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Editor’s note: Happy New Year 2016!
In our second edition of The Students Have Spoken, LEARN turned once again to its online students to get their authentic voice on a few pertinent questions. This time, we asked two questions to a group of secondary IV (Grade 10) students: one about virtual communities and one about their changing learning styles in an online environment. The survey was conducted through the Twitter hashtag, #LQslowchat.
(Note, when the students talk about “BORs”, they are referring to breakout rooms: spaces where smaller groups of students can work together within their virtual classroom. “VT” is short for VoiceThread, another awesome tool for sharing content a la flipped classroom.)
Question #1: How has online learning allowed you to build community with other students around the province?
Sense of community is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together. McMillan, 1976.
We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own. Cesar Chavez
Question #2: Online classes have changed the way you learn. Agree or disagree? Explain!
Three principles from brain research: emotional safety, appropriate challenges, and self constructed meaning suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to classroom instruction teaching is ineffective for most students and harmful to some. – Tomlinson and Kalbfleisch, 1998
Feeling a sense of community is big in all our students’ lives, connected as they are through social media and collaborative tools. In online classroom settings, the tools to which students have access have helped expand differentiating learning, allowing more students to construct understanding in how they learn best.
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LEARN is opening “The Students Have Spoken” to all the classrooms in Quebec. If you have a class that would like an opportunity to have their voice heard by an authentic audience let us know. Contact our editor Sylwia Bielec sbielec@learnquebec.ca
Third Edition Questions – tweet @LEARNQuebec #LEARNstudents
Anyone is welcome to participate!
Q1: What digital tools do you use the most in school? Give examples.
Q2: If you were a teacher, how would you use digital tools in class? Give examples.
Wow! It’s wonderful to read the students’ tweets about the impact of online classes on their sense of community and their learning.
I feel very fortunate to work with these students,and the staffs at their schools, from across the province.
Great post, Kerry and Chris! Reading it made me anxious for our next live Twitter chat.
Some great comments from these online students. Lots of benefits mentioned; I particularly like their sense of community and how the teachers facilitate this with their use of great digital tools. The world really is flat 🙂