#MantraMonday

Every Monday I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider.  

This week’s Mantra is:

This quote comes from the Blended Learning Guidebook which was used in the Blended Learning MOOC I participated in this summer. This quote applies both to students as well as teachers. I encourage all of our staff to explore their LMS together, co-create spaces with students, and give patience to yourself and them.

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Through the day I shared via Instagram/Facebook stories some quick tips on how one might introduce an ed tech platform with comfort/competency in mind. I’ve tried to save both my full day story as well as each individual clip as a video but for some reason the audio never lines up with the clips. It would be nice to save these clips and summarize them into an IGTV video… I know I can save them as a highlight on Instagram but that doesn’t export out nicely to other platforms (like sharing here). If anyone has any suggestions I would love to try them out!

In the absence of that option, today’s stories can be summarized as:

• co-create your LMS with students
  • allows for student voice and choice
  • select your Teams icon together
  • name your Team to something that is meaningful for your group
  • how are you using channels and tabs?
  • what do students think should be saved in your LMS?
  • what are protocols around posting? does your class have a favourite gif response?
• complete first online activities together
  • make you LMS part of your regular routine in the classroom
  • have it displayed via a projector so students can familiarize themselves with the interface and see how you use it
  • get them used to seeing you find “files” in a particular location, share your morning announcements in the “posts” tab, etc
• focus your first “assignments” on platform knowledge
  • assign an activity or quiz-style assessment asking about the various platform features
  • design a scavenger hunt where students have to find clues in various locations within the LMS
• there is no “one-size” fits all with online learning
• be patient & willing to adapt based on student feedback

If you’ve introduced your students to ed tech tools and/or an LMS platform already this year how did you go about doing so? I’d love to hear your suggestions below.