For several months I've been
observing my colleagues' use of Learning Management Systems. An LMS allows the
teacher to manage their class's online learning activities in one centralized
location.
The LMS
·
allows teachers to present new material that he/she wishes the
students to acquire
·
allows teachers to post assignments and track student progress
·
allows students to follow each other's assignments
·
facilitates collaboration among students
·
facilitates online evaluation tools that serve not only to evaluate,
but to further learning
I taught a similar class last
year and found it difficult to keep track of all of the audio-visual materials,
online tools, documents and learning strategies that are needed to create a
high quality online lesson.
I've created two of the ten
lessons so far and, although I don't know yet whether it will be a more
effective learning environment for the students, I can already see that the
Haiku LMS will help me stay organized and on target.
There have been a few bumps
on the learning curve, but basically, with one click you can create a new content
block or a new page, sending you on your way to establishing your class Haiku. So non-techies, we can do this too.
Before beginning my lesson
plans I did a little research and acquired some tips that have been helpful.
1. There's more than one
way to skin a cat. When the technology seems overwhelming, consider alternate
ways to solve a problem. Or just move on. I wasn't able to embed a video or
post a photo on my Haiku page so I just added in the video link instead of the
embed code -- we'll have to view the video on an alternate forum -- and cut and pasted my photos in the text box from a WORD document instead
of inserting them as a computer file.
2. Look at your lesson
from the standpoint of someone who knows less about technology than you do. I
noticed that when I put different activities in different content blocks it was
difficult to tell where one activity stopped and the second one began. I alternated
text colors for each activity -- that simple change ensured a more
comprehensible format.
3. Keep it simple, at
least at first. There are numerous ways to prepare the Haiku layout. You can
arrange your pages and content by date, topic, category, chapter - whatever
works for you. You can create a page with sub pages for each unit you teach or
organize your pages based on a general topic. You can also organize the
information on any page and rearrange as you wish. Start simple and get more
creative as time goes on, as you start to feel more comfortable with the
system. Again, the idea is to make the system work for you. If you get
frustrated and abandon the LMS, everyone loses.
4. Keep your class URL
simple. The URL is created when you type in your class title. Keeping it simple
will allow you and your students to easily find the URL if you ever need to do
a search.
5. The Manage Class Button allows you to share your class, import content, quickly access the students' emails and more. Become familiar with the Manage Class tool and take advantage of everything that it offers you.
6.
Sometimes the hardest stage
in using online tools is taking the first step. I encourage you to take the
Haiku plunge – you'll be glad that you did.
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