NEWSLETTER FROM ONLINECLASS(TM)
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http://www.onlineclass.com
tbt@onlineclass.com
February, 2000
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Contents:
Staying Alive and Lively - the Publishing Revolution
Extra Sessions This Year
Congratulations to the Minnesota Grant Winners
Letters to the Editor
_______________________________________________________________________
***** Staying Alive and Lively *****
Now that we're in the fourth week of our winter quarter, things are
starting to really hum along. Most of the technical questions are out of
the way; teachers are learning how to size and format pictures; students
are getting good at using the interactive forms on the Web sites; and their
investigation of each topic area is obviously paying off - their questions
to us and to our online experts get more insightful and in-depth every day.
This is the fun part. We get to see the learning that is happening in the
classrooms mirrored on the school Web sites we maintain. We witness growth,
as students' technical, writing and investigative skills improve before our
very eyes.
It is remarkable how the process repeats itself each time. Just when our
moderators think they will hear the same question a thousand times, a new
and more informed level is reached, and we are off and running in new
directions.
Right now OnlineClass is operating nine programs with two moderators, and a
fistful of helpful experts. What?!? How can we do it? The reason we can is
because our teachers do most of the work, creating a lively environment in
the classroom, using the materials from our writers as their foundation.
That leaves us the rather "simple" task of processing and posting the
information and work sent in by the students. Reports, poetry, art work,
questions, all flow in on an hourly basis, and our fingers fly to turn it
around so that students get feedback from us and from each other as quickly
as possible.
For those not aware of how it works, the process is simple: All of the
OnlineClass teaching material resides in private classrooms on the Web,
ready for teachers and students to use 24 hours a day, any day of the
quarter. Each classroom works at its own pace, choosing the most applicable
activities, but there is a flow of conversation among both teachers and
students that keeps them aware of what the others are doing. At OnlineClass
we keep the dialog going. All student work is posted on the public area of
the Web so that visitors, parents and other students can see and comment on
the results.
Publishing student work keeps students motivated to submit more. It is our
most important task, and it is a pleasure. As I write this, a production
assistant is oohing and ahhing in the other room over a picture he just
downloaded - a clay model of Dionysus, sent in by a Zeus Speaks student.
How can we not love what we do?!? It is endlessly entertaining and
inspiring, and each day we learn something new.
While the process is simple, the results of the process are more complex.
We see daily improvement in technical skills (using the Internet to
communicate means that students gain a firmer grasp of the steps involved
in writing e-mail, researching on the Web, working with graphic and text)
and writing skills (we can see measurable growth in individual student
contributions over one quarter).
When we step back for a moment and look at the posted work, we also become
keenly aware that these students are part of the great publishing
revolution taking place on the Internet. Their work is published on a
public site available to anyone on the 'net. It thus becomes a resource
used by other students, other schools. More and more often, we receive
e-mails from kids and from schools looking to our site for information on
dinosaurs, Antarctic animals, the elections, etc. These are not project
collaborators. These are outsiders who find our student work useful in
their own settings.
Our students take that responsibility seriously. They rise to the occasion.
We hear from them not only during the school day, but late at night and on
weekends as they send in extra work from home; we get corrections when they
see their work and are unsatisfied. No, the spelling is not always perfect
and the writing is clearly done by kids, but the work is good and
interesting. More important, individual work improves over time. The bar
keeps rising, and they are the ones setting the standard.
Look for yourself and enjoy:
*** Keep this one on file through the presidential election season: Our
"Balloteers" students are maintaining a daily elections newspaper, offering
news of the presidential campaigns, local political news and information
about the governmental process. Their newspaper is located at
<http://www.onlineclass.com/Ballot/monitor.html>. Feel free to use it in
your classrooms to show your students what other kids have to say about the
elections.
*** The schools participating in "On the Trail with Lewis and Clark" have
each taken on the task of researching a particular native American tribe on
the Lewis and Clark route. Their reports are starting to come in at
<http://www.onlineclass.com/Trail/students.html>
*** Each classroom in "Dinosaurs Alive" has "adopted" a dinosaur to
research. Take a look at the in-depth information that a young classroom
can gather when motivated to publish online. These younger grades, of
course, are very visual, too. Their Web pages are a delight.
<http://www.onlineclass.com/Dinosaurs/students.htm>
*** "Blue Ice" schools are collecting and comparing weather data each week
on the private site. They're also researching the animals of the Antarctic
food web. As they learn about the factors relating to food webs - habitat,
prey and predators, climate, adaptation, etc., their research grows in
scope. Look at the chart of animals that is beginning to collect
information. <http://www.onlineclass.com/BI/creativekids.html>
*** In the "North American Quilt," students answer research questions on a
variety of geography topics. The information they gather is published in a
public "quilt" of information that makes us aware of our likes and
differences. <http://www.onlineclass.com/NAQ/regions.html>
*** "Physics Park" students have been very busy sketching their preliminary
roller coasters design. By doing so, they can review each other's work and
make suggestions. This has been a busy few days at "Physics Park." The
initial concepts are hard, and the task of drawing their preliminary plans
is challenging. What fun it is to see the ideas materialize at
<http://www.onlineclass.com/Physics/schools.html>
*** Ditto for our "Ocean Explorers." This is the week the participating
schools must vote on the destination they will all head for in their
virtual voyages, so the line has been buzzing with persuasive pictures and
text, as they try to get the other schools to vote for their destination.
