I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching online these last few months, but it will be nice to enjoy the slow down tomorrow and next week. The VHSG Chemistry class will be out for one week so the kids can participate in local National Chemistry Week activities and the Literary Analysis class will be focusing on reading Dicken's Christmas Carol for the next and final analysis of the first semester. Actually, the original schedule was to have the final novel in mid-November, when the holiday season was ready to gear up, but due to other activities in the class we decided it was best to move that one up. With these two classes not meeting, that leaves only the two 1st grader classes, algebra I, and composition. I am looking forward to the interview with comic strip artist Stephen McCranie next week. We are doing a  survey of narrative genres in composition class and next week will be comic books and comic strips.

I don't want to waste that week of lighter schedule, so I have my to-do list:

GOAL 1: Catch up on grading.  I have some compositions to catch up on grading from Comp and LIterary Analysis. I definitely see that having four different ways that the kids can turn in assignments and not having them name files to a set pattern has been a mistake. I have been nibbling at the task of getting them all gathered and organized. I am putting together notes on what to change for the next semester and that is definitely on the list. The kids will spend the last two weeks of the course refining their narratives and I want to have them all set and easy to find and update.

GOAL 2: First Grader Classes - Make new slides for Phonics and Math. I have used the Saxon Phonics Lesson sequence and pace and found that the kids are a tad breathless. I am going to spend a little time with them on consolidating all that they have learned so far. We have done the entire 1st semester since we started over the summer. I feel like they will benefit from time to work on speed instead of adding new phonograms and sight words. In Math 1 I am having the opposite problem. The kids have burned through every topic in first grade math except for math fact recall. They have mastered several sets, but with math facts being all that is left to go, classes would definitely swing to the repetitive side. So I am trying to decide if I will just go a head and take them into the second grade curriculum. It too will work on the math fact recall, but they will be able to get into the new material for that grade level as well. I love making the onlline classroom slides and games.

GOAL 3: Chemistry - Work on Module 5 slides. I had started setting them up last weekend, but I need to finish them.

GOAL 4: Get caught up on VoiceThreads. I VoiceThread the class lecture material for the kids (and parents) so if the kids end up missing a lesson or two they can link to the VoiceThead and catch up. THe site has been in Beta until last weekend. They are now moving to it being a pay service. There is a classroom option that I am trying to find out if we qualify for. If so, I will be able to continue making VoiceThreads for free. If not, it will cost me about $12 a year. That isn't more than I am willing to spend, but I sure hope we can  get it for free still. With the site change and their new interface being buggy at first, I didn't get to VoiceThread the lessons for this week's materials. A mom dropped in to the online classroom today asking why she couldn't see the past ones so I guess until I pay or get approved even my old ones are locked. I hope they respond quickly to my query about our official status.

GOAL 5: Sleep in if I can or at least get to bed early a few nights next week. I have been in the online classroom by 6:30am every day now for many months. There is lots to do and I am full of energy in the mornings. I definitely don't need coffee. I have natural morning adrenaline. However, I do feel like I have been falling behind on rest. I definitely want to catch up a bit while the schedule is lighter.

That is enough to keep me happily busy while still allowing a break.

The 1st graders had a blast after math class yesterday. They hung around the online classroom drawing and chattering with each other. The last little one logged out about 10 minutes before the online algebra class would be arriving in. I had big plans of stuffing my face with a big bowl of chili since I had just realized how hungry I was. I was about to stand up and head off to the kitchen when a guest arrived in the room. I immediately sat down and typed out a welcome to the online classroom. It was a new homeschooler curious about our free online homeschool classes. She was looking in to online classes for her daughter and came across our website. Now you must realize that with our co-op being online we have students from all over the country. There are a few from Canada, a gal from Hawaii, several from California, and a good spattering of students from New Hamshire to Oregon and everywhere in between. She was looking for a full online program. Since we are small and just starting out with our online homeschool course co-op, I was about to suggest a charter as a means to have a free high school currculum that was already fully in place. I asked her what state she lived in so I could tell her if her state had a charter program in place. She said it was Arkansas. Well, In excitement I asked her what city she was in. It turns out she lives right down the highway about 13 miles. LOL.

