Virtual Teachers

Good evening, everyone!  We will be enjoying the thrills of video chatting this week!  This time we will be using Tiny Chat.   The link to our chat room is here...Set up your camera and microphone right away.  You will need to allow Tiny Chat access to your camera and microphone.  Here are some great 'selling' points for Tiny Chat:

• if you are not feeling the love of the webcam tonight you can use your microphone instead
• up to hundreds of folks can view the chat
• up to 12 folks can use their camera during the chat (at one time)
• there's an app for that ~ on Droid & Apple!

• Students want their teachers (and parents) to be familiar with the tools they use.  
• Students would really like their teachers to use their tools in the classroom.  They stated that they'd be more engaged, feel that their teachers were interested in them, and believe that the tools they use could really enhance their learning. 
• They find zero value in assemblies, lectures, or programs that teach them to be digitally responsible. Using the other information provided, we deduced that they'd get more value from having strong trusting relationships with their teachers and use technology for learning.
• 57% of them stated that they have been treated unkindly online, and 71% of them consider online unkindness to be cyber bullying.
• 49% admitted to being unkind online.  However, 60% of those students did not consider their actions be cyber bullying.  They said that when they said or did something unkind online that they were 'just joking', it was misinterpreted, or turned into drama.
• When something does happen online, they are overwhelmingly likely to go to their friends than to an adult.  Why?  Because even though they think we know that it happens online, we are truly clueless about what goes on online and are unlikely to do something about it.

This week's PowerPoint to guide us through class. Resources galore!

Hey folks!  I changed up the look to a blog.  The other template was limiting in what it could do (although very pretty).  I chose this template because I thought that it looked cleaner and would allow you to view ALL of the links & resources at once instead of scrolling through that phone.  Personally, I found that to be a pain.  You may notice that there are some new resources / links on the left sidebar as well as some social media sharing buttons at the bottom of each post.  I'm hoping to make this a part of our class tomorrow night. Enjoy!