As the semester began with EC&I 831 I was unsure of what to do for a major digital project but as the weeks went on and my knowledge was rapidly expanding I continued to shape what I wanted to do. Near the end of September I had decided on flipping my classroom. Initially my struggles were in the start up. Trying to find a site that would fit my personal and classroom needs. After searching a variety of online sites I found many were unusable for me. I had asked Alec for his opinion and he led me to Edmodo. This is where my journey truly began.
My greatest fear was that my students may not be able to become independent learners through technology, the major hurdle would be the amount of online tomfoolery might be to distracting and disengaging for most if not all my students. On the other hand I was very hopeful that flipping my classroom would end up being a saving grace and I would reach those poor attenders and previously disengaged students... Oops not quite how it worked out. If this project has taught me one thing it is that one idea is never enough. So by early November I had emailed Alec and Katia to say that I had basically failed at the idea of a Flipped Classroom, but instead I had morphed it into a blended classroom. I was a little worried about what the response was going to be as I had/have this notion that something like this might affect my mark! Katia replied and simply put my worries at ease by letting me know that truly they are the same and what works for me, works for me as long as I am moving forward keep going. (Thanks Katia)
As the semester was moving I was sharing my experiences with my wife (who is a teacher) and my friends/colleagues in my school and around my division. This then led to group of teachers sharing information and having two other grade 7/8 teachers jumping on my bandwagon. We have tried to create a collaboration part where we can post an assignment and then we can all use it, but at this point we are unable to do so effectively. What we have to do is become co-teachers in all our classes and that brings up the issue of having all the notifications from every student not just our own. Through more research and emails with Edmodo I have found a solution to this. I have sent requests to Edmodo to become a subdomain administrator so I can set up a "School" where we can migrate through each others classes and utilize each others resources without being a "co-teacher".
Here are a few of the sites that I have attempted to utilize within my online classroom and how they have worked for me and what I plan on doing to continue or change my use of each tool.
Google Drive
As part of my collaboration throughout this project I wanted to increase the capability of student collaboration within my online classroom. Katia suggested that I utilize a Google Drive document for the students to work in. I have attempted this a couple of different times and when I have a strong group who is willing to work this is fantastic. On the other side I have some immature students who have gone in and deleted their groups work after school and I do not see until the next day which is more of an annoyance than anything, but since I do not have my students set up with their own Google Drive accounts I am unable to see who is doing what to the documents. So until I have the Google IGo accounts set up I will stray away from this resource sharing tool.
Prezi -
We have used Prezi as a different collaboration tool for our students to create presentations with within the Edmodo online class. Some of these have worked out fantastic and the work done by my grade 8 students was amazing in my perspective. I have already began to create my next collaboration/inquiry project for my students with the idea of Prezi being the mode of communication.
Evernote - This site is one that we will utilize in the near future as the students begin to develop their online learning library and we begin letting them explore a little more on their own now that their procedures are in place for what they are required and how they are to act as a good digital citizen during the school day.
My biggest SUCCESS(es)!
I would have to say that the best thing about the blended classroom that I have now developed is the amount of participation and engagement from my students. Prior to I would have about a 50% completion rate with about 50% of those coming in a week after a due date. The accountability that this has given each and every student is amazing. They are able to check their progress, their parents can check on them daily as well. During our parent teacher interviews the conversation around our blended classroom was all about how the parents enjoyed being able to see exactly what their child was doing in school. Apparently all pre-teens tell their parents is "we didn't do anything in school".... Now the parents can go online and see what they have done and make sure they are getting things handed in.
Another joy about this is the ease of communication and feedback between learner and teacher. I have been able to interact with each and every student each and every lesson. Even if it is a quick little note telling them their work was done properly and I was proud of them for completing it so quickly. Or on the other side when the student completely misses the point I am able to send them a private message to show them that I am here to help and they can ask me via message or come talk to me so we can figure things out.
Lastly the other amazing aspect of our blended classroom that I have received a tonne of feedback about is the posting of the teachings. Especially in math. So many parents admit their weaknesses in school and they are open about how they feel helpless when it comes to supporting and assisting their child. So they are very happy and excited that I am posting recordings of how to do different tasks so they can learn with their child and help them through the tough classes.
If you would like to take the time to watch my screencast about my blended classroom please watch it below.
Kyle - what a fantastic start! This makes me wish again I had a classroom to work with. In particular I was interested in how your less engaged students are handling the shift to technology - as this is what we are led to believe will be a more inclusive process for all, but in reality the kids who struggle to engage are typically the same regardless of the medium. I do hope you stick with it. You made what the process may look like so much more clear to me. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the thoughts. I have found that the less engaged are more engaged, not completely all the time but certainly a big improvement
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