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.

I chose TappedIn for a number of important reasons.  First: it is a totally secure environment to bring students into.  They are locked into the classroom and cannot leave to other areas of TappedIn without the teacher’s express permission.  No one can enter the classroom or view it without being invited by the teacher. There is a chat feature which is locked into the classroom so the students are only chatting with their own class.  This can be changed to allow the students to collaborate with other classes via teacher invitation.  All chats are recorded and sent to the teacher’s email, including private chats. This chat can be disabled until the teacher gives permission to use it. You can lock your classroom and students cannot access it from home. How much more secure can you possibly get.  Second: they have amazing support, both tech and teaching. They give scheduled tours of the site that are listed on the calendar so you can see the date/time of the tour.  There is a reception room where there is always someone online to answer your questions or help you join a group if you’re new.  The staff are incredibly welcoming and helpful. Third: They have an incredible array of free professional development on a wide range of topics.  I belong to 4 different professional groups, including one for gaming!  I may be a WoW convert yet!  Actually, I want to learn how to use Quest Atlantis!  Fourth: you can set up your own office space there and create and lead your own professional group if you wish.  Fifth: there is an area secured for students to go to with different “rooms” such as NASA, gaming, one for special ed students….and the list goes on. I cannot say enough about this site.  My tech is even impressed to death!  My principal is happy with everything!  Yeah, I’m afraid I’m raving about this place!

So what happened when I actually brought the students in?  Well of course things went wrong!  This is me in the lab we’re talking about!  (4 computers and 1 mouse died!) The first time there was some concern about the chat not being enabled.  My Super Techieman had problems getting the chat through the filters and thought it wasn’t working.  SURPRISE! It was (which is why he is Super Techieman) and the kids jumped all over that like bees on honey!  Had to disable it quick as we had not discussed that yet.  Also the lesson, which I thought was just fine, was too big and too overwhelming for the students in this environment. When I disabled the chat, they turned the whiteboard into one, just sort of naturally, not on purpose to disregard instructions.

The chat on the whiteboard was very, very interesting. These students have never been in an online environment like this and appear to have only limited experience with texting, MSN…They stuck to a given topic, wandered off, self-policed back on topic again. Was fascinating to read – too long to paste into this post.  One student posted a comment to which another replied that the comment was rude.  I held back with a rapid heart rate – keeping with my vow to stop controlling things with my “teacher power” (as I did with disabling the chat) and waited to see what would happen.  The student with the “rude” comment (it was somewhat rude) apologized stating he/she hadn’t meant to be rude.  The conversation carried on.  No teacher power needed or given.  Was awesome! But the lesson was still off.  I’m not used to teaching in this environment any more than the students are used to learning in it. With some discussion with the TappedIn folks and with some help from a PLN member from Twitter, I went back in and fixed things.  I also added the principal as a moderator so she could also log in and join in anytime she felt like it.  I liked that idea as both security in helping the kids understand the responsiblity they have been given and that she would experience this with us.  A great way to collaborate.

Last thing to go slightly south was the issue of off-school access to the site, thus the chat.  I was asked by a student if they could log in from home.  YIKES!  I had no answer so I hedged the question. TappedIn staff informed me that I could lock the class and the students would be denied access.  At 3:03pm the first student attempted to access the classroom, was denied and informed that I would be emailed.  I had the email in my inbox complete with student username, time of attempt.  I have no issue with them going in the classroom, except for one:  who is supervising them at home, if anyone?  So the room remains locked and we had a class discussion on the rules of use and I held up printed email copies of chat transcripts and access notifications.  Rules understood.

It was a great learning experience all way around.  We’ve earned each others trust.  I’ve learned some lessons on teaching online.  The students are learning some netiquette and how to learn online. Very cool.