Answer: How has the Communicate module prepared you to meet each standard listed above? Please reference each standard by providing specific examples or links from your work in Communicate. Which strategies will you take away from the Communicate module and apply to your own teaching practices?  Which lessons were most beneficial for you?? Standard C:  The online teacher plans, designs, and incorporates strategies to encourage active learning, application, interaction, participation, and collaboration in the online environment. Standard D :   The online teacher promotes student success through clear expectations, prompt responses, and regular feedback. Standard E :  The online teacher models, guides, and encourages legal, ethical, and safe behavior related to technology use. Standard J:  The online teacher interacts in a professional, effective manner with colleagues, parents, and other members of the community to support students’ success. Stand...

Answer:  How do communication practices in the online environment correlate to effective feedback? Why is authentic feedback important for online learners? In what ways might an instructor enrich a student’s online experience through feedback? Continuous communication and effective feedback are both directly linked to student success, especially in an online environment. Students in a hybrid or online course often miss out on the informal forms of feedback that students would receive a traditional classroom: Q&A with the teacher, reading the teacher's body language and facial expressions during conversations, being able to engage in discussions. It's crucial that online instructors maintain open lines of communication and multiple means of communication to "pick up the slack" in these areas. Authentic feedback is important for online learners -- as it is for any learner -- because it gives them an idea of where they stand with regard to the standards or learni...

Create:  Utilizing one of the resources discussed in this lesson, create a rubric that integrates specific criteria for an assignment and also affords the instructor ample commentary on the student’s product. Make the rubric available in a post in your blog. Click to open my Nervous System Flowchart Rubric . The rubric found at the link here was created with inspiration from Karen Franker's   Rubric for Graphic Organizers - Inspiration Diagrams/Concept Maps,  available here . In my anatomy classes, students have been learning about the nervous system and its structural and functional divisions. Students will summarize their understanding of these various divisions and subdivisions by creating a flowchart. In a blended or online classroom, this would most likely be created using a tech tool for creating graphic organizers such as Popplet or Inspiration. In this traditional class though, students also have the option to complete the assignment on paper if they wish. ...

Create:  Using the examples above as a point of reference, create three original digital resources that could be utilized when evaluating student work. Then discuss in your blog how these resources would enhance the level of specific feedback offered to students. I'm currently in an online teaching endorsement program, and in one of our recent courses we have been learning about the importance of targeted feedback. (The artifacts shared here are some things I've recycled from submissions to my endorsement instructor). Candidates in the program have been taught that it is important that feedback must be aligned to the standards and learning objectives, timely, positive, and instructional. Lessons in the TOOL have been very closely aligned with what I've been learning in my endorsement program. One very interesting thing that I learned from Communicate 3, Lesson 1 is that there is an important difference in praise an encouragement. I know that I personally am "guilty...

Create:  Choose a standards-based area of study and create an assignment. Then create a method for assessing student work utilizing one of the mediums discussed in this lesson. Ensure the tool demonstrates an instructor’s employment of effective feedback. In a recent unit on evolution, students studied Charles Darwin and the various theories, experiences, and persons who shaped his explanation of evolution by natural selection. Students were then asked to create a product that summarizes their understanding of people and experiences that shaped Charles Darwin. Below I've outlined the details of the assignment, provided an example of a student submission, and an artifact showing my feedback to the student. STANDARDS: The Georgia Standards of Excellence for Biology that are assessed in this assignment are below: SB6. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to assess the theory of evolution. a. Construct an explanation of how new understandings of Earth’s history, the emerg...

Answer : What role or purpose do discussion forums serve in the online classroom and are they effective? How do discussion forums function as a teaching tool? How could they be used effectively and ineffectively? What are some best practices for facilitating forums online? As with a traditional classroom, online discussions are an essential part of learning because they foster collaboration and critical thinking, which are essential to students synthesizing information and deepening their understanding. They also function as formative assessments of students' learning that help teachers inform instructional decisions and practice. Online discussion forums are effective for these purposes if effectively implemented and used. In order for a discussion forum to be effective, the instructor must establish criteria for content, participation, and interaction, as well as stylistic/formatting conventions for the posts themselves. These must be clearly communicated and reinforced throug...

