It has been a very interesting week of discovery for both myself and my students.  We have learned how to flood our server and not flood our server!  We have learned how to flood a chat and to be far more careful in what we post on chat and in discussion boards, but most of all, we are learning to work collaboratively as a group.

The students are learning to take ownership for their online environment and work.  It is a slow process with one class slightly ahead of the other, but the second class will be the one to benefit most from this experience provided “teacher” here can keep her patience.

There seems to be a definite gender issue happening in both my classes.  In the first class (Class A) there is a large number of high achieving girls who are out performing the boys in almost all areas, especially academic ones.  In Class B there is a very large number of boys, over 3/4’s of the class, who are, for the most part, extremely immature and rowdy.  Each class having its own special and unique dynamic has provided me with some great learning experiences through the online classroom.

In Class A, I have noticed with great delight, one young fellow who is able to lead a chat discussion on a topic, stay on topic and keep his group mates, including other boys, on-task.  Seeing the word “think” aimed at one of his buddies was just amazing considering that not more than 20 minutes later, back in the face-to-face classroom, during a discussion about the online assignment, he was taking apart a hockey pencil and not engaging in the discussion at all.  Online he was leading a discussion and had relevant ideas to contribute. He took ownership for his work and his group.  He was also the one to show his classmates how to open 3 chat boxes simultaneous on their screens and assisted those who were confused.  It was awesome to see the playing field levelled, even for a short 35 minute time frame.

Class B – Well here we have some significant teaching challenges.  We have learned to flood the server, fix the server, flood the chat with spamming or face-rolling if you’re a gamer. We have had the use of several minor inappropriate texting shorts, some very insignificant assignment work being done, and unfortunately, they have all but squashed the girls right out of the chat.  But, all in all, some really good learning came out of this chaos.

The students in Class B have discovered that I can find those inappropriate shorts, highlight them and print them in less than 1 minute.  That I know exactly what those shorts mean and I have laid out some very hard and fast rules based on our first two classes of “play” time.

The class managed quite well overall.  Everyone had a chance to get their ideas out, and carry out a discussion with others.  There were the same surprising leadership showing up here as there was in Class A.  I had a student, who in the face-to-face classroom would make you wonder if you’d chosen the right career path, keep his group on-task, keep the discussion going, if rather superficially, and surprise me to death. He took ownership for his work and online presence.  It was wonderful.

What did I learn as a teacher?  To let go of the control to see where the students would go.  Class A can handle that lessening of control and a more open-ended assignment, Class B cannot and needs very clear boundaries, rules and expectations. Even though I did exert a fair amount of control back over Class B, they still shared, discussed and worked collaboratively, which they could not do before. I learned that if I used the errors made as learning experiences, even with Class B, the students will continue to take a risk and give their ideas in the chat. I learned that the students will rise above and beyond what you may expect.  They are very engaged with the assignment in an online environment, whereas if I attempted this unit in a face-to-face classroom, Class B would not engage at all, and only some of Class A would engage.

I also learned a few technical things like how not to flood our server, how to get multiple private chat boxes up, what spamming/face-rolling is, and how to find it in the chat.  I have to thank my gaming crazed son for all his help.  I also learned how far I can let go with which class and that my Class B will need more of my guidance (”sage on the stage”) than Class A for now and that’s OK. When Class B arrives where it is going, it will have been a tremendous and wonderful journey for the students and for me. (I may need a couple dozen Hail Mary’s to get us there!)

The project that the students are working on within the virtual classroom is one of multicultural diversity. Something we do not have much of at our school. The students will work independently, then collaboratively and then co-operatively on various tasks. (They’ve been divided into 7 random groups of 4.) The research tasks will start with some independent work.  That work will be used to create a collaborative group discussion post.   Groups will reply to others discussion posts.  The groups will create and upload a short PowerPoint and then the groups will work co-operatively on an art project, creating a world flag to represent their group’s view of multicultural diversity.  Hopefully we can take digital pictures of the flags and upload them into the classroom.

With the assistance of two US teachers who passed information on to me through a Twitter companion I revamped the lesson.  Made it much simpler.  I posted the groups on the whiteboard in the virtual classroom and then posted the assignment.  Independently, the students were to write a post telling what their cultural background is, and what family traditions they have at home.  If they did not have any traditions related to their culture, they could write about any family tradition they had.  Then they had to respond to one or more classmates posts with a positive comment.  After that they were allowed to chat.  SUCCESS!  Thank you, Jeff, at TappedIn for this valuable chat advice – they have to earn the right to chat by completing their work – properly.

Problems?  Of course!  One student could not log on no matter what we did.  Why?  I didn’t figure it out until about 20 minutes after the class ended.  I had misspelled his name.  Jeez!  I logged him on as me so he could still join in.  Tech problems?  None.  Thanks Super Techieman.  Owe you some chocolate chip cookies!

What did I learn?  To keep the lesson simple.  I talked to the students after and asked what they liked about the lesson.  They really enjoyed reading about their classmates cultural backgrounds and traditions.  Several found they had almost the same traditions. I asked what they liked about the virtual classroom. They loved the idea of being able to post replies instantly as it was different than in class because in class you have to raise your hand and wait to be called on, have to listen to others talk too much.  They liked the idea of being heard right away.  A good thing? Well maybe a double-edged thing:  a sign of our high-speed Internet socializing and on-the-other-hand, shy students are willing to venture out and be heard, bouncy ADHD-type students don’t have to wait and lose interest.

We had one MAJOR learning experience that will be looked at next class.  One student replied with an inside joke that was something that should not have been posted. She regretted this and gave me a note to see if I could delete it, ASAP.  I checked the post reply.  It was not hurtful, rude or anything along those lines.  It was a play on words, the word being assassination. The context it was used in would be somewhat similar to jokingly making a bomb comment in an airport.  The other students told this particular student that the FBI would be contacting her and she became deeply upset.  I was unable to delete the comment.  I spoke to her after class and she was in tears over the whole thing.  Told her to ignore the other students, I’ll talk to them, but ask what she learned?  She learned an awful lot about choosing your online words carefully!  She gave permission to have the post put up on the projector and use it for a class discussion next class.  I just cannot believe what pulling back that “teacher power” can do for student learning.

The chat.  Needs more work.  They discussed how people just kept saying Hi when not needed as the chat says who just joined the group. They discussed how the chat moves too fast and how it is hard to get a conversation going with so many people joining in.  I need to show them some of the chat actions such as detatching it, increasing the text size and putting things on the pasteboard if they need to slow it down.  I think we need to have a topic to chat about so the conversation has a purpose.  This time it was just play.  They learned much by just playing!  Time to add a little structure to the play.