Zoom, learning beyond the classroom

Last week we were able to experience what class would be like as a student through the video conferencing app zoom.us.

Highlights:

• free account, easy to request remote control when you are bringing in a speaker
• white-board is handy for having students co-create 
• poll app embedded was interesting
• encourage students to be the ones to explore the apps that you think might be useful in class. I was actually able to do this in my high school placement last term. I introduced a project and made various suggestions as to how they could represent their work. I told them briefly about Sketchnoting as per Sylvia Duckworth https://sylviaduckworth.com/sketchnotes/ and quite a few of the students were interested in this method of representing their learning.
• MOOC Massive Open Online Course - where have these been all my life? Ironic I had to return to University to find out about them ... 
• PearDeck.com was another useful app where the screen does not have to be shared.
• I learned that Schoology is an online Learning Management System LMS
• Blended Learning is Online and Physical meetings
• Meeting people in a different setting, learning more about our classmates and their furry companions, made me jealous that I was not at home with my little girl-cat
  
  

Lowlights:

• yes, you hear everything
• concentration is taxing on energy levels of participants, this can be mitigated by having an agenda (such as we did), or choosing a time of day where energy levels, in general, are better for most participants

Overall, lots of positive implications for the teachers and the students who will make use of this forum. One never knows where the teaching requirements will lead us and so it has been very nice to have been given an introduction to this form of Web-based teaching and learning.