Top School LMS Choice Issues

My list of LMS topics to cover is 50% complete. I have written a lot in the last month with more to come. I firmly adhere to the 80/20 rule in planning. So today's post is focused on a summary of high level decisions to make should you be thinking about integrating an LMS.

After 9 years of LMS experience, I have witness a number of priority concerns for various levels of users. Users include students, teachers, administrators, dba's, website managers and marketers, curriculum development staff and parents (of school age students).

Considerations for Choosing an LMS

1. Does the LMS deliver curriculum in a way that matches your instructional model? Look at how your course content can be organized and presented to the students using the LMS. Does it make sense to your organization? If the LMS would require you to rethink the way you present course materials, you must decide if you like the different approach and would be able and willing to spend the time and energy to change gears. Or, would the change be unacceptable? Do not let the vendor convince you their model is perfect for you.
   
2. Does the LMS offer too many or not enough bells and whistles? The key here is growth. Some schools know what they want from the beginning. For example, if you know you want an LMS to deliver non-authenticated materials for marketing or community building, make sure the LMS has a portal system. If you don't need that now but think you will, make sure you can turn if off now and on later. Or, if you don't want to invest in the added technology, don't.
   
3. Is the LMS age appropriate? If you are educating elementary students, the LMS should deliver an appropriate navigational scheme including learning paths, navigational aids, tools, icons and look / feel that is appropriate out of the box. Or, it will allow you to create that environment. Remember, creating your own environment will take time, and potentially will be met with road blocks due to application design. This is a great time to get a sandbox environment for your team. Test and test and test various ways to make the LMS a part of your learning environment. If you have to work too hard or make too many compromises, seek advice first, try again, and then make a decision. This will take some time but it will be worth it. Try button layout, colors, icons, course area names, course structures, ways to guide students around the content, etc. Look for flexibility. If the environment seems right out of the box, consider the flip side. Using our elementary school example imagine if you wanted to open the school up to high school students. If the LMS is more suitable to elementary with NO flexibility, it will quickly create a need for your to make a decision to end the use of the tool for your school, or release a new tool just for the HS students. Your planning should also include a vision of what lies ahead.
   
4. Does the LMS offer teacher efficiency tools? This area could be its own white paper. Think about an LMS as expense every time teachers use it. Their time is money. LMS should provide an intuitive work flow. For example, when a teacher logs into the LMS, they should be able to INSTANTLY, yes, instantly determin what work they need to complete. They should see a list of items that need a response or to be assessed. They should not have to dig through the content or gradebooks looking for work to do.
   
5. Does the LMS offer management tools to ensure quality? Similar to number 1, you must ensure the LMS fitst your management model. For example, Blackboard was designed to provide independent professors with a tool for their classroom. As professors, they ran their own classes with little direct oversight from supervisors. However, as more and more LMS find their way in the businesses and school (running themselves like businesses), teacher efficiency has become a larger issue. Managers who must ensure teachers respond quickly, accurately and educationally to a student's needs, must have tools to help them manage all teachers. Some LMS's will allow all data to be transferred to reporting applications. Those applications can help you determine if teachers are responding quickly and efficiently. But, they do not help you determin if the teacher is responding with quality. LMS's are behind on this technology. Overall, we must all push toward new tools to help us ensure quality instruction through LMSs. Never-the-less, we must consider what is available and consider our ability to extract the data we need.
   
6. Doe the LMS treat students as a class or as individuals? Imagine wanting to exclude a student from a homework assignment in your traditional class. This is pretty simple to do. Based on a students IEP, or on something much simpler like the quiz being optional, teachers always have a need to customize the ribbon of grades for a student. Not all LMSs allow for customization at the student level. Knowing up front can save you a ton of grief on the backend. This question is easy to overlook. However, finding this out when you are training your first group of teachers is not a good place to be.

This may be a simplistic list. However, from within this list many other considerations will be developed. Content types, types of assessments, roles, customization options, branding, management tools, teacher efficiencies, are all considerations that can come out of the 6 Points above.

