20Learn
Where Learning Happens │February 24, 2020
Conferences - Your Friend on Snow Days
It snows in Colorado and we have snow days. At the mere mention of an approaching storm, students start their version of the snow dance and teachers worry about how to accomplish everything. We don’t have e-Learning days in Academy District 20 to keep us on pace, but we do have a tool just a click away to support those teachers (and students) concerned about addressing all the material necessary to prepare for benchmarks and deadlines like AP tests - it’s called Conferences.
Conferences is one of the apps we have integrated into our Learning Management System, Schoology. Conferences provides the teacher a means to work with students outside of the brick and mortar classroom. The teacher can provide direct instruction through presentations, annotations, an interactive whiteboard, and live webcams. Think about being able to work with homebound students, provide distance learning, monitor AP study sessions, and did I mention snow days?!
As with anything new, try it out first. Try it with your students in class, so that they know what is expected of them. If you plan on using this for snow days, have a procedure in place in advance.
Check out this slide deck and the videos below for information and directions.
- Conferences - Slide deck
- Create a Conference
- Conduct a Conference
- Join a Conference
- End a Conference
- Video Tutorials
(Note: Conferences is a product of BigBlueButton.)
The Benefits of an LMS on Snow Days
We can’t control the weather, but we can control how we respond to it. Missing instructional time can become stressful, especially when deadlines and testing are approaching.
Schoology crowdsourced input from users across the country on how they navigate these waters. The resulting document is attached below.
Consider the following ways to utilize Schoology during snow days:
Communicate with students and parents using Updates, Messaging, and Course Messaging
Use Conferences for help sessions (this app is already installed for everyone)
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Susan Murray-Carrico
Email: susan.murray@asd20.org
Website: www.digitalteachingandlearning.com
Location: 1110 Chapel Hills Drive, Colorado Springs, CO, USA
Phone: 719.234.1471
Twitter: @FrauSusi