VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
As technology becomes more prevalent, an 'on demand' culture is emerging. This is reflected through how we purchase music, watch TV shows and videos -- people are valuing the flexibility that 'on demand' services provide. We want to be able to view content at anyime, in anyplace and at any pace. Our future students have been raised in this environment and it is only logical that our educational practices reflect and respect this new culture. This is where FLEXIBLE LEARNING comes into play. Simply put, flexible learning is learning that takes place at anytime, any place and at any pace and, in doing so, we provide differentiated instruction which will allow teachers to have a higher probability of reaching each and every student. By breaking down learning barriers, this concept enables teachers to practice student centred learning. There are four different ways of providing Flexible learning and virtual learning environments:
1. Face-to-face
This is the standard lecture that we, as education students, are most familiar with. This is where everyone is physically in the same space and watching the lecture at the same time.
2. Web Enhanced
This environment is fully F2F, but significantly encorporates web/online technology. The web component may be synchronous or asynchronous.
3. Blended/hybrid
This creates flexibility in a classroom by replacing some of the F2F time with time where students are learning asynchronously individually.
4. Online
In an online environment, there is no F2F time. However, learning can be done synchronously and asynchronously.
To implement the above types of flexible learning environments, you need tools to do it! A great tool to begin with is creating a LMS or Learning Management System. This will be the 'backbone' for anyother flexible learning tools that you wish to use as an LMS provides a way of posting any other materials that you have created with other tools. LMSs allows you post assignments, mini-lessons, announcements, questions, quizzes, exams, handouts -- basically any material that a teacher would think his/her students would benefit from. It is in this way, that a LMS mirrors what would be typically used in a F2F class. There are many types of LMSs out there and they vary in price and complexity: Moodle, Blackboard, Haiku, Canvas, and Google Classroom, just to name a few.
This week, we were asked to create an LMS through Google Classroom. This LMS is not free to the public -- institutions must purchase the application suite to use it. However, many Edmonton Public schools use Google Classroom and therefore it only makes sense for us as pre-service teachers to become acquainted with this system. A great feature of Google Classroom is that it can integrate with other google apps, allowing the teacher a seamless, hassle-free transition to his/her other favourite google apps. Google Classroom allows you to create, collect and grade digital works. It is on the more simple side of the LMS spectrum, and as such, I found it a very intuitive tool to use. Out of all the web tools that EDU 210 has had us try out, I found Google Classroom to be the easiest! I decided to make my LMS for a General Music 30 class. Most of the material that I used and modified for my classroom was created by my husband for a Music 100 class which he teaches at Grant MacEwan -- thus, permission was granted to use and modify this material for my classroom. To access my classroom as a student, you can click here and access my classroom by using the student code: mxpfbb8. Hope you enjoy my classroom!