LMS: Sub Prep

This afternoon, a family member of mine received his first call to sub (Congrats Tom!). This led me back to thoughts of my subbing days and how I wished their were ways for me to be more prepared. I remember having the same questions the night before I was scheduled to sub:

1. What classes will I teach (if they just asked - "Can you come in for 7th grade tomorrow?)
   
2. What topics will we cover?
3. Would I have anything that I could share with the students?
4. Do I know the slightest bit about the topics?
5. How many students are in each class period?
6. Would I need to give an exams?
7. What homework did the students have last night?
8. When was lunch :-)
9. Can I get a seating chart and class roster (really useful for teachers that are new AND for those that are returning or are familiar with many students)
   

With these questions in mind, I think it is time to pull out my list and see where we stand in regards to our discussion on LMS integration. The following topics make up our list. Those in red are those we have covered including the one for today.

• Substitute Teacher Prep (thanks Dr. Karl Kapp)
• Homework Assignments
• Recording Live Sessions for review
• Community Building
• Direct Parent Communications
• Progress Reporting
• Delivering Media
• Course Content Delivery
• Group Projects
• Gradebook use and distribution
• Enhancing Teacher Preparation Skills (and Instructional Design)
• Assessments
• Reaching Non-Participants (from your class)
• Assisting with Absenteeism

An LMS is a perfect tool for helping substitutes. I tend to think this use is something schools have not experimented with, but they should. Of course, having all of the class information in the LMS is a prerequisite. As a technology leader, I would use this need as another way to incentivize all teachers to make use of the school LMS. That is if the chocolate didn't work!

Additional prereqs for this to work would be an account for all school board approved subs. Since this list is often a finite list, this would be easy to mange. Next, account roles would have to be set so that the sub has read only access to the information. Also, subs would need access to a brief tutorial on using the system. This could easily be handled in a "pre-teaching" session with all subs (often not part of school systems now - but should be).

Although I may have missed a few minute details, the items above should serve as the miniumum needed to get subs into a useful system to aid in their prep. The goal of the system should be to shift substitute teachers away from hallway monitors and toward being productive educators. From my experience, subs do want to be productive. However, they are often not given the support or tools to be truly beneficial to the students.

So how does an LMS answer the questions from above? Here a some examples.

• What classes will I teach (if they just asked - "Can you come in for 7th grade tomorrow?)

Since the account should give the sub access to all of the teacher's load, including a "common" area, the LMS is a great place to publish a copy of the teacher's schedule. Schools should have these readily available in "marketable" form anyway to share with parents.

• What topics will we cover?

Two options here. Option 1 -- a complete curriculum. Most schools have complete curriculum guides for all classes. However, if that does not exist, Option 2 -- the teach who is ACTIVELY keeping up with their class should already have posted notes about what is coming up for the week. At minimum, messages from the teacher can help a sub see what is coming up.

• Would I have anything that I could share with the students?
  

A great place to check out are the projects the class may be working on. Often, if I had to sub for a class that was a bit outside my expertise, we would focus on longer term projects. I could offer a new insight into a subject, or make suggestions on how to conduct research, or offer a true to life story that could help those struggling become more motivated to dive in.

• Do I know the slightest bit about the topics?

As a sub, spending 30 minutes the night before researching topics, or dusting off the college books can be extremely powerful. Imaging walking into the classroom already knowing the vocabulary!

• How many students are in each class period?

For no better reason that to give some idea of the scope of your day -- will I teach 10 students at a time or 2, or 30. Subs who know what they are walking into are more confident and can be more prepared!

• Would I need to give an exams?

Students should not be the ones telling you as a sub "We don't have an exam today" -- hummm! Really! Coming prepared with the plan already in place gives you the edge on classroom controll from the very beginning. Kids like to get out of exams and they can be very persuasive.

• What homework did the students have last night?

Similar to the exams comment above, kids will want to say "We didn't have any homework!" By reviewing the LMS homework assignments list, you can see if that is the case at a glance. Of course, they may still try -- but as a sub, you are wiser.

