BYOT – Bring Your Own Teaching
As we all scramble to move from live classrooms where the students come to us at a specific time and place, to virtual classrooms, where students often choose their time and each one is likely in their own home, we are faced with many challenges.
- Which technology do I use? Do I need one platform or many?
- How do I convert my lesson plans? Practice sheets? Homework?
- Will my students show up if I schedule a class time? Would Q&A sessions be better? Or on-demand tutoring either one-on-one or small group?
- How many students will cheat and have others do their work for them? Will some students decide not to work at all?
- What if my students don’t have powerful enough devices to access the classroom/work/etc.?
First, let me assure you of the most important truth. You care! You wouldn’t be reading this post if you didn’t. Therefore, you can trust yourself that you can and will solve these challenges – and more – so that your students who want to learn will be able to do so.
You care! And caring drives the heart to solve any challenge.
You have overcome ALL the challenges you faced so far in your life. Think about it… Even if you are not great with technology, even if you previously believed the only good instruction is face-to-face, you can and will survive these current times. In fact, I will assert that you will be better at virtual classrooms than most because you will rely on the most important factor to learning – great teaching!
Technology doesn’t make great learning, great teachers do. There is no one right way – there is YOUR way. The way that works best for you.You just may need to get creative on how to deliver your instruction, homework, practice lessons, feedback, etc.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
My expertise lies in the area of technology. My passion is educational technology. I have spent the last 20 years building, designing and releasing technology that helps students learn (PLATO Learning now Edmentum 2000-2005 & 2006-2007, Pearson 2005-2006, Assessment Learning and Technology Solutions 2007-2018), scholars and students analyze complex data with geographic implications (Blue Raster 2008-2017), and humans connect (Synzi 2017-2019). During this time of crisis and uncertainty, I feel drawn to share with you several important truths.
Blackboard is not the only option. Zoom is not the only option.
There is not one “right technology”.
Stop searching, trust yourself and your style of teaching…
Alternatives to Blackboard
<coming soon>
Alternatives to Zoom
While there are many tools in the market, here’s a quick comparison of some of my favorites.
| Zoom | UberConference | JitsiMeet | |
|---|---|---|---|
| – Video – | |||
| Camera | x | x | x |
| Screen Share – 1 person | x | x | x |
| Screen Share – Each person | – | – | x |
| Camera + Screen Share Simultaneously | presenter only | – | – |
| Screen Share iPhone/iPad | x | ? | ? |
| Tile View | with paging | – | x |
| Individual bandwidth / quality control* | ? | ? | x |
| – Audio – | |||
| Computer** | x | x | x |
| Mobile Device** | x | x | x |
| Call-in Number*** | paid account | requires pin | – |
| – Features – | |||
| Text Chat | x | x | x |
| Raise Hand | x | ? | x |
| Mute Individual Participants | ? | ? | x |
| Mute All Participants | paid account? | ? | – |
| – Pricing Packages – | |||
| 25 participants, 40 minutes (temporarily 100 participants) | FREE | $0/month | FREE |
| 100 participants, 24 hours | $14.99/month | $15/month | FREE |
| Unlimited | – | – | FREE |
| – Links – | |||
| Public | zoom.us | uberconference.com | meet.jit.si |
| Personalized | (not available) | (not available) | You or your school |
| – Requires Accounts – | |||
| All participants must create an account before connecting to a meeting | YES | YES? | NO 🙂 |
* Participants with weak Internet connections can choose video mode (e.g. low def, high def, screen share only, …) or if they need a see a white board, they can increase quality temporarily (less smooth)
** Computer and device audio uses VoIP and requires a microphone for two-way communication
*** Phone connection has no video, screen share, raise hand or other enhanced features
Options for Online Whiteboards
To help out some teachers I know, I did research. Here are the leading options.
1) Whiteboard Fox – https://whiteboardfox.com/
Simple to learn… Great for teacher to use in place of physical whiteboard. Text is a little tricky (hidden in menu, not editable that I could find)
2) Limnu – https://limnu.com/
Can all work at one time. Built in video & audio, although simplified and no general screen share.
3) None
Use the physical whiteboard you are used to!
There’s nothing better than consistency in stressful times. Point a phone, tablet or webcam at your classroom or home whiteboard and teach as you are used to. No tools to learn. In Jitsi-Meet you can join as many devices as you want and set their names uniquely – no accounts to manage.
How Do You Choose?
Keep it simple. Focus on what you do best.
If that’s teaching from a whiteboard – do that. Point a cell phone at your board, join a video meeting with your students and …TEACH.
If that’s making printouts for you students to practice the lessons – do that. Save as PDF. Email them the files to print at home. If they can’t print, then print for them and mail the pages to their homes. Deliveries are still happening!
If you want to give the students feedback as they work – do that. Setup a video meeting. Have the students point their phones at their papers as they work. You can watch in “tile mode” to see all their papers at once. Perhaps you’ll even find it’s even better than walking around a physical classroom!
Trust yourself that you can solve technical challenges and you will.
Belief in eventual success is the one and only characteristic that will ensure success is achieved.