Best Practices in the K-12
Environment
Brooke Eberwine and Tara Michels
Ohio Distance and Electronic
Learning
Fast Facts About Online Learning from
North American Council for Online
Learning(NACOL)
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In 2000, there were approx. 40,000 to 50,000
enrollments in K-12 online education; In 2007,
there were over a million.
In April 2006, Michigan became the 1st state to
require online learning for high school
graduation.
There are 26 state-wide or state-led virtual
schools in the United States.
Data suggests that in about six years 10% of all
high school courses will be computer-based, and
by 2019 about 50% of courses will be delivered
online.
Today, 6000 talented young people will drop out
of school.
Today, two-thirds of high school students will
be bored in at least one class.
Distance and Electronic
Learning
-Our school is an online K-12 school.
-We have schools in Ohio, Pennsylvania,
and Colorado.
-In Ohio, we have approx. 3000 statewide students.
Objectives for the
Session
• Understanding Wimba Best practices
for K-12
• Learn how to Wimba can be used with
Best Practice Lessons
• Learn about interactive sites that
help you create engaging lessons
1.
General Online Learning
Best Practices
Visibility- Online instructors must be
“visible” to their students. Teacher
presence, tone, and involvement is the
largest factor in building an online
learning community.
2. What works in the face-to-face
classroom works in the online classroom,
it just is represented differently. (Ice
breakers, debates, group work, clubs,
field trips, birthdays, …)
3. Email is the primary form of contact
between you and your students so use it
effectively.
From: “Successfully Building community in the Online
Classroom”, Jeff Simmons, IDLA
General Online Learning
Best Practices
4. Effective Feedback
5. Its ok to duplicate email and
announcements.
6. There should be at least one
discussion board per unit. Students
and teachers post and reply to each
other.
From: “Successfully Building community in the Online
Classroom”, Jeff Simmons, IDLA
1.
General Wimba Best
Practices
If it is offered it should be used. (Y/N
buttons, Polls, Breakout rooms,
Application sharing)
2. Be prepared
3. Rename your content (Give the folders
and slides you load in Wimba a relevant
title so that you can easily pull one up
from a previous class.)
4. Print your slides ahead of time so that
you know what’s coming.
*From Lockstein Center for Jewish Education
General Wimba Best
Practices
5. No dead air time. If you stop talking for
more than a few seconds, students will
start asking why there is no sound.
6. Pushing slides and other content. When
you push something heavy, it is best to
reduce the other activities using
bandwidth.
7. Slides may take awhile to appear, so
don’t keep clicking the push button. It
will only slow it down further.
8. Depending on the quality of each
participants internet connection, there
may be a slight delay before content is
loaded.
*From Lockstein Center for Jewish Education
General Wimba Classroom
Management Tips
1.
Presenter should always post or describe
expected behaviors. (always raise hand,
use private chat to let instructor know
about tech issues…)
2. Offer an agenda for the class.
3. Ease into different modes of
communication. (Allow students to answer
in Microphone or text-box.)
4. Set expectations for involvement.
*From Lockstein Center for Jewish Education
General Wimba Classroom
Management Tips
5. Pose questions to students. Remember
that there may not be an automatic
response due to delay times. So
rephrase the question during delay time.
6. Try to overcome your need to read
questions posted in text-chat as you
speak. Deal with them at a time that is
comfortable to you and in the order they
were entered (just like raised hands).
7. Draw students out (send private chats or
ask specific question to students who are
quiet).
*From Lockstein Center for Jewish Education
Recommended Activities
for Wimba Classroom
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Student Roles: Consider assigning your
students different roles; note-taker, discussion
facilitator, presenter,….
Triggers: Show short videos, music clips, and
texts to encourage discussion.
Use Authentic materials.
Guest Speakers
Grouping. Create Group Assignments. These
can be short tasks like asking students to reach
a consensus or point out errors in a document.
Give them time to present their positions.
*From Lockstein Center for Jewish Education
Our Wimba Best Practices:
1. Maximize class time – have opening
activity available for students when
they enter classroom
2. Application Share- one application at a
time and share window or screen area
instead of desktop
-Start archive before application
sharing
3. Use questionnaires and polls to make
classes as interactive as possible; share
student responses when applicable.
Our Wimba Best Practices:
4.
5.
6.
7.
Breakout rooms allow for group
work/projects
Enable presenter status to allow
students to be active in classroom
Turn off private text chat between
students
Schedule live office hours –
individual tutoring sessions or small
group collaboration/discussion
General K-12 Best Practices
Research-Based Strategies
1. Identifying Similarities and Differences
2. Summarizing and Note Taking
3. Reinforcing Effort and Providing
Recognition
4. Homework and Practice
5. Nonlinguistic Representations
6. Cooperative Learning
7. Setting Objectives and Providing
Feedback
8. Generating and Testing Hypothesis
9. Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers
*From “Classroom Instruction that Works” by Marzano,
Pickering, and Pollock
Adapting to Wimba
1. Identifying Similarities
and Differences
-Create graphic organizers in class and
post the screen for students to use
for review.
-Use Wimba Voice Boards to have
students create metaphors and
analogies.
2. Summarizing and Note
taking
• Post screens from Wimba
“Notes should be considered a work
in progress.”(Marzano, p.44)
-Wimba makes it easy to pull a screen
back up and add to it. They are also
easy to post as reviews for tests.
• Use Wimba Create to create interactive
study guides.
3. Reinforcing Effort
and Providing Recognition
• Application Share a project a student
has done.
• Use polls to share student responses
• Allow students to show work or
demonstrate comprehension on e-board
4. Homework and
Practice
• Use Wimba Create for students to
check their understanding
• Use Podcaster to record lessons for
students to download and listen to at
their convenience.
• Use polls and questionnaires in
Wimba live class to check
understanding.
5. Nonlinguistic Representations
• “Research indicates that each of the following
activities enhances the development of nonlinguistic representations in students and,
therefore, enhances their understanding of
that content”-- (Marzano, page 73-74)
-Creating graphic representations (Wimba
classroom)
-Making physical models (Application
Sharing
National Library of Virtual
Manipulatives or Shodor)
-Generating mental pictures (Wimba
Classroom)
-Drawing pictures and pictographs (Enable
students to use the e-board tools)
-Engaging kinesthetic activities (Wimba
Classroom)
6. Cooperative Learning
• (Marzano, p. 85-86)…There are five
defining elements of cooperative learning:
• Positive interdependence
• Face-to-face promotive
interaction(helping each other)
• Individual and group accountability’
• Interpersonal and small group skills
• Group processing
Breakout Rooms in Wimba allows you to have
all of these elements in your cooperative
learning activities. Groups can save screens
so that they can later be shared with the
whole class.
7. Setting Objectives
and giving Feedback
• Use Wimba Voicerecorder to post
announcements
• Use Podcaster to give Audio
Feedback on assignments.
• Use Breakout rooms for student to
peer edit assignments before they
are handed in.
8. Generating and
Testing Hypothesis
• Application Sharing and Web Sites
• Turn on the audio in the classroom to
allow students to explain their
conclusions.
9. Cues, Questions, and
Advance Organizers
• Polls and Saving Screens
• Use Wimba Create to provide
students with Advanced Organizers
at the beginning of each unit.
Interactive Sites
• Shodor: http://www.shodor.org/activities/
• Illuminations Electronic Examples:
http://standards.nctm.org/document/eexamples/index.htm
• National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
• Curriki/Hippocampus
http://www.hippocampus.org/
• Department of Education Websites
http://www.free.ed.gov/
Contact Information
Brooke Eberwine –
[email protected]
Tara Michels –
[email protected]