February 10th, 2021
Andrés Porras
This year has thrown us a lot of curveballs, one of which has been re-imagining our classroom routines to fit an online experience. At Coded-Minds Canada, we like to encourage student learning, in whatever format we’re in. Here’s some tips our staff has come up with for making your next online lesson a success.
Use Breakout Rooms:
Breakout rooms are mini meetings within the large meeting that allow for small group work. Use these when you want to encourage discussions between participants, assigning group work, and to give your students a chance to socialize with their friends. Google Meets, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom all allow for breakout rooms in their meeting. You have the option to create the breakout rooms yourself or have them randomly assigned. You can have a facilitator for each room, or you can pop in and out of rooms yourself. At Coded-Minds, we’ve used these during our training sessions to encourage brainstorming and it’s been a great success!
Embrace the Medium:
Online learning has changed a lot over the past decade, and there’s more tools than ever to engage your students. One great tool that you may not have considered is gathering your students in a virtual Minecraft World. Minecraft Education Edition has a wide selection of pre-built worlds covering all subjects such as Math, Science, English, and Computer Science. Our instructors have found these to be especially useful when doing 1-1 tutoring online. If Minecraft isn’t your thing, you can always check out other online tools such as Kahoot!, Flipgrid, and Skribl.
Go Hands-On:
Just because you’re teaching online doesn’t mean that you can’t do crafts and experiments. One of our instructors used Makey-Makeys, Scratch, tinfoil, and cardboard to create virtual instruments with their online class. The students were extremely engaged in the activity and enjoyed the chance to use their scissors, markers, and glue for their projects. It’s important that students practice their fine motor skills as well as their computer skills when online learning.
Final Thoughts:
Online learning can be fun and engaging if you give yourself the permission to be creative. At Coded-Minds Canada we pride ourselves in our ability to create student-led experiences regardless of the setting. We’d love to hear from you, sound off in the comments about your tips and tricks for online learning.
- Andrés Porras
Did you know Coded Minds is a pioneer in iSTEAM and one of the first companies to integrate it into their learning objectives and educational programs? To enrol your child in iSTEAM learning or learn how to integrate iSTEAM into your educational program or curriculum, CLICK HERE.
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