Plan and Organize
Whether in a traditional classroom, or an online one, organization and thoughtful planning is key to creating a positive learning experience. Learning Management Systems (LMS) can offer an online instructor ways to organize the classes they teach. Most systems provide a secured sign in for students, class dashboard, calendar, notices, chat functions, and grade and assignment tracking. There is usually support for uploading of assignments, images, presentation or video as well. Below are three sample systems to consider if you are starting your own blended learning environment.
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Learning online is a shared experience. Students are avid users of social media and are familiar with all kinds of apps that help them carry on conversations, create profiles, watch and create video, share recipes and so much more. They need to learn skills that will help them safely navigate the World Wide Web. Below you will find some educational sites that can help in the lesson planning process as you prepare learners for the 21st century.
Moodle is open source, a favorite among Universities on a tight budget. There is a community of users that can help to answer any questions that may come up. A very thorough introduction is provided where you can tour a classroom as either a teacher, parent, or student. This way you can see how the program works from all sides. Moodle has been around for a long time so there have been upgrades and improvements.
Edmodo is a secure Management system that now has millions of users. Students are given a password to access their pages. In the site, students can use the wiki for online class discussion, or email the teacher directly if there is a questions. Quizzes can be created online, and results read immediately. Question order can be shuffled to keep students on their toes.
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If you are just beginning to use tech tools and thinking about blended learning, Google products are a good way to start. Google Drive, Forms, Docs, Slides, and Sheets are all available to an average user. These can be utilized for presentations, documenting progress, an create surveys and quizzes. Google classroom allows a teacher to populate their site with student lists, and keep students and parents informed of their progress by sending results through a secure email process.
TES Teach has many members who upload their lessons on this site. It is a library of interactive lessons and presentations. Sign up to discover lesson already made that you can use or tweak to create your own.
Go to TeachHub for lesson plan ideas. There are many free lessons and teaching tools on this site.
YouTube is another resource for lesson planning. Teachers can access videos that cover a broad range of information presented in a format that keeps students interested in the lesson. Common Sense Education has a few videos on digital citizenship that are excellent lessons for elementary and high school students alike.