Communicate 3.2.2 – Differentiation Quest

Communicate 3.2.2 – Differentiation Quest

Differentiation is critical in all aspects of education. Communication should be differentiated by making sure to communicate with all stakeholders to meet their various learning styles- auditory, visual, kinesthetic, or a mixture of these.

I created a welcome announcement for the Methods and Materials Course for Floyd County Schools on Goanimate.com. It is an animated way to produce auditory and visual announcements, reminders, and much more into an online course.


http://goanimate.com/videos/0yDGQaUnmE4Q?utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=usercontent

Communicate 3.2.1 – The Newsletter Quest

15

AUG

2014

Communicate 3.2.1 – The Newsletter Quest

Communication is a critical part to the online education experience. There are numerous tools that can make online classes more accessible and keep the lines of communication open and flowing.

Remind 101- It a valuable tool that can allow teachers to send out important messages, reminders, homework assignments, project reminders, test reminders, etc... to all students and parents by sending one text. Parents and students do bare the burden of signing up for the teacher's class.

Newsletters are another critical tool for teachers to utilize in the classroom for online learning. Newsletters can be weekly or monthly. They are a great way to keep parents and students informed of upcoming events, contact information, and much more.

Please see an online newsletter created in "Smore".

https://www.smore.com/q87a9

Announcements- Announcements are a wonderful way to remind students of important upcoming events in your classroom. An animated announcement can really get the attention of your stakeholders. Please see this link to look at an announcement I made from Voki.

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=10478026&height=267&width=200'

Communicate 3.1.2 – News Quest

Communicate 3.1.1 – Homepages Quest

Communicate 2.1.3 – Ongoing Communication Quest

Integrating the ideas presented in Communicate: Stakeholders quests, create a blog post in which you discuss reasons why effective communication remains an essential part of online instruction. In the blog post, create an example of an ongoing communication that could be sent to all stakeholders. Ensure the product is creative, informative, and adheres to FERPA guidelines

Ongoing communication can be the key to a successful online course experience. Instructors need to keep in touch and keep the lines of communication flowing throughout the course and not just at the beginning and end. Ongoing communication for an online class can be implemented in various modes: 

* weekly newsletters

* reminder posts

* Group email or email blasts

* Remind 101's

* Phone calls

* Conferences- phone, virtual, facetime, or face to face

* Posts on Social Media

* Updates on websites

* Home visits

* Feedback emails- privately 

* Progress Reports- can not be posted publicly.

* Grade updates- remember that grades can not be posted in public domain!

Communicate 2.1.2 – Communication Guidelines Quest

• Welcome email (generic for all courses)  :This should set the tone for the course and make all stakeholders especially students and parents feel excited and positive about this course.

• Personal notes versus mass communication to stakeholders (appropriate times): Personal notes of welcome, encouragement, praise can really make a person feel special. Mass communication is a helpful tool but should never take the place of that personal touch of  a teacher taking the time to go that extra mile to support parents and students.

• Stakeholders- need to all have a voice in decisions and planning at the school.  It is best for all involve to have a place at the table in the decision making process so all sides have voiced their views and concerns.

• School Policies regarding Communication- school policies should have in place numerous ways to be able to reach out to all stakeholders. This should involve: website, emails, phone calls, conferences, newsletters, Remind 101, parent portals for grades, news releases, social media- twitter, facebook, etc...

• Tools available for effective Communication should include but not limited to phone calls, notes- paper or text messages, newsletters, class and school newsletters and websites, social media.

Communicate 2.1.1 – Identify Stakeholders Quest

• Do the descriptions correlate to your perception?  Yes, the descriptions of the different stakeholder groups do correlate with my perception. Students are of course the most important stakeholder in any educational forum whether it is online or bricks/mortar building. We must make sure we meet the needs and listen to our students. Parents are the next most important group in education. Parents are the only advocates for their children so we must listen and be patience with them no matter what the platform for curriculum may be. Teachers are another key stakeholder in education, as well as administrators. All of these stakeholders have a vested interested in the success of the student. Open communication is best and all parties must be willing to not only listen but be actively engaged and participate in dialogue with others about what is best for the student.
• How can they be expanded upon or described further? Stakeholders can be described further with specific goals of each group. Students goals should include each child will learn daily, each child will achieve, each student will be successful and each student will be "college and career ready." Parents goals should be to be an advocate for their child, be supportive of the school, hold their child accountable and "be present" for the school and student. Teaches goals include student achievement, build a healthy relationship with parents and students, and to be life-long learners themselves as well as to inspire their students to strive for this goal. Administrators goals to work with all stakeholders and triage any situations that need their attention, be flexible, be supportive and be motivating.
• Are there other stakeholders within an online environment not considered above? Business partners and community members are other intrical stakeholders in education. Business partners can help support the schools not only financially but emotionally and physically. Community members also have a vested interest so students are prepared to be productive citizens and leaders in the community.