"What are some ways that 'digitizing' assignments will improve your teaching, class, or your organization?"
The idea of digitizing assignments is so exciting to me that
I would like to start doing it right away - starting with the very next
semester at Bucheon University. More precisely, I really want to implement a
learning management system into our curriculum to streamline the dissemination
of assignments, expectations, attendance records, and anything else that could
otherwise be 'lost in translation' somewhere along the line.
Although implementing an LMS into our school is probably not
going to be an option anytime soon, that doesn't mean that I can't find other
creative ways to connect our classroom digitally. I think that by creating a
class facebook page or shared folder in dropbox are two easy ways to hold the
students accountable for all of their assignments (regardless of their excused
or unexcused absences) and I think it will cut down on time wasted making
copies, since the students will be responsible for printing the copies
themselves (not to mention the elimination of overprinting). I think the
biggest area of improvement for me as a teacher would be in my organization of
the class. It would allow me to spend more time working on the class while I am
away from the classroom, and would put more of the onus on the students to come
to class prepared and ready.
The support that we get from our university to diversify our
teaching methods is is virtually nonexistent, which of course is a difficult
challenge to overcome, but I do think that the slow, incremental introduction
to becoming more digitized would not be met with sheer resistance. It would be
a great step forward, in my opinion, to begin implementing a more digitized
system of class organization, with an aim to one day catch up to the standards
of modernity that we see in more prestigious and well established institutions.
3 comments:
This is a re-post from my original post from Oct. 7th. The format was strange and I couldn't seem to correct it, so I simply re-posted the same blog here.
Thanks for reading,
-Zak
As teachers it is our responsibility to find ways, how to create, a better learning environment for both students and teachers alike. I agree, either a class facebook page or shared folder in dropbox for class assignments would be a great idea. This would be a system I could see myself doing for two reasons you have mentioned. It would allow me to spend less time at the photocopy machine and more time on preparing my lesson plan presentation. As well, a greater responsibility would be given to the students, which in turn, may help them be more productive.
I feel the same way. I haven't been this excited to try something new with my classes in years. I'm not sure if we'd be able to take full advantage of what an LMS such as Schoology has to offer, but there are definitely aspects of it that we can use.
Next semester I want to start fresh and try some of these new ideas with my classes. I like the Facebook groups idea, but I have to clean up my online identity first, that's for sure. Maybe Kakao groups would work even better since they are already on Kakao.
I'm also a big fan of the going paperless idea. It has so many different benefits for us as teachers, and also for our students. Beyond the environmental benefits, there's the time saved, and the accessibility. Students will always have access to the documents they need whenever they need it. I think we have to get our students more involved in their own learning and this would be a step in the right direction.
I actually can't wait for next semester to start!
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