How are you physically teaching two classes simultaneously?

I taught this type of class once with a class at my university
and two other remote sites at other universities. The rooms
were miked so everyone could hear everyone else. Extra cameras
also showed the students in each classroom. PowerPoint
presentations were shown on a separate screen in each room.

One consideration is handouts if you intend to use them. We
would send out files a day or two in advance so handouts could
be printed out and be available. We recorded the classes for
absentees to review. There was a camera over the front desk
over a pad of paper. If the instructor wrote on it, the camera
projected it to all classes.(Keep the pages and make copies or
scans if it makes sense to do so).

The technology is critical. Everything has to work for
everyone to be able to see, read, and hear. You need a
technician at each site who is capable and on time. Get to
class very early and make sure everything is working. Have
telephone and cell numbers for all classrooms, instructors and
techies so you can reach them as needed.

Leave some slack so that if technology doesn't work, you can
make it up later. We almost lost one whole class session
because the feed to the remote sites didn't work. We taped the
session and sent copies to the other sites.

I assigned two students each class to make a web page for
topic of the day. This turned out to be a good idea because
students took pride in their work and were "published" on the
internet.

On 8/06/08, Ms. Egan wrote:
> This September I am faced with a dual challenge. This
> will be my first year as a Secondary Social Studies
> teacher at the high school level. I was also hired as a
> Distance Learning teacher for Advanced Placement
> Psychology. I will be instructing two live classes
> simultaneously with 2 classes streaming in live from other
> districts. I was wondering if any of the seasoned
> veterans or newbies like myself could offer any advice or
> online resources where I can find tips on conducting
> distance learning classes. Thank you in advance!

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