See the results at <http://www.onlineclass.com/Oceans/students.htm>
*** Zeus Speaks is, in fact, our liveliest program, with hundreds of
contributions each week. The school Web pages reflect the activity. Art
work, poetry, stories, reports on the gods and goddesses and essays on
ancient Greece dot the pages at
<http://www.onlineclass.com/Mythos/creativekids.html>
*** And DoodleOpolis doodlers are keeping notebooks where they can jot down
sketches of their built environment. This one's a small group and the
pictures are just starting to materialize. It's fun to see.
<http://www.onlineclass.com/Doodle/books.html>
This, frankly, the publishing side of OnlineClass, is in our estimation the
most important thing we do. The rest might be possible for a teacher to
create alone - building a teaching unit, finding Web research links,
posting assignments. But the power of publishing student work as a
collaborative, group can only happen in a setting where schools are brought
together and their work is reviewed and regularly posted. The quality of
the work can only grow over an extended time of publishing exposure and
experience, offered by the length and depth of the online courses.
We're proud of what we do. We are even prouder of what the students do.
Every day it is a pleasure to go online and bring down the first load of
funny comments, curious questions, intelligent investigation and
imaginative story-telling. Every day we learn more about what works and
what doesn't, and get better at drawing the best out of these, the
publishing giants of the new medium.
Cathy de Moll, president, OnlineClass
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***** Extra Sessions This Year *****
You may have noticed that while, in years past, we've only offer two
sessions of each of our programs, this year we are offering three. That
means that if you have been hesitating to jump onboard, you still have
another chance. Our spring session begins in March of 2000. For two
programs, Blue Ice and Dinosaurs Alive, we are also experimenting with a
summer option (July/August). If there are enough interested, we'll run
those courses.
Sign up for the March and July sessions at
<http://www.onlineclass.com/general/registration.html>
Next year we're planning to run "open enrollment" for all the classes -
meaning that you can start and stop at anytime of the school year. We've
been surveying active teachers about this option, but we'd invite others to
comment now on the implications of such a system. Let us know what you
think!
_______________________________________________________________________
***** Congratulations to the Minnesota Grant Winners *****
We are delighted to announce the winners of the grant cosponsored by the
Minnesota Technology Policy Bureau of the Department of Administration,
OnlineClass, the Star Tribune, Minnesota Elementary Principals Association
and Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals. They will be
participating in OnlineClass during the March - May and September -
December quarters and will be creating rubrics for Minnesota graduation
standards as they go.
The schools are:
- Cathedral Elementary School, Winona
- St. John Lutheran School, Redwood Falls
- South View Middle School, Edina
- Rossman Elementary School, Detroit Lakes
- Behrens Home Educators, Maplewood
- Kasson-Mantorville Elementary School, Kasson
- Herman-Norcross Community Schools, Herman
- Winona Senior High School, Winona
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***** Letters to the Editor *****
Dear Cathy,
Thank you for the inspiring story of your friend. It makes it all worth
while.
Holiday Blessings to you. We enjoyed our Dino class last semester but will
be
taking this semester "offline" so to speak. Thank you for the work you do
and in continuing the plight of the inspring teachers from the past into
the 21st century.
Peace,
Carol Hagar
Logos Lerning
@@@@
Hello,
I maintain a web site for teachers at the link listed below. I would like
permission to post your newsletter article titled "Kid-Oriented Web Sites:
Assigning Internet Research" on my site. I would, of course, give full
credit (with a link) to Onlineclass and the individual writer if given
permission/information to do so. Thank you for browsing my site and
considering this request. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Laurie Hagberg
http://home.att.net/~adhd.kids/
REPLY: We are happy to give permission for reposts to those who write us
and who list our Web address.
---------------
We love to hear from you on issues related to online teaching and learning.
Please write to us at <tbt@onlineclass.com>. Put "letters to the editor" in
the subject line. Thanks!
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(c) TBT International, Inc., DBA OnlineClass. 935 McLean Ave, Ste 2, St.
Paul, MN 55106. Tel: 651-771-3809 or 800-822-3809 E-mail:
<tbt@onlineclass.com>
Please accept our apologies if you are receiving more than one copy. Send
us a note and we'll try to find the duplication on our various program and
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Note that on a few occasions, we receive remove requests from folks who
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makes it difficult to help, especially if we get bounced from the current
address. If you fit in this category, please accept our apologies for being
unable to answer your request, and please help us by identifying the
address you want deleted.
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