1. The bell-ringer activity
2. The basics
3. The awesome
4. The speaker
DIRECTIONS: There are four questions. Before the session starts (if you have time), click on each link and rate your level of comfort in using each feature on My Big Campus.
Question 1: Creating MBC groups — http://www.vot.rs/c0acdc
Question 2: Using MBC group calendars — http://www.vot.rs/fa1f87
Question 3: Storing files on MBC Drive — http://www.vot.rs/0b8969
Question 4: Writing on your MBC blog — http://www.vot.rs/6538d3
Discussion boards are so simple to create (within a class MBC group). They provide written discussion among students, which can help shy students or those that don’t like to share their thoughts orally. By nature, discussion boards leave a written record of the discussion that can be viewed afterward.
You can use discussion boards in MBC for:
7 classroom uses for forums and discussion boards — Some ideas on how to use them in class to mix things up.
If you want to create an engaging, creative environment that mimics students’ beloved social networks, student-written blogs may be the answer. Student blogs give students some digital real estate to express themselves and make it easy for their peers to check it out. They’re instantly collaborative, especially if you house them in My Big Campus discussions with their commenting and liking features. Blogs draw out ideas and conversations that some students would never dream of having in a face-to-face classroom discussion.
You can use blogs in MBC to:
From “blah” to blog session resources — A very complete handout and lots of links and ideas on blogging from my session at MBC (and other places)
20 ideas for solid student blogging — Ideas to think through as you set up student blogs
6 reasons why I’m starting a teacher blog — and why you should, too: They share information, make connections with family, give classes greater exposure, keep an online record of class happenings, allow us to reflect on work, and let us have fun!
12 ideas to prepare students for jobs that don’t exist yet: Creating content online makes the list at No. 4.
Written digital communication is a route to participation that many students feel is less threatening and helps them express themselves more clearly. My Big Campus has a great feature — the chat in class groups — that allows students to communicate in this way in real time. Backchannel chats, as they’re called, can be a great way to discuss something the whole class is watching (i.e. movie, presentation, speaker, etc.) without interrupting. It can be done inside or outside of class.
MBC chats can also be used as simple, quick informal assessment. The teacher can give students a prompt and students can type their answer in the chat window without pressing enter. When the teacher asks students to press enter, the answers appear on screen, giving instant feedback to students’ level of understanding. The chat can be displayed on an LCD projector on just on student/teacher monitors.
Today’s Meet screencast: A quick video showing how to use a website called “Today’s Meet.” The video also mentions some ways to use the site in class, which would be relevant for MBC chats.
Creating content online is one of those 21st-century skills that can take students far. Chances are that students will eventually need to put information, pictures, links, etc. on the Internet for others to see. (Chances are they will do all of these things this week!) My Big Campus pages help students to gather all their information about a topic and organize it clearly for presentation to peers.
You can use pages in MBC to:
Matt Miller is a high school Spanish teacher at Turkey Run H.S. in Marshall, Ind. After trying to do the traditional “teach by the textbook” for a few years, he launched into a textbook-less path where learning activities were often custom-produced for his students as well as infused with technology. He likes the results a lot, and his students do, too.
He’s a proud graduate of Indiana State University (go Sycamores!) and lives the dream — a wife, three kids, a mortgage and two dogs. He has taught high school since 2004, ranging from all levels of Spanish to etymology, English and yearbook. Before he became a teacher, he was a newspaper reporter and wrote for several Indiana daily newspapers, including the Indianapolis Star.
He writes at the Ditch That Textbook blog (DitchThatTextbook.com) and focuses on a few specific areas — teaching with less dependency on textbooks, using educational technology, thinking outside the box, and encouraging new teachers. Reach him at matt@DitchThatTextbook.com.
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