She and her daughter dropped by this morning so I could get an Apologia Chemistry text to her for participating in our online chemistry class. We had a great visit and Brooke will be joining in on all the high school level courses that we offer. It is indeed a small world after all.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get tired of driving. We live in a very rural area so to get anywhere we need to go it seems we have to drive 30 minutes one way. Worse case being an event where I don't stay and I drive home only to turn around an hour later to pick the kids up. Co-oping is so important for the kids so they get educational opportunities I cannot always provide (like foreign language. I am hopeless!), for them to have social outlets, and so I can work with other moms to make all our teaching load lighter by us each taking a topic to teach so we don't have to civer it all ourselves.

The internet to the rescue! Now we have tools to do co-ops online. The kids have live, online classrooms where they can meet together with a teaching homeshool mom (or dad) and other students. They can access collaborative class activities and student social tools all through the time outside of classtime too. The cost is free to very little because it is a co-op setting. Let the car sit idle. I like it!

Even if you live close enough to find driving to be no big deal, wouldn't it be great to meet together one day a week for labs or other hands-on activities, but have class meetings in a live, online classroom throughout the rest of the week. I remember when I taught the chemistry co-op. Our lab days were packed with tons of information and we met for a morning and afternoon session to get it all in. How much easier it would have been if I could have done the class lecture part online with the kids and then the lab day would have just been labs.

Here are some tools if you think an online co-op would be interesting:

Virtual Homeschool Group: You can set up a course site at VHSG free. Make your own from scratch, or jump in to one of the courses designed for multiple homerooms (your co-op would be one) and share the resources with other co-ops teaching the same subject.

Elluminate vRoom:  This is a fantastic, live online classroom. This is a 3-seater version, but you can get a 10-seat Lite-Office version for just $50/month. Not much when the cost is split among multiple families in a co-op.

WHO:

VHSG Summer Beta Families

Not a beta family? You can still participate in the Moodle activities!

Watch for the course online classroom portion will go to open enrollments in the fall.

WHEN:

Begins June 19th and will go until Aug. 18th

The Online Classroom sessions will meet

M, W, and F at 2pm Central

WHERE:

VHSG Moodle Course Page

is at

http://www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com/vhsg/course/view.php?id=23

Registered beta families will find the online classroom link there.

Yep, it's time for our monthly VHSG Online Classroom Game Days!

Who:

VHSG Beta Families

When: 

Tuesday, 2pm Central

Thursday, 2pm Central

Friday, 2pm, Central

Where:

In our VHSG online classroom at

LINK

If this is your first time to access the online classroom, you will need to download and install software to access the room. Please allow for download time if you are on dial up speed access.

Our online classroom has ten seats. If you cannot get in, all the seats might have been filled. If so, please try again on another offered game day and let me know at armoorefam@centurytel,net. By contacting me, I can better gauge how many days or seats we may need in the future to accommodate the game day interest level.

Also . . .

We will be holding our

 VHSG

Parent's

Open House

on Thursday and Friday at 7pm central. The idea of our evening session is to give moms AND dads a chance to come in and play in the classroom and learn about all the ideas bubbling up at VHSG. Just take the same LINK listed above for the online virtual classroom Game Day. Due to limited seats, parents please sign in together under the same login/computer and select only one of the evenings to attend.

I was looking into what other people were doing with their Moodle sites when I stumbled across this one. I know my kids would love it and since so many moms that visit my blog also have very computer oriented kids, I wanted to pass this one along. It is a Moodle-based virtual school that focuses on computer animation, painting, and game creation called The Youth Digital Arts Cyberschool. It looks to be very well done and the course prices are very reasonable espeacially when yo consider how deep a discount on the software you can get. You will likely need a broadband connection (DSL, cable, or fiber optic) though.

Take this link to see an example lesson -

http://www.dev-lcg.com/cyberschool/mod/resource/view.php?id=298

Here is the homepage -

http://www.dev-lcg.com/cyberschool/

They also have a downloadable movie made by one of the students explaining her educational video game that is progress - big download of 70mb but worth it. You can link to it under the student gallery link in the sidebar on the homepage.

