"A course management system allows teachers to manage their classes, assignments, activities, quizzes and tests, resources, and more in an accessible online environment,"
(Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 138).
During my time in education I have had experience with several course management systems (CMS). Students have been taking ACCESS through the state of Alabama for several years. Our system also maintained a Moodle account for several years. Our students have used both Compass Learning and Edmentum software for online course work and credit recovery. We have never had a uniform system that everyone used. At this time I feel that Google Classroom would be a good fit in our system.
Instructional Design
Atsusi Hirumi stated in 2005 (as cited by Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015) that "a system is a set of interrelated components that work together to achieve a common purpose," (p. 146). Google Classroom fits that description. Google Classroom uses all of the G Suite apps and tools to provide the teacher with a user friendly management solution. We have already begun making the push into the G Suite apps. We have used Google Calendar and Drive for years to share events and documents across the district. All students and teachers have a G Suite account and we are moving to Gmail this summer.
Google Classroom allows teachers to not only combine these tools in an easy to use system, but it allows them to build class rosters and set up each course individually. To make things easier the teachers and the students are already familiar with the individual programs.
Teaching
"In general, teaching has moved away from traditional approaches in classroom settings,"(Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 167). K-12 instruction has been a little slower in this transition. There are still a large number of students who benefit from the "traditional classroom" setting. Not every student is meant to be a distant learner. Bibb County has taken steps to offer courses through online instruction. We are currently using Edmentum's online courses. Google Classroom would allow teachers to do more hybrid, distributed learning. Students would still come to a traditional classroom, but teachers would have the option of including assignments online. This would help to end forgotten or lost assignments and would help prepare the students for computerized coursework.
Teachers could add students from their traditional class to a Google Classroom. They could post reminders, links, announcements, and assignments to this classroom. Students would always have access to due dates and submissions. Teachers would benefit from not having to worry about giving out make up work to students who were absent. This would also help children who have discipline or medical issues.
Thanks to #GoogleClassroom, #k12 teachers spend more time teaching and less time photocopying https://t.co/dxrzc46PmJ via @EdTech_K12— Wesley Lawley (@wes_lawley) June 19, 2017
Students
Almost all of our students today are familiar with Google. Students use Google Search and YouTube on a regular basis. Google Classroom allows students to utilize these programs in their instructional setting. As stated above, for now Bibb County would be mostly interested in using Google Classroom for distributed learning i.e. "face-to-face instruction that incoporates some form of technology-based learning experience," (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 170). This facilitates not only the students who need the face-to-face instruction, but also the ones who thrive with modern technology. It allows for more differentiated instruction. Google Classroom allows teachers to assign activities to individual students, groups, or entire classes. This gives students prior experience with online instruction to help them succeed with future distance education courses. (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 193)
Support Materials
With almost the entire Google App arsenal at their disposal, teachers have many choices on distributing support materials. Teachers can share videos through YouTube, documents and presentations through Drive, and use Blogs and Drive for collaboration. Teachers have a centralized place to post their syllabus, schedule, rubrics, etc. Students can elect to print the material or just refer to the digital copy within the course. Google is limited in some of the design elements and some teachers may prefer this simplicity. Others can always elect to use Google Sites to create a free class webpage that offers much more to site design.
Assessment
In my opinion student assessment is the biggest drawback of using Google Classroom. There are many tutorials dedicated to building quizzes and tests using Google Forms, but you are still limited in what you can assess using this. Many math and science teachers would find it hard to use Google for any assessments beyond multiple choice and essay. It also takes a lot of work to set up automatic grading. Bibb County already has an English teacher who "distributes" his entire English 10 course through Google. Students collaborate on assignments, blog reflections, and create content all using Google Apps.
Summary
I hope to continue the movement to Google Classroom. As more teachers get familiar with the platform I want to offer more Google Classroom workshops. I have to get the teachers onboard with the transition. Teachers and students could benefit from the embedded online instruction and organization. It could save time for teachers and give the students more control over their instruction. It would also allow students in Bibb County who do not take ACCESS classes the experience they need with online courses.
Teaching in the 21st century does mean teaching 21st generation. It means helping and monitoring the students to learn and implement 21st century skill. So teachers must be very welcoming to any new technology to ensure the best learning in the virtual classroom besides the physical classroom. (Iftakhar, S. 2016).
Check out this quick overview of how easy it is to use!
References
[Google for
Education]. (2017, March 15). Classroom 101 [Video File]. Retrieved
from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIN-EtPa0lw&feature=youtu.be
Iftakhar, S. (2016).
Google Classroom: What Works and How? Journal
of Education and Social Sciences, 3. Retrieved from: http://jesoc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/KC3_35.pdf
Simonson, M.,
Smaldino, S., & Zvacek, S. (2015). Teaching
and Learning at a Distance (6th ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information
Age Publishing, Inc.
You make many excellent points. I really like what you wrote about students feeling at-ease with using Google to answer their own questions and look up information. Simonson, Smaldino and Zvacek (2015) recognize the differences in students today, "they are highly familiar with using mobile technologies and communication tools to exchange information" (pg. 201). Students today have the knowledge and the tools to access information on any topic they need. The idea of bringing in Google Classroom as a LMS makes sense because they are comfortable using these products and because they allow for collaboration so easily. When students are comfortable in their learning environments, they are more likely to learn.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., & Zvacek, S. (2015). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (6th ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.