• When was lunch :-)
  

Seriously -- subbing is hard work. I have subbed in schools that wanted to get every ounce of time from me. So, they would often ask me to cover classes during prep time and other "off periods." For many schools this is perfectly fine and noted in the sub agreement or teacher contract. Knowing when you have some time to breath is great. For example, I once taught at a school where lunch for me was at 1:00pm. I am hungry by 10:30am. So, I knew I would need to take something with me -- or the kids would find me passed out in front of them -- not good.

• Can I get a seating chart and class roster (really useful for teachers that are new AND for those that are returning or are familiar with many students)

Now, we should never assume kids aren't who they say the are. But, believe me -- they will sometimes try that little trick. Don't make a big deal out of this as a sub -- ie -- don't flaunt that you have a seating chart. If available, school pictures of the class could be made available to the sub in the LMS -- not too hard to do actually. Many schools have picture based seating charts for this reason. This tool could be made available to the teacher all day for reference. Especially if the teacher is giving exams as noted above.

As you can see, there are lots of solutions and options. I just scratched the surface. I am sure all of you reading this can add your own experiences and solutions.

LMS: Delivering Media

Imagine a class full of NetGen students, eager to share videos, pics, creations etc. They live for the opportunity to share their lives through stories, pictures of their pets, their home, friends and family, or grassroots videos they have made. Those who have ventured into the musical arts are even creating sound files through Garage Band or various other MIDI or live recording/sound editing applications.

If you haven't seen what students are doing with media, watch this example below from SchoolTube.




As adults, we should not be surprised by the enthusiasm to share our personal media. This holiday season, the trend of sending "brag" letters seems to have really taken hold. My wife and I have been sending letters for about 3 years now. I am sure many of you can appreciate the same drive in students to share more than just what they have the chance to say in class.

As educators we certainly have some challenges in giving students a safe and organize environment to share their media. Some of those challenges:

• Receiving many files from various students
• Keeping a record of who's file belongs to whom
• Screaning files for appropriateness.
  
• Supplying secure access -- ie -- only students in the school or class can access the files
• Organizing the files for distribution
• Labeling the files for searching or locating files of interest quickly
• Archiving the files for future use

In a recent workshop, the topic of using Facebook and YouTube came up. Now, I am an advocate of both services. However, in a classroom, I do believe as educators, we must first ensure the safety and security of the students to whatever level of control we see appropriate. While it may be perfectly fine to a parent of one of the students to allow them to use those services, I would not assume that every parent agrees. Thus, I suggest your school's LMS should be considered first when thinking about distribution systems. Leave the openness and global aspects of the other services as an option to the families and be prepared to discuss them if they ask however. NOTE: If your school does not have an LMS, there are ways to "lock" down access to accounts in both of the above that may be sufficient for your needs. In another post, I would like to look at SchoolTube. More on that later.

For now, lets look at what an LMS can do for each of the above challenges.

• Receiving many files from various students

Most LMSs have a file sharing tool, messaging system etc. The important "rule" to establish when offering students a way to share media, is to ensure that students send files to you as the "moderator" ONLY. As a music educator, I have first hand experience in using student supplied media that was not appropriate. Lets just say how surprised I was when students supplied their own music for a project I had assigned. It was my first year teaching and WOW -- I was the coolest teacher in school after that. When the music played, OH MY ! I am not a fan of making censorship a big deal in the creative arts. So I will leave that for another topic. But, I did learn quickly that no matter what, we must teach students about class standards whatever they may be. So, submitting to you first and ONLY you, before posting, is a must in my opinion.

• Keeping a record of who's file belongs to whom

Each time a student sends you a file, their account is associated with that file. Imagine having 20 -25 students in a class, and potentially multiple classes, all emailing you files they want to be part of project. That process would quickly become out of control. And, you would most likely have issue with file sizes filling your email system. Through an LMS, students can easily send you files, with names attached and through a system where the flow of larger files is a norm.

