What technologies can I use to help my students? That is a tough question. Not all of my students have access to the same resources. They only thing they have consistent access to is basic school supplies. Now if I imagine what it is like to teach online and know that my students have access to a computer and internet, then I can make some better choices.
Edmodo is one of my favorite online sources for teaching and learning. I think I would give Wikispaces a chance for cooperative learning groups. Between these two I think I could successfully teach History. The best part about teaching History is that most of the primary sources that you need can be found from the Library of Congress.
The pedagogical strategies that I would use are:
- COIL: Checklist for Online Interactive Learning. I would create a checklist to help keep everyone involved on track.
- Webquests and cooperative learning groups
- Google Hangouts
- Video and Text instructions
What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students/peers? Why?
Technologies that require me to be online or logged in to the work that they are working on could be harder for me to use. It can be quite hard to find a time that everyone can work and I'd hate to have to stay logged into something all day just to make sure something is done. I like freedom and flexibility to work with structure to help guide learning. My perspective of online learning is that it is or can be mostly student led. Anything that is too focused on teacher involvement is too teacher centered for online learning.
I'm using Edmodo with my students for the 2nd year. This year has been a little frustrating though. Most of my students sign in and check their grades, but the parents haven't been using it as much as I would like to see. One parent even asked me to email the files to them, even though they like the "idea" of having everything available on Edmodo, they use their email more. Online teaching/learning is definitely different - it is much more time intensive for the instructor and the students must have solid time management skills, along with enjoying self-directed learning. Thanks to sharing ~ Susan
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