Khan Academy || edX || shmoop || Open Yale Courses || TED: Ideas with spreading
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Digital Learning Communities: the good, the better, and the best...
I have been using digital learning communities in my classroom for a few years now with good feedback from my students. Two DLC's of honorable mention are shmoop and Khan academy. Both of these sites are geared to meet the needs of high school students, serving in the capacity of homework help, classroom supplement, and test prep (SAT, ACT, & AP). I also think that both sites do a good job of presenting their interface in a cool, younger generational way while offering visually appealing content and videos that our 21st century students connect with. #studentapproved #good
As an AP History teacher I am always searching for new resources, both digital and print alike, that will push my students into a deeper understanding of my content. While I was already familiar with Open Yale Courses, I was super excited to find edX! While Open Yale Courses is a great site that I have personally perused numerous times, I am especially drawn to edX because it offers a consortium of free, online courses from the top universities from around the world! It is free access to a variety of higher ed courses from universities that I've always dreamed of attending... It doesn't get any better than that! #teacherapproved #better
In all, the digital learning communities that I bookmarked are impressive and notable because they are easy and effective to navigate, as well as visually appealing and organized. Finally, and most importantly, their resources are *free. #best
*shmoop offers many of its resources for free, but full access to the site requires paid membership
Do you know TED? If not, then please know that I am so excited to introduce TED to you! If yes, then I am even more excited to share in the awesomeness of TED with you! Although a little unconventional (I am not even sure if it would qualify as a traditional DLC), I believe it is definitely the most intriguing digital learning community around.
There are three main reasons why I decided to join TED as my DLC. First, it is easily accessible with all of their notable TEDtalks running anywhere between 3 to 20 minutes. For most students and teachers alike, there is not much time in the day to leisurely peruse DLC's or to enroll in online courses. TED makes it super quick and easy to watch their "talks" while eating lunch or riding the bus home.
Second, while TED's mission is to spread ideas to everyone, they also have a K12 extension called TEDed. This site is the designed with teachers and students in mind and encourages not only the use of lessons, videos, and modules available but also the creation of resources to be added to the digital learning community.
Finally, I chose to join the TED community because they not only spread ideas but also passion. Watching a TED talk of one person who is so passionate about their topic or idea or technology is nothing short of contagious. I walk away feeling academically fed and intrinsically motivated to pursue my own passions.
When DLC meets K12...
I believe that digital learning communities are doing a good job of appealing to young people overall. However, I feel that the biggest obstacle that DLC's have in attracting K12 students to their resources is awareness. Most students I have spoken with are unaware of the numerous DLC's on the web. As 21st century teachers, our biggest role in advocating for DLC's is to introduce them to our students.
So which DLC's will you introduce to your students? For a starting point, check out my top 5 DLC links at the top of this post or check out my Google Bookmarks!
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