I figured that if I didn't get a blog entry in here soon you all would assume I died or moved to computer-less jungles of nowhere land. Alas, I am alive and far from computerless.  I have been busy from 6am to 12am daily for months now working on the VHSG online classroom/courses project. It is really looking like it will be a fantastic co-operative for homeschool families.

At the 3 month, alpha test mark, the most developed online class is the K to 3rd Grade Math Meeting. We began as one class which has now divided into 3. You can find the Moodle component of the course here:

http://www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com/vhsg/course/view.php?id=21

Each of the math classes have a homeroom at the top and then we have a nice collection of  math resources developing in the bottom half. The idea of this Moodle is to allow multiple teachers of K to 3rd grade math work together to develop resources and work with each other to imrove their online teaching of the subject. I think the team approach will be fantastic! I hope to incorporate that into several other courses too.

The alpha phase of the idea has been a terrific success. In the alpha phase the primary function was to see if the online classroom (Elluminate Lite teamed up with VHSG Moodle) would be a stable and successful platform to teach our homeschool kids. They have proven themselves to be an excellent means of providing co-op classes!

Here is a quick screenshot of one of the online classroom math activities that I made:

The kids can move the coins around. We use this screen to practice counting coins, make pretend puchases, and practice counting back change.

Here is a picture from the homemade Battleship game that Timothy, my 12 year old, made for us to use for our online classroom. Didn't he do a fantastic job?!

The little hits (looks like explosions) and misses (looks like splashes) icons up in the right corner can be picked up and placed on the game grid. The kids love it. We will have another set of game days in June. If you missed out on the ones in May, keep tuned in to hear when the next set will be announced. We will also be having our VHSG Open House mid-month as well. This will be for the parents to come into the online classroom to see it and try it out for themselves. They will learn about how we can all pull together to create a really neat collection of virtual co-op courses. I hope to see you there.

To all Virtual Homeschool Group beta participants:

We will be having Elluminate Game Days this week for the kids to meet and greet each other in our online classroom. If you have volunteered to participate in the summer beta test of the VHSG classes, we want your kids to attend.

When:

(NOTE: If you have never taken a link to an Elluminate online classroom before, you will need to load and install software to access it. On a dial up connection this can take about 30 minutes. Please take the link given below prior to the game session so you can arrive in time for it all to start.)

Tuesday, May 16 - 2pm to 3pm Central

Thursday, May 18 - 2pm to 3pm Central

Friday, May 19 - 2pm to 3 pm Central

Where:

Take this link

You will be asked to enter your name in the log in screen. Just use the name you wish to be called by in the classroom.

Our classroom holds ten seats (counting the moderator). Iif all seats fill up and you couldn't get into the session, try it on one of the next session dates. We have 15 families participating in the beta, so I scheduled three game sessions to be sure there were enough opportuninies for everyone. If you couldn't get in, please do e-mail me so I know.

Are you interested in the possibility of developing and teaching live online courses in Elluminate virtual classrooms? If so, you are welcome to join in on some free training classes I am offering.

As I am moving forward with the co-op idea, I am dividing up the thrust into two divisions. One designed to bless homeschool moms that hope to find an income producing home business that is compatible with their kids needs while blessing other homeschool families. The other thrust is to set up a co-op where moms who have a heart to minister to homeschool families by offering free classes can get their Elluminate rooms paid for. They can teach for free online and the students get the smallest possible fee - merely a small portion of what the co-op must pay to the online classroom provider.

So, consider if you would be interested in learning more about these possibilities. I am beginning the  training classes that will introduce you to the Elluminate classroom, teach you how to make your courses, and try to encourage teachers as a group to be a support to one another. I am not personally making any money off of doing this. I am merely trying to bless others by either helping them into their own online courses or giving ministry minded moms a place that they can really directly help other homeschoolers via teaching for free online in a co-op paid for online classroom. To learn more you can contact me at armoorefam@centurytel.net. These free training classes are beginning this week and will continue throughout the summer months.

