We all know the drill... The news predicts a snow storm and we patiently wait to see if we get a snow day!!! Once it becomes official we are overjoyed until sometime in spring when our scheduled days off begin to be taken away. As technology becomes more and more advanced we see University Professors turning to such things as Facebook, Podcasting, Wikispaces, and Web classrooms to continue the progress in their syllabus without losing time and adding a certain crammed feeling to their students. According to a article by USA Today's Mary Beth Marklein, a Chicago professor was able to continue his anthropology class uninterrupted despite over twenty inches of snow through YouTube videos of his lectures and e-mail communications of assignments and discussion points. Skype has been used with more frequency during times of sickness of students and with the current snow totals teachers are adapting this also for "snow day classes." With the tight time frames we all deal with as testing approaches, can we as teachers really afford losing time to the snow? Through my experience, online classrooms work extremely well and can connect teachers and students over long distances or during times of lost class days. I understand the cost of all this and reliability issues that come up when talking about technology but soon enough I fully expect to see this enter mainstream classrooms. Ps. it is important to keep in mind that as of now these programs are FREE!!!
Thanks to Moodle, Cyber school students can attend recorded or live classes, snow or no snow.
ReplyDeleteI also like the idea of being able to find time to have "online office hours" as a way to meet with students outside of the school day. It might be for only one hour a week per subject, but I believe that the kids would gravitate towards something like this.
ReplyDelete