• Screening files for appropriateness.

The simple act of the students submitting files to you for posting allows you to work with students individually, creating a really powerful learning experiences. Presenting "rules" up front in very simple terms can be done at the class level. However, if a student sends in a file that is not exactly educationally appropriate, dealing directly with that student 1:1 can be a memorable and lasting experience for the student. As a teacher, you can address specifics about the media and share what you are looking for and what traits of the media do not fall into those specifics. In direct terms -- "tell them what is bad and where they crossed the line for school."

NOTE: Many LMSs have discussion boards where files can be posted to a moderator. As the moderator, you can mark files as "approved" for distribution, simplifying the entire process. Also, this process is a great lesson for students to play a role in. Teaching them how to moderate a forum would be a wonderful way to apply the requirements to a hands-on, real-world application.

• Supplying secure access -- ie -- only students in the school or class can access the files

LMSs are built around access and roles. So they easily handle the issue of secure, controlled access to certain areas of your course, club or school site. To put this into practical terms, imagine being a teacher who has a site in the LMS that covers all of your course sections for Sociology. You have 3 sections of the course. You decide you want the students to share media about their hobbies for 1 section of the course. The other 2 will do so at a later time and your others classes are working on other projects. Using Blackboard as an example, you create Groups within your site for each separate course. Next, you give access to the students in each section to that section only (for now). At this point you can now communicate, post files, have discussions, etc. that are ONLY accessible by those students in that group!

• Organizing the files for distribution

For this challenge, think of the LMS as a website building tool. Most of us should have some experience building websites. If you are an educator and do not, you should! We know that we must format the pages, create labels for the files, create ways to link to a file, etc. If we are using a website building tool, all of this still take time. LMSs will still take time, but offer the essentials to you for supplying access to all of the student files. Keeping things simple will help a ton. Make a page, add items to the page, each being a link to a file, etc. and you have a great way to organize the files. You can create different pages for different themes if you like. Remember though, put all of these pages under 1 label or area for each access.

• Labeling the files for searching or locating files of interest quickly

Considering that each file has a user attached, and you have the ability to add a description, LMSs are an easy way to ensure each file supplies credit back to the student who created it. Plus, most LMS have search capabilities. For example, if you want to find Britney Smith's file, you can search for her.

• Archiving the files for future use

Lastly, LMS allow you to do various types of archiving. The one that I like the best is simply turning pages off. In Blackboard for instance, turning a page off leaves the page in the system, but keeps the page as part of the course. For future reference, you can turn the page back on. Or, if you need access but no one else does, you can simply user your UBER role and gain access to the file. If you want to use the course again, you can always copy the course, and thus all of the files, or archive the file into the LMS archiving system where courses can hang out for retrieval.

Remember, you are only limited by your imagination!

LMS: Delivering Media Teaser!

Since I will be away for awhile, I thought it would be good to give myself and readers some homework! When I return after the holidays, I want to focus on "Delivering Media" through an LMS.

As educators, teachers and leaders have little time to devote to building and maintaining websites. Websites that allow for the distribution of media, photos, recordings etc. are particularly complex. Often, we don't want just everyone to have access to our files that we have worked hard to create. Some level of security and user rights are needed if we want to ensure we get the right files into the right hands.

Over the next few days, I will be developing my list of "how to's", strengths and advantages of LMS's for delivering media.

For anyone reading now, feel free to post some comments and ideas.

LMS -- Keeping Parents Up to Date!

As we near the holiday season in the US, many schools including colleges will have an extended vacation. Because this time of the year gets pretty hectic and stressful, it is easy for educational activities and the details associated to get lost in the shuffle. Also, as a teacher, this is often one of the times of the year when we want to reach out the families of our students. So, how can an LMS help?

It is a good idea to review our list of topics and see where we are in my original plan. Remember, all the items in red have been discussed.

