As we start this journey together, we will have to take a look at the best way to disseminate information to our students, and receive feedback as well. In the former reality, pre-COVID time, students turned in their work in my classroom while they were working on the bell-ringer activity for the day. I hope my students will be turning in their homework in person! As we head into the fall, not knowing if we will be in the classroom or online, we must hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.
I am going to take the rest of today and search for a platform that meets the following criteria:
- Accessibility – Every student must be able to engage the platform.
- Communication – There must be tools that allow me to communicate with the students both in real time and with recorded resources.
- Engagement – There must be a way to get the students engaged and KEEP them engaged.
- Collaboration – I want a platform that will allow the students to work together, even if it is in a virtual way.
- Feedback – I would enjoy a platform that provides a way to give a student feedback on work even if it is not completely finished.
- Time – “Piggy Backing” on the idea of feedback, I would want a platform that integrates communication, feedback, and collaboration seamlessly, so as to ultimately save time: getting rid of the “herding cats” feeling of online classrooms.
- Differentiation – I have got to have a platform that allows multiple levels of the same content.
- Cost Efficient – I am not going to depend on anyone else to prepare a plan for me. I am looking for the above criteria and the best bang for my dollar.
Ok, I have my list to look for today. I challenge you to do the same. In order to make this a true conversation, I encourage you to either leave a comment, here on the blog page, or even better yet, leave a message on the STEMfacebook.com feed. We have 165 educators that can start a discussion about the topic as we go through this mission together!