Re: New Distance Learning Teacher

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Distance Teachers Chatboard

New Distance Learning Teacher

by Ms. Egan

Aug 6, 2008

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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bernoulli 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 s...See MoreHow 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!

Aug 6, 2008

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