• Homework Assignments
• Recording Live Sessions for review
• Community Building
• Direct Parent Communications
• Progress Reporting
• Course Content Delivery
• Group Projects
• Gradebook use and distribution
• Enhancing Teacher Preparation Skills (and Instructional Design)
• Delivering Media
• Assessments
• Reaching Non-Participants (from your class)
• Assisting with Absenteeism
  
• Substitute Teacher Prep (thanks Dr. Karl Kapp)

Starting with the last thought, reaching out to the families. First, I am surrounded by educators. My wife, ALL of her 3 sisters, her son, most of our friends and even a few neighbors. The one thing I have found in common with most of us is that we like to communicate. At this time of year, that desire, the NEED, is heightened. I hope all teachers have that passion. But, back on topic.

If your school uses an LMS, all parents should have accounts. If not, working with your technology leader, make this happen! If the LMS allows, link the parent account with the student account. For example, Blackboard uses the "Observer" role to do so. It is not perfect, but it does allow some vision into the students. But, more importantly, the parent themselves should have an access account.

So, now what. First, send a holiday (make it generic) message to all parent accounts. Send it only to the parent accounts, not the students. Talk about the last few weeks of class, what the students have accomplished and what is yet to come. Keep it simple, don't overwhelm them by documenting the entire curriculum. Be specific enough to be interesting, but general enough to do this in one paragraph. In the same message, give them a quick overview / tour of what they have access to. For example, point them to the general space (if your LMS has one), point them to the discussion board (again, if that is a feature). In preparation for them to visit those spaces though, have something ready for them to view. For example, in the Common area, post some student projects for viewing. In the discussion board, make sure you have a new thread that will be timely. For example, post a thread "Holiday Education Activities" where ideas can be shared. But, keep in mind the very first comment I made - this is a busy time of the year. Don't be disappointed if you don't get a ton of responses. The important thing is to get the messages out there. Many parents, just like Bloggers, will lurk. That is OK!

At about this time (Dec. 17th or so) is also a great time to let parents know about educational gift options for students. I remember WAY, WAY back in elementary school, one of teachers would send home a list of gift ideas, including books, games, educational project kits, craft ideas, etc. Today, an LMS can handle that task and then some. For example, creating the list in the LMS so that others can make comments OR, better yet, add a POLL to your LMS about gift ideas. This would allow other parents to submit their ideas and for all to read feedback from each other. A specific example are video games. Today, a friend and colleague posted on his blog a list of educational video games for various ages and systems. What a great idea. You can see his list at Karl Kapp's Blog.

Lastly, I know it is another topic, but I can't talk about communicating with parents without address the real reason to do so -- to talk about their student and the student's progress. This is a really important topic because we have to think about how we want to communicate progress at this time of the year. I think at this time of the year, we can really help students and parents understand what the students need to work on. But, do it in a way that is supportive and assisting. For example, a stock and trade progress report at this time of year showing a student failing -- not very helpful. I would add, this is not very helpful at any point in the year. That is a different topic. I think this holiday season is a great time to be targeted and specific. So, for example, a progress report to struggling students could be a simple note saying "Angie's class participation in Geometry is much improved over the beginning of the year. I spoke to her about her enjoyment of the class and subject and she says it is getting better for her. She said the tutoring is helping. She and I discussed testing strategies since she seems to freeze on exams. Over the next few weeks, I have supplied her with a link to a test preparation website that works on test taking skills. The link is in the homeroom. I will talk to her after the holidays and work on the skills with her."

Now, this example sounds a bit TOO perfect - I know it is. But, it is a good example of how I could use the LMS (sending the message and posting the link) and good communication practices to reach out to the parents at this time of year.

So, in summary, an LMS can offer resources, link parents to other parents, get feedback from parents, provide for targeted communications and offer relevant, timely communication methods for your classroom and school.

LMSs - Do Students HATE Them?

Yesterday was Bloom U's graduation. Sitting in the audience I had the opportunity to hear the class President's speech. He was very well spoken, humorous, and honest.

