The Navigate class has prepared me to effectively teach online by giving me the tools I need to use the LMS properly. In Navigate 1 I learned the difference between asynchronous and synchronous learning. I think that for online learning to be effective there needs to be a blend between both trypes of learning. Students benefit from having rich discussions with other peers and the teacher. Students also benefit from having resources that they can use on their own time and at their own pace. My first experience with synchronous learning was a little bit of a challenge. I had to start over quite a few times but I finally got the hang of it . I think the more that I use synchronous learning the easier it will become. The asynchronous learning challenge with the screen capture was not as challenging, I also think that the more that I do the screen capture the better I will become at it. In Navigate 2, I learned about different learning management systems and roles within the system. I learned about what roles the teacher plays within the system. Teachers are to manage the classroom and students, facilitate instruction, communicate with students and administrators, and manage final grades. I also learned how to decide on an effective lms and which tools are needed for the lms to run effectively. I chose the D2L Brightspace as my top lms. I also looked at different trends that seem to be changing online education. The top trend that I chose the most important was personalization. Today's students need individualized instruction along with voice and choice to keep them engaged in the class. Personalization is also important tool in helping the strugggling student to succeed. In Navigate 3, I learned about different tools and reports that are embedded into an lms. These tools are crucial to the lms and need to be user friendly for the teacher and student. Tools include email, discussion boards, course content, assessments, dropbox, gradebook, ePortfolio and class calendars. The last thing that I have learned from this class is how to upload content into a lms. I learned that it is easier in some learning management systems than others. In the Schoology system, all I had to do to upload the content was follow the directions and it uploaded it to the platform for me. This is useful when you need to add more content to the existing platform. In conclusion, I think I learned the most from making the synchronous lesson and the screen capture. It gave me practice on recording myself and how to hold a live session. I know that I can use this information in my teaching.
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Click the link below to see my course. app.schoology.com/web/1027154142/view?path=index.html For this task I ended up using schoology for my learning system. For schoology, you go to the courses tab and click on the create button. You add the course name, subject and intended grade level. Then you click on add materials. To upload the content from the class you select upload web content and attach file. Once the file downloaded, you hit submit file and it was added as a course. You then get a student access code for students to be able to join the class. It was fairly simple on schoology. I tried to upload the material onto the D2L Brightspace to compare the two learning mangement systems. D2L Brightspace would not recognize the files and not upload them. I was surprised that it was harder than schoology as everything else from there has been pretty simple.
The D2L Brightspace has some different levels of reporting. They have a gradebook where teachers can enter grades and assess overall student performance. It has a student success system where it uses predictive analysis and visual diagnostics to pinpoint areas of weakness for students before it is too late. It also has week by week trend indicators for the class to help teachers to modify the delivery of the material if needed. Data can be analyzed in real time giving the teacher faster feedback and more time to modify the instruction.
There are several tools that are important for a lms to run effectively. One of the most important tool is the course content. You can not have a lms without the content of the class. Another tool that makes the lms effective is built in assessments and rubrics. Having a gradebook embedded into the lms makes it convenient and easier for the teacher to give feedback to the student. Email and discussion boards are also important for the lms. Teachers and students need a form of communication in order for the class to run smoothly. Having a dropbox or ePortfolio is important also for the student to be able to turn in assignments. All of these work to gether to form an effective online classroom for both the teacher and the students.
The trend that I see being a big impact on online learning in the next few years is the personalized learning. Personalized learning has become a big topic in the education world altogether as we do not live in a cookie cutter world anymore. Students are needing a more individualized approach when it comes to education. Even in the online schools the learning management system needs to be personalized to meet the specific students needs. Giving the student some voice and choice and letting them take ownership of their learning will keep them egaged in the class. Personalized learning also will benefit the struggling students as the teacher can add more widgets and tools to help the student become more successful. I can see that the online learning community will be greatly impacted by this trend in the near future. I believe that it will increase the effectiveness of the online learning in the long run.
I am choosing the D2L Brightspace for my favorite learning management system. From researching this resource it has alot to offer the teacher and the students, It is also the easiest one of the resources to navigate. It has alot of the tools that the teacher and students would need to be successful. For the teacher it has email, gradebook, video, content just to name a few. It can be personalized for any learner in today's classroom. It looks like it would be easy to implement for adminstrators and it would not take enormous amounts of training for teachers. The only downside that I can see is that there is a cost to use D2L where the open source learning management systems are free. I feel that the D2L is a better system regardless of the price and would be a better fit for students and teachers.
Screen Capture can be very useful in today's classrooms. Teachers can record themselves teaching a lesson. This opens up the door for students to go back and rewatch the videos whenever they need to. They can pause the video and work the problem or rewind the video if they need to. In an online class, this is benefical for students especially in a math class to see the material being taught. Students can see problems being worked as the teacher explains the material. Students who are absent in a traditional classroom can watch the videos and still get the instruction they missed. I can see screen capture becoming more popular with traditional education in the future.
I chose to use the BigBlueButton application for the synchronous vendor. It really looked like it was going to be easier for me to navigate and it is mainly for educational purposes. It was a little difficult for me at first. I think it was because I was on the demo. It took me several trys before I could get the hang of how the different tools worked. When I was finished, I wasn't sure it was going to save the recording because I was on the demo version. I finally got the recording to save. I think that the more I practice with BigBlueButton the more I would like it. Synchronous learning is beneficial to students because it gives the students feedback and discussions in real time. Students can ask questions and get feedback to those questions instantly and also the class can hold rich discussions of the material. For my recorded session click the link below.
demo.bigbluebutton.org/playback/presentation/0.9.0/playback.html?meetingId=643a2e2c26e16a238061b095f6d4306f044d329f-1490744908465 There are pros and cons to both commercial and open source software. In the commercial software the administrator will get technical support and new updates when available. The main obstacle when dealing with commercial software is that there usually is a cost for using the software. The cost of the open source software is usually free for users which is a definite strength. The main weakness of the open source software is that they usually do not have technical support leaving the user to have to provide their own. When choosing between commercial and open source software, you must first look at your overall budget. You also need to consider how much technical support you will need.
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