Are you ready to jump into elearning? WE ARE! At our local high school, we have begun building a self paced online learning environment.
As mentioned previously, we are using Edu 2.0 as our LMS platform. Where are we receiving direction? I’m glad you asked! If you have ever thought of jumping into elearning, below are some must have resources. Best of all, they are FREE.
Why are we traveling this adventure? OUR STUDENTS;) Even though we are currently running a “rough pilot” of what we will officially begin next year, there have been numerous successes. In fact my next post will be on just that…student success!
Have you been called to a meeting just to learn of a new project so vast it will take years to complete? In the back of your mind, you know a quick exit is in order, but you stay. Why? You know kids will be reached. You see the big picture. Most importantly, your brain has already etched pictures of students needing this opportunity.
What is the project? A self paced eLearning opportunity for students. Before you start to chuckle to your self, yes, I realize the astronomical amount of work ahead. Unfortunately, so do my two colleagues also called to the meeting and they both have one foot out the door. I too was standing on the threshold needing to get a better grasp of the project and more importantly make sure we are on the same page with administration.
Our principal’s directions were pretty broad which gave us lots of room for “out of the box” thinking and creating. Basically, she wanted a self paced academy for students at risk of dropping out. Seat time has been waived by the state of Louisiana, student schedules would be flexible, and a strong career component was needed. Oh, and she wanted it to begin in a little over a month with a few students.
My colleagues (and friends), Caroline Croad and Ashley Hooter, and myself began to brainstorm over the next few days to discover how this would look for our students. This was followed by general research to present back to administration to ensure we are all on the same page prior to moving forward.
What was our general rough sketch?
Start small and double in size each year until reach max
Full running program will take at least three years due to non funding and approximately 200 hours needed to create each course
Change student focus group from only at-risk to a variety including TOPS and early graduation needs at an approximate 50% ratio between at-risk and non at-risk students
Courses offered based on Career Diploma and TOPS/Core 4
Interactive elearning format addressing higher order thinking skills not just software based
Integrate PBL possibly through a cross curricular project per semester
Existing credit recovery software, A+ would be a supplement while we are developing courses, but they would have resources available via LMS.
Career component will be a key component
We didn’t take a quick exit. In fact, we are pretty excited about the possibilities. This gives you only a brief look into our project, but we will update regularly.
Do you have any tips or ideas? We would love to hear them!
My addiction to High School Reform began many years ago when my then principal, Mr. Morris Busby, purchased the SRN study kit. Nowadays you can find thousands of resources focused on High School Reform from around the world. But most include at least one of the following:
Data driven
Small schools (or school within schools) with around 200 students
Personalization
Rigor
Relevance
Establishment and regular integration of stakeholders
My first large scale high school reform project was the creation of a Freshman Academy which was the vision of my current principal. After a field trip to Zachary Freshman Academy, a group of us knew this was for our school. We started planning immediately, literally on the car ride back home. Several months of planning passed including data analysis, research, and too many meetings to count. Though some key planned elements weren’t able to be integrated, the first two years were filled with success:
82% promotion rate to 10th grade (baseline)
92% promotion rate to 10th grade
93% promotion rate to 10th grade
My key involvement ended at this time. Unfortunately numerous elements changed school-wide and items were still not integrated during the third year, and we were back to where we started data wise (actually worse). Three constants still remain dedicated teachers, 1:1 technology integration, and the belief that a fully integrated academy would work. Hopefully when our first Freshman Academy students graduated next year, we will be able to revisit the original plan and fully implement. The proof is in the numbers;)
What does the Freshman Academy need? Honestly just some of the basic components: location back on their own wing, class size around 22, scheduling where core teachers share same students (two “teams”), and HEAT, Help Eliminate Academic Tardies (for students not completing work).
So how am I currently feeding my reform addiction? Well, I’m a computer education teacher. If you were currently looking for a US public high school without internet access, it might be a case for Sherlock Holmes. Yet in 1994 only 35 percent of all public school had internet access. Likewise elearning is starting to become a staple in higher education facilities. How long before the same is true in high schools around the world?
Well, that time is now for Minden High School. We are currently creating an online academy. It is set up as a “school within a school” so we never plan to enroll over around 200, but are starting slow with ten students. Stay turn for a walk through on this experience! Do you have any experience with elearning? If so, what tips do you have?
Techie Tuesday is coming to you a day early, because I’ll be spending the rest of the week at the lake. It is my second favorite place to relax; the beach is number one!
Google is so much more than a search engine! There are numerous tools you could use daily, some of which will save you time. A gmail account IS NOT required for a Google account. You can register with Google using any email address!
If Google is one of your favorite search engines, you have probably been to the site numerous times, but have you looked at more than the search engine? Though we wont cover ALL things Google, look along the top bar and follow the “more” and then “even more” link. WOW and this list doesn’t even touch all the tools in the lab!
The Advanced Search option can tremendously cut down flipping through pages of Google results. When I search “digital citizenship,” I get over 1.5 million results, but I’m actually looking for a PowerPoint. By using the advanced feature, I can just view the PowerPoint files, and I quickly get my list narrowed down to less than 1000. Believe it or not, I can narrow it down further by only looking at .edu domains. Now I have right at 100 results!
Google Books is basically a huge source to preview books/magazines or even access full books/magazines. When you search for a topic, you will get the results similar to a typical Google Search. On the left nav bar you can limit your findings such as Full View and time period! Do a sample search and see what you find! Would you believe there are over 10,000 free full view algebra books on Google Books? I could take up a small manuscript with ways to incorporate this into your classroom, so I better stop here;)
iGoogle is our next stop! take a look at the introduction video.
How is your Voice? Do you have friends trying to track you down on different phone numbers between home, work, and your cell? How about annoying phone calls that you answer on accident?Google Voice is now open for everyone for free (other than international calls)!
Scholar is a great option to search for professional articles. One of the best features is the advanced search in which you can really narrow down your results. Most of these articles are free and you can even sign up for an email alert when new items are added on your search topic.
I searched what would be a relatively new topic, “iPads in the Classroom” and still found over 400 results. When searching “IPads in Education,” there were over 10,000 results. This is a very powerful tool that most of us would have loved when writing research papers.
Most of you have heard of blogging, but what about glogging? Glogster is a fun way of easily making a poster with the ability to embed images, music, and videos. Many teachers assign topic related projects such as posters, essays, and PowerPoints. Instead, why not give students the option of Glogging? Teachers are even using it as a presentation tool (follow the two links for examples).
In my multimedia class, we have been studying the use of iTouch/iPhone in education. This week they used web 2.0 tools to present some of their findings. Several students opted to present using a glog. Here are a few examples for their “mini project”:
The above student examples are actually their first attempt at using Glogster. Creating your first glog is pretty easy. Just make sure to create an account first or it will be hard to find what you created! Jazz up your next class project with Glogster!
What tools do you use to jazz up your projects or presentations?