In his speech he said there were things that he did NOT want to remember from his experiences at Bloom. I gasped when he said -- I knew when I first logged into Blackboard, that was something we would all not want to remember. I don't remember the full quote since I was too busy thinking -- "Did I just hear that?" So, do students in brick and mortar schools really HATE the integration of LMSs into their classes? Is this a unique sentiment in the college aged student population? Is there a need to look deeper into LMS features and benefits?

I post this as evidence that creating an engaging integration strategy for an LMS is critical. We as educational leaders must recognize that if we are just now thinking about integrating tools like Blackboard, Moodle, Angel and others into our educational systems, we are already arriving late to the prom. When we think about integration, we must not revel in the spectacle of the actual integration, claiming victory over all that is educationally and technologically on the cutting edge. Getting a system up and running alone in my opinion is not what we want to accomplish. We must consider all of the hard work to get the system up and running and everyone trained as the preparation for what we really want to accomplish, engaging students!

Where the rubber meets the road -- Students will give you many answers -- listen, take their advice, take their subtle hints, listen to their speeches; they can teach us a ton! I feel invigorated by his speech. I think he laid out a challenge for Bloom and for all schools and Ed Tech leaders. His speech means to me that LMS integration has made an impact, good or bad. It made enough of an impact to create a reason to speak of it at such a monumental event.

What can we learn from his speech?

LMS Advantage: Community Building

A few days ago, I participated in a great video exchange regarding a simple question: What is Community?

In my discussions regarding LMS integration into Brick and Mortar schools, a topic is "Community Building."

• Homework Assignments
• Recording Live Sessions for review
• Community Building
• Progress Reporting
• Course Content Delivery
• Group Projects
• Gradebook use and distribution
• Direct Parent Communications
• Enhancing Teacher Preparation Skills (and Instructional Design)
• Delivering Media
• Assessments
• Reaching Non-Participants (from your class)
• Assisting with Absenteeism
  
• Substitute Teacher Prep (thanks Dr. Karl Kapp)

There are some interesting posts, but I tend to think there are many more thoughts out there. See my post under my username viaEdTECH.

Community Question: Define Community (Cole Camplese)

Point 1: While it may seem obvious that students have the best avenue for creating community in brick and mortar schools (ie - they actually attend a school), I would posit that community is not automatically created when people are in direct contact with each other.

Point 2: Schools have an obligation to create community with all students. Think about the students who are reserved, those that do not participate in class often, don't raise their hand, or speak with other students. While we as educators should help those students socialize, forcing them to stand up in front of class often is more harmful than we can imagine. We should not forget that those students need a community and potentially, virtual communities can be a welcome addition to the class for them.

Point 3: Community for a school means inclusion of parents, local citizens, community leaders, business leaders, volunteers, local and not so local experts, school officials, school board members, etc.

So here is my challenge -- take all of the people from Point 3, get them together at the school enough times to build a common community (referring to Point 1) and ensure students from Point 2 take an active part in the conversation. How would you do it?

Post here - I would love to review your responses.

LMS - Designing and Delivering "Homework"

Now that we have a conversation going regarding the hybrid lives of our students, and the need for us to get classrooms and schools connected, I thought I would prioritize my discussion topics on LMS utilization. I moved student focused topics to the top to bring out additional ways we can initiate some vision for others to follow.

Here is the list -- those in red have been discuss (for everyone keeping track).

• Homework Assignments
• Recording Live Sessions for review
• Progress Reporting
• Course Content Delivery
• Group Projects
• Gradebook use and distribution
• Direct Parent Communications
• Enhancing Teacher Preparation Skills (and Instructional Design)
• Delivering Media
• Assessments
• Community Building
• Reaching Non-Participants (from your class)
• Assisting with Absenteeism
  
• Substitute Teacher Prep (thanks Dr. Karl Kapp)

Some really insightful points came from comments on my last post -- a need to get all curricular areas plugged in, shifting our thinking from "computer classes" to an integrated approach, and awakening to the realization that technology prevalence is on the rise, not decline in the lives of our students.

In one of my posts below, I mention the topic of assigning homework. So, before we can talk about how technology, in particular, the use of an LMS can help in the area of homework, I thought I would talk about what homework should be.

