Non-LMS technology tool kit When creating a course on a LMS, there are many options available to choose from. This activity has helped me to examine a variety of non-LMS tools to determine how I will utilize them either in place of or simultaneously with a LMS. Because our district is embracing Google Classroom, I have spent a lot of time researching tools that would support it. I now understand where the term “Google Everything” comes from. Although I would not want to limit myself to only Google, I can see the possibility. I have chosen to come up with a diverse toolkit with level appropriateness as I do not know where and to whom I may be teaching in the future. I also found that although I have sorted tools into three categories, there are aspects of community, assessment, and interactivity that connect them all.
How will you build community and inspire discourse? As one of my foundational learning philosophies is building connections and relationships, the type of tools I chose support and create space to encourage active participation between students and teachers. Having the teacher accessible and interactive either synchronously or asynchronously is a valuable approach I would utilize. A major part of community building for me has been inspired through discourse. My toolkit choices targeting this are based on my experience so far. For older students my first preference is Google+ Community. What I like about Google+ is the ability to keep a group private and monitor the dialogue. It is easy to create and access from any computer and there is an option to turn off notifications if they become too much. There is opportunity for learning, mentoring, and reflection and it can be done at the student's own time and pace. I like both Zoom and Collaborate for synchronous meetings. One of the major differences I have found is that Collaborate only allows one user video at a time; whereas, Zoom provides the capability to see each person. I think synchronous classes are an essential ingredient in building community. Being able to see body/face language instantly encourages verbal participation and feelings of connectedness. Some of the options I appreciate from both are the ability to create breakout rooms, work as a group on a blackboard, poll, and webshare. I have found Twitter to be a fast and easy way to reflect and communicate ideas for a range of ages. Used effectively, Twitter can show a quick glimpse into where the students are in their thinking process. My last community building tools are Screencast-o-matic and Jing. Some of the ways I would use this tool would be to record a welcome video, directions for assignments and for feedback. It could be used effectively by students to demonstrate learning both individually and collaboratively. For some students, being able to see the instructor significantly strengthens the student-teacher connection and creates the feeling of being part of a classroom. For visual learners, being able to take a screenshot to accompany an explanation is a valuable strategy. How will you handle assessment as, for and of learning? I believe assessment as a collaborative process involving teachers and students creates the most success. Assessment as learning occurs when it is a formative process performed throughout the year and on an individual basis providing students with information they can use to reflect and create an action plan. Self-assessment, peer assessment, reflection and goal planning are also important components for student achievement. E-portfolios are also an essential part of the student learning process to display student’s history of work and learning experiences in a structured way. I like what I have heard about FreshGrade, and think it might be an effective assessment and communication tool for the classroom. The option of using it as an ePortfolio for students to collect work samples and demonstrate to parents their child’s progress would be very useful. It has included preprogrammed PLO’s for reference, with a gradebook and progress tracker. Building collaborative relationships with parents is vital and the ability to send audio and video links of what is happening in the classroom would be beneficial. They also receive announcements and notification when work is not complete, is missing or corrections are needed. My concern is it not fitting in with the our current evaluating system and it causing more work at report card time. My other choice would be Google classroom as that is the direction our district is going. Although I have not used it, the video describes it as a virtual classroom that allows students to submit work to be reviewed, corrected, assessed, and graded; although, it does not have a gradebook. I like the option for building student success and learning through providing feedback, correcting and resubmitting work. Google classrooms is set up as a place to create a course, send announcements, participate in discussions and includes a calendar of due dates. Students can also create an ePortfolio. The active calendar offers usable features such as instant upgrades to changes, colour coding for organization and personalizing options. Google Classroom does require outside links to set up activities, take enrollment, track student progress, create content, set up discussion boards and quizzes. How will you provide content, interactivity with content, and organization? There are a number of factors I would take into consideration when choosing how to organize and create interaction with content to ensure it is a safe environment, user friendly and is inclusive of different learning styles. Careful thought would be put into making sure the site has the ability to display an inviting home page and is easy to navigate both inside and out to external links for lessons. I would like the option to link to a calendar, be able to give announcements and have discussions. As our district is currently piloting Google chromebooks, I have chosen to detail a plan using Google Classroom. The students simply require a teacher created login and password to get started. Functions such as an 8 minute start up time, an 8 hour battery life, and no required updates makes it an appealing choice for elementary students. Chromebooks describe student safety as a built-in walled domain that cannot be accessed by anyone outside. It is still important to be cognizant of how to make sure the privacy settings on the Chromebook are correctly configured. There are a variety of Chrome Web-Store Apps to download with the option of offline use. Although students can store their files on the chromebook, a more convenient place would be Google drive. Saving work in the cloud allows it to be accessible at home as well. Google drive provides storage, content organizers and file sharing. It would be an easy way to collect student work in organized files to assess and give feedback. My choice for lesson creation is Google docs which also allows for collaborative work. The ability of selecting who to share work with is a useful option. I also like the idea of creating the doc during class, which is automatically shared with the teacher and does not require submission. I would use Google forms for creating quizzes and collecting information for pre-evaluation, formative assessment and feedback. The choice to produce a spreadsheet with the data would be handy. Depending on the grade level I am teaching, I would use Google draw, Google Slides and Google Voice to create collaborative and interactive lessons. I also like the options of Weebly as a central location to house content and organize material. I find it fun, easy to use and navigate. I like the idea of being able to create one website and give out passwords and for older students to be able to create their own sites. Some of the useful features are the collaborative choice to assign multiple creators, the survey option and the blog page to reflect, share learning and make comments. They also have a fantastic help desk. Concluding thoughts The above tools are only a starting point to help strengthen the teacher, social and cognitive presence of the courses I teach. If I was to begin teaching a new online or blended course I would choose an LMS and add some of the above mentioned tools. If I am teaching in the Nanamo district, I would embrace Google classroom and Chromebook. I like the flexibility of building a landing page and organizing a course, but then creating a digital toolbox to use in conjunction with it. As I am quite new to this field, I look forward to experimenting with new tools and adding them to my list in the future. |
AuthorK-7 Coordinator in SD68. Archives
January 2017
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