You might be wondering if we ever interact with our students beyond email messages. Well, yes, as a matter of fact. I hold live classes for my students each week. In fact, I conduct a few during the day and one in the evening to give the students that work during the day, or have conflicting schedules, a chance to meet as well.
I can talk to the students and they can hear me. They can talk to me, too. We can text chat as well during the session. I can show them pictures to help illustrate key points. I can post several different kind of questions to guage their understanding of various concepts as well as to get an opinion on important matters. I can play music, I can open up additional browsers for students to review as well as video clips. Teachers at our school will eventually utilize webcams attached to our computer to make yet another visible connection. At this time, students do not have this capability. However, with advent of laptops with built in cameras, we probably will be experiencing something comparable to a face to face video conference in the not so distant future.
For our purposes, nothing beats the meeting in gymnasiums but this is a start and chance for students to connect a little with each other and the teacher. We have been experiencing great live class attendance this year. It is a start and we see things getting better.
1 comment:
It seems like you are having great success. As fast as technology advances, I'm sure the cameras will be a common addition for your program. We have begun using this process to communicate with teachers throughout the building in our school. We don't have phones in the classrooms, so they've added Skype as a communication tool. We have the same issue as our new laptops don't have built in cameras, so we just use the microphone. This has been especially beneficial for the PE department since I've been using my cell phone to communicate with teachers on the other side of the school.
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