First, I would like to petition for the removal of the work "homework" from all World Languages. Please post a comment to vote with or against me -- I will see if the power we build behind this will initiate change ;-) Why remove it? Well, fess up -- as teachers, when we say, "Now, for your homework.....", what do we hear in response? Mostly, ahhhh, oohhhhhhh, grooooaaaannn, ohhhh man, yuck, etc. etc. Now, not that we should always follow the reactions of our students, but sensing the immediate resistance, we should think hard about the purpose and role of "homework."

So, what do we do instead? How will the world survive without homework? Homework always seemed sporatic to me in school. In other words, just before the end of the class, the teacher would yell out, "Now, don't forget your homework assignment." (enter similar but louder reactions from previous paragraph). The assignment would often be left over work that we did not complete in class, or reading that we did not get too because someone in the class was a slow reader when reading aloud, or preparation for a the test on the next day, etc. In each case, the homework seemed like busy work. But, more importantly, it seemed UNPLANNED! I often wondered if my teachers even knew what the homework assignment would be that day. Or, were they as surprised as we were? Also, it seemed that homework was a once and done assignment. For example, we would do something, turn it in, and it would never be pulled out again. Each homework assignment had a life and death of it's own. It would be completed, turned in, and forgotten.

So, back to the use of an LMS. Based on my thoughts about homework, the goal is then to create engaging, connected, relevant, planned, challenges for students. Oh, I used the "challenges" not so off the cuff here. If we think about how students learn, the role of completing a challenge is certainly more in tune with modern day living than completing HOMEWORK!

An LMS can help do all of the above. Here are some ideas.

Engaging Homework

• Interact with an online game
• Interact with an online video and respond to the embedded questions
• Create files, pictures, sounds, music, etc. to demonstrate understanding -- ie -- reading a poem with music in the background, typing a poem over a picture and creating a graphic file, using Powerpoint to demonstrate understanding of a mathematical formula, creating an ingredient list for baking cookies and posting it to the class website, etc.

Connected Homework

• Group students together so students do not work in isolation, form team roles
• Posting products on the course site and REUSE those products in future classes.
• Peer reviews of student submissions, thoughts, ideas, etc.
• Videos or sound files from past class presentations (class recaps)
• Videos or sound files for upcoming class presentations (teezers).

Relevant Homework

• Connections to outside resources (guest presentations only available online, podcasts etc.)
• Experts in the field commenting on student discussion boards, students asking questions of them.
• Use parent community to build value to assignments -- ie -- online class presentations, parents offering positive comments to classwork, etc.
  

Planned Homework

• Assignments Lists always available
• Due dates always available
• Late submission policies available
• Turn adhoc homework off and turn on only assignments that were planned -- builds a trust in the students -- ie -- assignments are thought out, valued and not busy work.
  
• Make students part of plan -- ie - with vision into plan, they can offer feedback ahead of time re: other school activities that could conflict. For example, the soccer team is going to states and will not be home for 2 days at the same time an assignment is scheduled. LMS tools can help coordinate, or even allow assignments to be submitted away from home.
  
• Eliminate excuses -- I forgot it at home, I lost my paper, I didn't have my book at home last night, my dog ate it (although, "My dog ate my laptop" is become a pretty popular excuse).

Challenging Homework: With all of the above put into place, homework does become more of a challenge. LMS's offer tools to help deliver quality homework. But first, we must redefine what homework is and shift our thinking. If we do that, the use of an LMS to deliver quality assignments will seem obvious.

LMS - Recorded Sessions

In my earlier post, I outlined areas for discussion in regards to using an LMS. I thought I would move the topic of discussion to the top to highlight what we are discussing and what is left to discuss. For today, I want to discuss the use of Recorded Sessions.