Answer: As an online instructor, how do you plan to incorporate news items and announcements? What resources would you reference to format news items? I plan to utilize news items and announcements to keep students and parents informed of upcoming due dates, synchronous sessions, and extra credit opportunities. I will likely use Creative Commons or public domain images that relate to the nature of the post to capture students' attention and generate interest. The image used below came from a quick search on Flickr . While I may change the format of my news items based on the nature of the post, I would keep items such as my bulletin board the same format for consistency and ease of use/navigation. Artifact: Create an example of a News Item and share the example in your blog. The image below is a news post I've shared today for an extra credit project I'm doing in my blended biology classroom. We are participating in #2018MMM (March Mammal Madness) as an engagin...

Reflect:  Consider the bulletin board examples in this lesson. Think about the variety of information shared in the bulletin board examples.  What information might you share as an online instructor through your classroom bulletin board? In my traditional classroom, bulletin boards would include a phenomenon to capture student interest in the unit of study, images related to the course content or current phenomenon,  upcoming due dates,   as well as student work and exemplars. A bulletin board in an online environment would include many of the same features: Links to supplemental unit resources Upcoming dates for projects and assessments Tips for technology tools utilized in the unit Information about synchronous sessions Contact information I believe the overall layout and type of content on the bulletin board should be consistent, so that it is easy to spot in on the homepage or in the LMS and so that student's know where on the board to find informati...

Answer:  Why is ongoing communication in the online classroom important? How does the newsletter differ from mandatory communications? Ongoing online communication is important to making the student feel connected to the teacher, their classmates, and the content they are studying. Taking courses online removes the daily face-to-face communication that students would normally get in a brick-and-mortar classroom. In my traditional classroom, there are bulletin boards with announcements and exemplary student work with feedback; there are morning announcements made on the PA system or school TV network; and I meet frequently and informally with students to ensure they're doing ok, both in terms of class and in general. These are things that an online student would not necessarily experience unless the teacher intentionally recreates them in the online environment.  The "disconnect" often causes frustration that leads to burnout. This is something I've dealt with personal...

Create:  Reflect on the needs for your individual Communication Plan. Then, construct a general outline. Welcome email Will post to LMS (Google Classroom) and email to all students/parents once enrolled (recipients BCC'd) Will include course expectations and outcomes, general details on how class will run, expectations on number of required synchronous sessions per unit/term, and a Google Form to collect student/parent contact preferences. Will include a message about our first synchronous session, which will be a Welcome Session in which we address the syllabus, course outcomes, and communication expectations Will include my contact information: email, school phone, personal Google Voice help line, Twitter, Remind messaging codes. Personal notes versus mass communication to stakeholders Mass communications to students and parents will be shared via Google Classroom announcements and Remind messages. Students and parents enrolled in these tools may set their preferences ...

Create:  Using the information from this lesson, create a digital resource that highlights the various stakeholders in online learning. Are there other stakeholders within an online environment not considered in this lesson? In a digital learning community, students, instructors, parents/guardians, and local school administrators are all stakeholders in online student learning. The roles of each stakeholder are outlined below. A few additional stakeholders that are not considered in this lesson are identified to the right of the main four.

Answer:  How can one refrain from violating  FERPA  and  TCPA  guidelines in online communication? What methods could be employed to verify that copyright is not being violated? Does copyright require that all work, images, words, and graphics must be original? As educators, we often engage in communication with stakeholders about students and their progress in learning. We must be diligent in ensuring that our communication does not violate communication laws such as FERPA, TCPA, and Copyright law. When using any form of electronic communication, we must be cautious to protect students and the privacy of their personally identifiable information (PII). To refrain from violating students' right to privacy, teachers should never electronically share PII including students' numerical grade, demographic information, medical information, special needs and/or services, as well as student or teacher-produced work and comments. Any of these items should be add...

Answer:  How have your individual communication skills changed with the innovations in technology? How have advancements in technology altered classroom communication? Will these change further? The TEDTalk by Sherry Turkle has summed up some of the conversations that I've been having recently with colleagues at work, with people at church, and with my own family. Technology has crept into almost every facet of our lives and has changed us in so many ways. I'm not sure that all of them are good. With technology tools such as teacher and  student email accounts, messaging services such as Remind and Google Classroom, and the advent of smartphones, I find myself communicating in ways that I would have never dreamed of communicating 10 years ago when I was in high school. Occasionally, I would email a teacher if I were absent for more than 1 school day to ensure that I didn't get behind on classwork or to ask a question outside of class. But I would have never dreamed o...