Shu-NCrew

North Carolina Virtual Schools has an end of course survey that collects data about student performance, student perceptions of teacher performance, and ways to improve how NCVPS reaches the needs of learners across the state.  I checked it out.  It’s a nice survey. 

Because of the perspective of the survey though, it’s difficult to ask questions that are course specific and teacher specific.  There is valuable data to be gathered about our courses and about ourselves on an individual basis, and we have plenty of reasons to want that valuable data!  In English IV, we have consistent grammar, vocabulary, and writing assignments every unit.  Do you have some types of consistent assignments?  As part of the revision team, student perception on which types of assignments are working and which types of assignments aren’t effective would be incredibly valuable!

What’s more, students are very honest in these surveys.  They’ll let you know where you are lacking and where you excel.  If you can take feedback, and I encourage you to grow thick skin and seek feedback whenever you can, then you’ll love this method as a way to way to get valuable feedback.  The video below goes over my survey on the second day I rolled it out via a url in announcements.  At this time, there are only 12 responses, but I’m hoping more and more students complete the survey!

Shu

Tags: course surveys, data driven teaching, data in education, feedback, online polling

file extensions connect files to the right programs by telling the computer which program to use to open your files!

When you hear things in trainings like ‘.swf’ or ‘.jpg,’ those are file extensions. Some have even become part of our regular vocabulary without many even knowing that they’re talking about a file extension! An .mp3, for example, is a type of file, even though now the word is becoming synonymous with ’song.’
    What is it, and what does it do?  This is important.  A file extension tells your computer what file type it’s dealing with so it knows what program it should use to open a file.  For example, can you imagine opening an .mp3 in Microsoft Word?  It just wouldn’t work.
    If you open a file in microsoft word, you’re opening a .doc file. It gets confusing when a program opens and uses a bunch of different file extensions.
    For example, why do we need .mov, .avi, .flv, etc… they’re all video types, right?  Why do we need .wav and .mp3?  They’re all audio, right?  Yes, but the difference is size in those examples.  A song in .wav is a different than the same song saved as a .mp3.  Imagine a piece of data is the size of a marble.  A file is made up of a bunch of data.  If you filled an entire classroom full of marbles and called it a song file, that would be size of a song as a .wav.  If you put a few marbles in a mason jar, you’d have the size of the song as an .mp3.  Now you’re seeing the advantage of using different file types, right?  File extensions indicate the file type -that’s important.
    How many file types are there?  Hundreds, so don’t bother trying to learn them all.  The good news is that there are way fewer that you’ll actually have to worry about, and most, you’ll find, you already know!  In the comments below, I’m going to start a list of common file types. I’m hoping folks will help out by listing file types they run into in virtual education with ’the skinny’ on each file type.  If we get a big enough list, I’ll compile it to a table and share it!

Tags: file extensions, file types

Grades, grades, grades…

I’m a Virtual School teacher, and I’m also a f2f (tech-speak for face-to-face, or ‘regular’ teacher). For both, I use blackboard. I like blackboard for the most part, but it hasn’t changed much from its original version, published at the conclusion of WWII. It holds assignments well, but the gradebook is largely responsible for my lack of hair.

The good thing about blackboard’s gradebook is that students can access their grades, and they are thereby responsible for keeping up with their grades. Unfortunately, that’s the only good thing about blackboard’s gradebook. So I don’t lose myself in disparaging comments about blackboard though, I’m going to instead focus on the merits of my newly found friend, Google Docs.

First, get a Google account. You don’t have to get a google email address to do this. But for Pete’s sake, get a google account. There is much, much more to google than searching. I could spend a series of blogs explaining how educators can use google features… hmmm, good idea! But don’t wait for me to get to it! Check it out yourself.

With your Google account ready, check out my gradebook. It’s ok. I promise. It’s all confidential, because there are no names available. Instead, I ‘hide’ the names column unless someone else logs on, and I can see when someone else logs on.

I can make changes. Students can’t change anything or see hidden columns.
I can add comments that pop up when the mouse scrolls over their cells explaining assignments.
I can add different pages for different classes.
I can access the spreadsheet from my cell phone!
And I can create formulas that do all the calculations for me.

Students, administrators, teachers, parents… anyone can see the grades. But only people who actually have the students’ ID numbers know which grades belong to whom. This makes students’ grades, students’ responsibility. However, I edit the grades directly on the page, which makes this feature waaay faster than blackboard, Wise, or other cumbersome, expensive, outdated, central-office-mandated programs.

Check out google docs, and create your spreadsheet. If you’re learning how to replicate your courses consistently, then you should be able to recycle the Google Docs Spreadsheet year after year. Doing this gives me more time to contact students and parents, improve future instructions and assignments, and be a better teacher.

-Shu

Tags: blackboard, blackboard gradebook, educational ideas, educators, Google, gradebook, grades, NC Wise, online school, virtual education