a lot on our plate. My class uses an online tool called Wimba. I actually haven't gotten a chance to experience the classroom because I have class during the time and just watch a recorded video of the presentation. The classroom we use is basically a video and chat classroom. It seems as though it would be very similar to skype. I did notice there were some added features. For example if the teacher asked a yes or no question students had a button to respond to that. Unfortunely yes or no questions are not very rich. There was also a raise hand tool. Thsi would be helpful if someone had a question. I don't know much about this program or how user friendly it is. There are other elements to my online class, but I thought the video classroom was a pretty neat idea. I think setting up an online classroom like the one you described would be very difficult.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of being able to meet with other classrooms in different parts of the United States. I'm not really sure of the online classroom with elementary students. However if a student was absent then the class would be there for them to watch. I had a student who had to be hospitalized sometimes through out the year and I always thought even if we video taped the class then he could watch it and keep up with where we are. I know they offer a teacher to go to the hospital and teach them but how much better to be able to have your own teacher and class.
ReplyDeleteI have taken a few video streaming classes at ISU and was amazed at how smooth those classes seem to go and how people can be at home presenting to the class wherever else they are. I'm sure computer usage, i-pod, and etc is only going to become more attainable with years to come.
You bring up a great discussion topic! Online learning and its future - this is another one of these things that is not going away. We must think about how we will use it to help our learners.
ReplyDeleteJust like Jo, I had a student that was a burn victim and was always going to the hospital for extended stays due to surgeries. If I had the technology I do today, that experience for him and missing class would be totally different. You could do so much to keep him engaged with the class and his classmates.
Remember Carrie - the teacher who we responded to her students' blogs? She was sick on day and had to stay home from school, but there was something that she really needed to talk with her students about or give certain directions. So, what did she do? She Skyped into her classroom for a few minutes that day, so she got to see and talk to her students. That's online learning and a great example for elementary classrooms! Just think of the possibilities!