Engaging WL students with MBC: Summer 2013

Welcome to this session! Here’s what you’ll see below:

1. The bell-ringer activity
2. The basics
3. The awesome
4. The speaker

==================================

THE BELL-RINGER ACTIVITY

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

==================================

THE BASICS

1 of 4: Creating class groups: Put your students into a group based on their class

My list of MBC groups  What a group looks like

Some groups (above left) and what one looks like from the inside (above right)

—————————

2 of 4: Managing a group calendar: Keep your students informed on important class dates by adding them to a class calendar

A group calendar

A group calendar (above)

—————————

3 of 4: Using the drive: Store and sort files for yourself or to share with students

Using the drive

Saving files in drive (above)
  • Save documents, pictures, or any other file to be accessed on any device with access to MBC
  • Use labels to sort/organize your files (i.e. Spanish 1 U4C3 can be used for Spanish 1 Unit 4 Chapter 3). You can then filter by label to show only the documents for a particular chapter.
  • Click here for MBC Self-Paced Training on Drive

—————————

4 of 4: Running a teacher blog: Keep students and parents up to date on class happenings and important news

Blog by @DeanMantz

A blog run by @DeanMantz on MBC
  • A blog is a place to post articles that you want to share with students/parents
  • You make your blog viewable only by MBC users or by anyone on the Internet. (Go to the blog icon on the left, click “Edit blog settings” and “Make my blog viewable by everyone on the Internet”)
  • Click here for MBC Self-Paced Training on Blog

==================================

THE AWESOME

Awesome MBC Idea No. 1 — Using Discussion Boards for Writing Practice

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:

  • Writing prompts (post prompt in a new discussion and have students respond in comments)
  • Creative stories (start a story with a new discussion and have each student add to the running story until it ends)
  • Opinions (post an opinion-based question about class content and have students post well developed responses)
  • Add a fact (post a topic and have students add a fact to the discussion that no one else has)
  • Contribute a photo (post a topic from class and have students add a photo they take and download or a photo they find online (use “new photo/file”)  that illustrates the topic
  • Reverse webquest (post a topic and have students find websites that are relevant to the topic, posting the URL/link to the site in the discussion board)

7 classroom uses for forums and discussion boards — Some ideas on how to use them in class to mix things up.

Tú command activity

This is an activity where students post a photo and add informal commands to describe them. (Click for full-size image.)

Tú command activity

Students posted photos and wrote informal commands as advice about the photos.

Awesome MBC Idea No. 2 — Creating and Using Classroom Blogs in Discussion Boards

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:

  • reflect on content being covered in class
  • anticipate what will happen next in class content (i.e. history lesson, literature, story in target language, etc.)
  • do some mini-research (find credible information at legit websites, summarize and post links)
  • write creatively
  • write collaboratively (groups write together OR start with one student and each following student adds a little)

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.

Students set up a discussion titled with their name and it becomes their personal blog.

Students set up a discussion titled with their name and it becomes their personal blog.

After reading peers’ blog posts, students comment on each others’ writings. Commenting is half of the entire process!

Students write their posts in My Big Campus and post them to their personal discussions, which will house their writings for the year.

 

Awesome MBC Idea No. 3 — Using Group Chats for Instant Feedback

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.

Instantly assess understanding or provide a written backchannel for discussion using chat.

Instantly assess understanding or provide a written backchannel for discussion using chat.

Awesome MBC Idea No. 4 — Creating Projects with Pages

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:

  • write stories (and illustrate with photos!) using the target language.
  • investigate target culture and report back
  • explain how specific grammar concepts are done
  • use or display vocabulary in target language in creative ways
mbc pages 1

Students can write creative stories in the target language and illustrate them with photos.

Students can arrange content on pages with photos placed appropriately with text with any modification to text or hyperlinks.

Students can research target-culture topics and present information on their pages. Hyperlinking to the source of information is a valuable 21st-century skill.

Students can easily create a main page where the viewer can click through to other pages. Set up a sub-page and MBC will automatically add a link to it from the main page.

 

==================================

THE PRESENTER

Matt MillerMatt 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.

>