Internet access in people’s homes and on their mobile devices is now fast and reliable.
The provision of a relevant and meaningful school curriculum involves embracing this ‘always online’ world in our classrooms.
We have become accustomed to discovering the answer to every question with a few touches on a smartphone or an iPad. These same devices provide instant updates about the location and activities of friends, and facilitate instant communication with colleagues.
We expect to access our stored files anywhere, anytime, on any device.
Successful schools ‘normalise’ the digital environment – the network is everywhere and always available to support students and teachers – but ICT is ‘invisible’. It’s just there when you need it.
These pages contain resources and ideas that may assist in leveraging these tools and services to provide an engaging online environment to support the curriculum in your school….
| The first step – a class website |
 |
- Class Website
The essential starting point in a ‘digitally normalised’ school – a class website is the ‘home page’ for all your class’s on line activities. Though such a website is usually a one-way gateway for sharing resources with students and parents, a blog page can make it interactive.
|
| The next step – the collaborative classroom |
 |
- Classroom Collaboration
The next step, after a class website is established, is a more collaborative sharing environment where teachers and students can share discussions, distribute and grade assignments, and store class resources. Most probably linked from, and used in conjunction with, your class website.
|
 |
- Google Classroom
The Google Classroom platform is designed to provide a collaborative class environment built around Google Apps for Education. Teachers can share class resources, distribute, collect and grade assignments, etc.
|
 |
- Moodle
The original collaborative classroom environment, though now a little dated and maintenance intensive when compared to more recent online ‘cloud’ environments.
|
 |
- Edmodo (closed down Sept 22)
A good option for getting started with collaborative class discussions, especially if you feel that some of the other options might be overly complicated. (Closed down September 2022)
|
| |
See also:
|
| |
|