elearning Tips

     

     

     It is hard to believe that fall break is already over!  Before we know it, the first semester will be coming to a close.  As second semester begins and bad weather arises, eLearning days could be a possibility. In general, an eLearning lesson has four components:  at least one objective, a period of instruction, time for students to engage in a learning activity, and time to check for understanding.  It is important to remember that these items could change depending on where the learning left off in class, and the lesson should fit into the amount of time that is normally allotted for that class.  Remember, a good lesson is a good lesson.  We wouldn’t have students sit in a classroom for hours upon hours working on worksheets.  So, we wouldn’t do it on an eLearning day, either.  On an eLearning day, technology can allow students to participate in class discussions, watch instructional videos and tutorials, communicate with their teachers, and create presentations, eBooks, blogs, iMovies, and more. Here are a few tips that may help you and your students get ready for these days.

1. Start using your Learning Management System (eBackpack, MBC, iTunes U, etc.) routinely, even if it is just for a couple things you do each day.  The more students are used to using the tool, the less likely they will encounter problems they can’t solve on an eLearning day.
2. Give students opportunities to use the Learning Management system at home.  This way, they can see if they have any problems accessing materials.  Even if students are always successful when using the LMS at school, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will be successful at home.  Sometimes families have wifi security settings that prevent eBackpack and other tools from working properly.  It will be important to have multiple opportunities to try things at home before an eLearning day happens.  If a problem with wifi can’t be fixed, students will need to get into the habit of taking items offline (using the wrench icon in eBackpack) or opening them in other apps such as Notability or iMovie, so that the materials will be available without wifi access.
3. Start using the other tools you envision utilizing on an eLearning day now.  For example, if you plan to have students use Shadow Puppet, Book Creator, Discovery Education, iMovie, Padlet, KidBlog, Socrative, etc.  on an eLearning day, they need to practice in class and at home now.  If you’d like to use the discussions feature in eBackpack on an eLearning day, it might be nice to try that out now, too.  Remember, you have to enable the member commenting feature in your class settings in eBackpack in order for this to work.  
4. Practice putting together a lesson in your Learning Management system.  If you envision using a video or white board tutorial to teach a lesson, start working with the tools a little now, so they don’t hold you back and slow you down when you are ready to put together an eLearning lesson.  Putting materials such as PDF’s in eBackpack is a slightly different experience than building a lesson there.  So, it will be good to try out all the things you’d like to do prior to the first eLearning day.  It will also be good practice for the students to see what a full eLearning lesson might look like before that first snow day!
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help (no matter where you are in this process).  Just give me a call (7172) or send an email!  I’ll be happy to help you put together some digital content and tools!