Using online communities to foster collaboration in visual arts (K-12) Video Lecture | Teach Online: A Comprehensive Approach for Teaching Online - Professional Skills

my name is Jessica McCarthy and I teach
at mosman high school and I've been
using online technologies probably for
the last five or six years I teach years
seven to twelve with varying numbers of
students in each class is seven has
approximately twenty students per class
on the other end of the scale when I get
to you 12 I have up to 30 in a class so
it's all different and they all have
different connections to devices I let
students choose whatever software they
want to use so the main platform the LMS
that we use is called Edmodo which is an
American website but it's free to use
and it's built for education so they
listen to teachers and it's Anna great
it's a great platform the interface
actually looks quite a lot like Facebook
so it's like an online social network
and kids can post notes up images
actually any file type is accessible on
Edmodo which is fantastic your level of
ability to use Edmodo could be like
three out of ten the teacher doesn't
have to do anything because the student
can drive it the student will know
instantly what to do teachers probably
need confidence in loading up files but
if they have a lot of online tutorials
as well so it's really easy to use you
can post links so any website links that
you want and then there's the option to
post things from your library and your
library is your own Bank of resources
that sits within Edmodo the library for
students is known as the backpack which
is online storage for students along the
side you see that you have a range of
your groups so as a teacher you can
create or join a group so when you
create a group you can create a group
for any of your classes you give it any
name that you would like so if I want
call one make one called visual arts you
select what your group you're teaching
you can select your subject area and
once you create it you can tell them how
many kids you think you're going to be
in it a brief description
and then you get this group code that
code is unique to that group so you give
it that to students and then it gives
them access to that group that becomes
your classroom space and you can do
anything that you want in that new group
that you've created the other cool thing
that I really like another good function
on Edmodo is the assignment function so
you can assign assignments to students
so any information that you need it's
like riding a normal assessment task you
can load previous assignments if you
have them if you've given them and you
give the same task every year so I might
choose that one and so then everything
that I've written previously comes up on
to that assignment including the
previous documents that I've loaded into
that assignment as I said any file
format can be uploaded so it's really
great you post a due date and you make
sure you've selected the group to send
it to and then you send it to that group
so when students have it turned in
assignments I can go into that group and
you can see which students have turned
in assignments in which students haven't
and you can grade them in that space
my pre-flight checklist is not worried
about it that's definitely a start
second thing is just go with the flow
kids are really up and down when you're
in the classroom they don't always all
have a device so don't freak out that's
definitely the start like don't freak
out I think being prepared for things
not to work sorry I'm like it sounds
like so negative but I think you have to
put those to one side first and then be
willing to ask questions help kids
engage in a conversation with kids have
questions that you want to ask or have
resources that you want students to use
but then allow that to be built upon
like a brick wall that's building up you
won't be able to generate a selection of
resources through this online dialogue
problems and challenges that you can
face when using an online environment
particularly in a school is when the
internet doesn't work and some of the
problems are that students don't bring
their devices to class every lesson
sometimes they don't connect to the
internet anyway and they have problems
with their devices a lot of teachers
rely on students to fix each other's
problems and they usually can we have
tech support at our school and students
can be sent off to that tech support
I use online learning in my classroom as
a way to promote collaboration as a way
to move the focus for myself as the
teacher to the student as the learner so
they are actively using online
technologies while I'm in the classroom
at the same time it allows students who
don't have a student voice to have a
voice in the classroom and it creates a
bigger conversation much more research
much more interesting responses to
topics and it means we can extend our
understanding as a classroom as opposed
to me always holding all the knowledge
and so I've started this strategy in my
classroom where I enter into the
classroom and I tell every student to
get out their device and on the
whiteboard old school whiteboard I'll
write a series of three questions and
then they have to find those answers and
post them up online then I give them 15
20 minutes to do it it's a very
talkative period of time in the
classroom and I go around to all the
students and have face-to-face
conversations with them at the same time
while they post their answers online so
it is a physical classroom while having
online components and then once those
online components are all together I
project them up onto the smart board and
then we callate them together as a class
in a class brainstorm or like a
summative period where I then add in the
teacher directed learning so that they
have a definite conclusion drawn at the
end of that learning experience
the feedback from the students are
generally that they like it because even
if they're absent they're able to engage
in their learning some students are
absent for long periods of time they
don't feel like they're missing out on
anything students when they're having a
panic are able to still engage in a
dialogue they're still able to be a part
of that classroom I think that it means
that kids don't have to worry about that
extra layer of doing stuff for doing a
task so yeah some kids are still a bit
apprehensive about it but in general
they're all using social networks so
they really like that connectivity I
evaluated this platform through in case
increased student engagement students
were able to talk to me so not only can
I see it and I can mark it wherever I am
because I can carry my device anywhere I
go but it means that the kids can get
feedback from their peers as well if
they want to and it just increases the
conversation and moves the workspace
from being just in the classroom to
being anywhere that I want it to be
it's been so worth while it's so changed
my teaching to anyone who started to use
an online learning space just stick to
it I had a friend asked me how do you
get kids to constantly keep doing it and
I just stick to my guns I really believe
in it so I just keep going it may not
work every lesson and I don't think that
matters I think you always learn from
that failure so you just got to keep
sticking to it enjoy it just let loose
and have a good time see if it works you
might have one great lesson and one bad
lesson but take that one lesson and go
with it and try it again and then see if
that works another time
you