Don't Worry Be Happy

Once my response to the comment below got longer than most posts I decided a new post was in order. I guess the difference is between communicating one-to-one or one-to-many (typical class) so the form of communication takes on various slants. One-to-many Keeping the focus in an online class - this is a learned skill (learned by me that is) similar to in a classroom. How do you keep the students engaged? Using Elluminate I incorporate the following: -frequent opportunities for the students to respond (e.g. type your answer in the chat box to this question OR click the green check if you agree with the previous student's response - these are built into the online classroom environment). Don't go longer than a minute or so without having the students respond in some way. -opportunities for the students to interact - I'll put them in breakout rooms to answer a question as a group) -good visuals - no one wants to stare at a blank screen or a 'talking head' video. -usi...

As a classroom teacher I rarely gave any thought to the forms of communication I'd use with my students. Lots of thought to WHAT I was communicating but little about HOW. As an online teacher, communicating with students is really job one. Not much actually counts or makes much sense if you can't communicate effectively. Fortunately there are many more ways to communicate as an online teacher than there are in the classroom where I used only one (F2F). Here are the different ways I communicate starting with the MOST effective. F2F - You just can't improve on face to face communication. Body language, facial expression, and intonation are what we're wired for. Elluminate - the online classroom: text, audio, visuals, video, etc. Elluminate is how I conduct my online classes as well as meet students for a variety of reasons. Phone - Highly effective; rarely used as a 'regular' teacher. Email - Great for one way communication; well it could be 2-way but ...

Here's more photos you can browse through. (Preferable at report card time as a task-avoidance technique) http://www.flickr.com/photos/lhadfield