Thing 19 - Virual Classroom

Plan for extending the classroom:
I am currently using blogging and sharepoint on a regular basis in my classroom and the students are using this on a regular basis (1300 hits since early October). I plan to continue using this, but am considering going to a more wiki heavy delivery so its easier for me to organize.

I am currently in the process of evaluating dimdim with a math colleague of mine and we are piloting this to see if it might be a worthwhile thing for us to invest in. Those of us more tech savvy individuals are also talking about (with our administrators) setting up some classes through teleconferencing and using a hybrid concept (similar to this class) for some elective courses. I am one of the people helping with this.

I am also planning on taking the moodle course by the end of the summer so I can start using a true learning management system for my classroom. The same colleague I referred to above uses this and I'm intrigued to do so as well. Due to my various commitments in my district, I am absent often for this meeting and that meeting, so having a learning management system would decrease the need for me to assign obligatory busy work on days when I am gone.

Extending my classroom will increase the availability of the resources in my classroom outside of the walls of my school which is a big step ahead of where I am now. Using this style of learning will help make it easier for every student to fulfill the MDE requirement of an online course requirement without it having to be a traditional computers class.

What is necessary to be successful as an online student:
Based on my visiting of the Navigating the Land of Online Learning, I feel a student needs to have the following skills to be successful in an online learning environment:

• Highly productive w/out the need of somebody continuously "thumbing" you (self motivated)
• Ability to both learn collaboratively & independently
• Ability to communicate through written medium in a clear, unemotional manner
• Ability to take responsibility for ones own actions and learning
• Patience
• Ability to use reading strategies to learn material printed online