• Recording Live Sessions for review
• Progress Reporting
• Course Content Delivery
• Homework Assignments
• Group Projects
• Gradebook use and distribution
• Direct Parent Communications
• Enhancing Teacher Preparation Skills (and Instructional Design)
• Delivering Media
• Assessments
• Community Building
• Reaching Non-Participants (from your class)
• Assisting with Absenteeism
  
• Substitute Teacher Prep (thanks Dr. Karl Kapp

I thought this would be a great place to start seeing that we just finished a holiday here in US (Thanksgiving). All of us need a vacation, including students. But, we all know that jumping back into school again after a long break can be tough for some students. I should also say, I am not talking about assigning homework over break. That is a subject much different than providing learning resources for students to use as needed.

Imagine the last class before a long vacation. We work very hard as teachers to keep the students engaged. But, is there more we can do?

Using only a portion of a plan period and one of many Virtual Classroom tools (Wimba, Elluminate, or Bb's proprietary tool) available within most LMS's, teachers can record, in their own voice, a presentation highlighting the class content. Using Elluminate Live, a building block for Blackboard, a teacher can quickly setup a session, record the session and distribute the link to everyone in their class. The session can include voice, video, uploaded PowerPoint presentations, web tours, and various other shared applications. Teachers can even embed quizzes and send out files to all who view the session (within the recording).

The benefit to the student is that before returning to class, simply reviewing the recorded session can reinforce the live session and serve as a way for them to recall the content accurately (vs counting on them remembering the class or using just their notes).

As I write this I can think of several questions teachers may ask regarding recorded sessions including:

• Do I make reviewing the session an assignment?
• Do I offer credit for reviewing the sessions?
• How do I know the time I put into this is worth the effort?
• How do I know if the students gain anything from the recorded session?
• Do I track how many students view the recorded session?
• I think this activity is a great idea, how can I promote the use of the recorded sessions?
• How often should I recorded sessions?
• Should I record my live class presentations?
  

This topic alone could take some considerable time to fully discuss here! So, I would love to hear your thoughts.

In summary, I do believe recorded sessions can be incredibly powerful for students. As I am writting I am thinking this would be a great place to insert some data and research. So, check back over this week. I will be adding some value to this post with insights from others.

LMS Success Story

This video really highlights the benefits of certain LMS features (and more broadly the use of an LMS in schools). This happens to be focused on Blackboard. Feel free to think outside of just Blackboard. This could be Moodle, Angel or any other similarly featured LMS.




The beneficial take away is the video's focus on teachers and students. Enjoy!

Learning Management System

LMS's. Purely for use in virtual schools - right? Well, give this some thought.

In your brick and mortar school, are you looking for ways to connect parents and teachers? For example, how many tools do you currently have in place that allow parents to quickly have access to all of the homework assignments? That one is tough -- I will wait while you count......

Ok -- so, now you have counted. You may have come up with a few. So, I would love to hear them. Post a comment and let me know. HOWEVER, even if you do have some tools, are they centralized, easy to distribute, easy to archive, easy to secure?

This is just one example of the great conversations to be shared regarding the use of LMS's in ANY school system, virtual or not. I've put together a list of topics that I will cover over the next several weeks regarding LMS application to some really complex school challanges.

• Progress Reporting
• Course Content Delivery
• Homework Assignments
• Group Projects
• Gradebook use and distribution
• Direct Parent Communications
• Enhancing Teacher Preparation Skills (and Instructional Design)
• Delivering Media
• Assessments
• Community Building
• Recording Live Sessions for review
• Reaching Non-Participants (from your class)
• Assisting with Absenteeism
  
• Substitute Teacher Prep (thanks Dr. Karl Kapp)

Although these ideas can be applied to any LMS, my experiences come from using Blackboard. I found a similar posting on their site. You can see their brochure at: (pdf) Blackboard School Central.

To kick this off, my focus will be on use in a brick and mortar school. I never assume however that Virtual Schools make the best use of an LMS. I think in reality, they have the same struggles and can apply the same thinking as I will discuss for B&M schools. But, they have slightly different stakes, audiences, partnerships, contracts etc. that have to be considered. So, we will come back to Virtual Schools over the course of these conversations.