I hope to hear from you.

Tammy Moore

Here is another Elluminate recorded session. This one is on learning Spanish.

http://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/event/description?instance_id=1163

Tammy Moore

If your kids are into NASA and the shuttle program, take the link

http://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/event/description?instance_id=1167

This is the description page, so to see the recorded interview he made for kids, click the 'view the recording' link.

This interview was made using Elluminate Live which is the same people we will be using for our live classroom for the Virtual Homeschool Co-op classes. I was checking their site to collect links for additional training for our volunteer teachers and spotted this new recorded session with the astronaut. If you have an aspiring astronaut in your family, you will love this interview.

I wanted to pass along a terrific website for help with math problems. I have come to know Mr. Prasad over the last several weeks as we have corresponded about the virtual homeschool group and trig help for Gregory. I think that you will find his website most helpful. Bookmark it and give it a try if you hit one of those math toughies that defy explanation. The addy is http://www.mathexplained.com/

I have been amazed as I have spoken with him. Did you know that in India they are covering algebra at about age 9 and 10? Trig is covered before American kids the same age are even out of middle school. Amazing and very indicting of the American school system.

Update on the Virtual Homeschool Group Co-op:

The dual elements of live, online classroom where we can all meet for classes and the assynchronous course material at the VHSG Moodle site are shaping up make for a really neat combination. Here is a list of new classes being laid in place for our co-op at the Moodle site:

1. E-Notebooking, Instructor-Led Class
2. E-Notebooking Tool Tips - PrintMaster
3. E-Notebooking Tool Tips - Open Office
4. Paint Shop Pro 8 - An Artist's Playground!
5. VHSG Algebra
6. K to 3rd Math Meeting
7. Phonics and Phonics Intervention

The first 4 are actually all geared toward making the e-notebooking a reality for families. The live, instructor-led course means mom will not have to figure it all out before her son or daughter gets busy making e-notebooks. The skills needed will be taught directly to the kids in a live, online classroom (Elluminate Web Conferencing Service).

The e-notebooking main course will have optional sessions that the kids can participate in - courses 2 through 4 in the list above. These sessions are optional because they are specific to software the that families may or may not be using. PrintMaster is a favorite with e-notebooking because it is powerful yet kid friendly. The optional sesions on PrintMaster tips will be valuable to these families. For families that don't have PrintMaster, specific tips for Open Office software will be offered in optional sessions as well. Open Office is a free, downloadble office suite that is quite comperable in power and tools to Microsoft Office. Open Office is not quite a kid friendly as PrintMaster, but the e-notebooks created from Open Office should be just as nice. Paint Shop Pro 8 (and the included Animation Shop) is a really fantastic yet inexpensive graphics program that many e-notebookers have invested in. Having the optional, support sessions in how to use it will add a wonderful graphical element to the kids' e-notebooks.

Classes 5 to 7 are in development because I am planning to teach them to my own children next fall, so I figured that I might as well make the courses public and invite a few friends to join in the fun. Like the courses above, these will have both a live classroom and Moodle component.

The start date for the summer beta classes has been set for June 19, 2006 and will run for  9 weeks ending on August 18th. The purpose of the summer beta classes is to find and work out problem areas before the official 2006/7 school year begins. There will not be enough time to actually cover a year's worth of content in 9-weeks of course time, but what is learned in those 9-weeks will be invaluable to help make the official year's courses flow smoothly.

I have 8 weeks to get set up for the beta classes. For those who are curious, you are welcome to stop in and watch it all unfold at the Virtual Homeschool Group Moodle site

. I will be announcing the Virtual Classroom Open House for the live, online classroom in a few weeks. I think everyone will fall in love with being able to meet together live for classes - we can talk/listen, text chat, and share presentations in there. It is really neat!

Tammy Moore

I have noticed on several blogs listings of goals to accomplish in 1001 days. I thought that was a neat idea to do since what I am tackling with the Virtual Homeschool Group is adding several new balls to my juggling. Any tool to organize makes juggling go so much better. Since I am not doing the VHSG alone but am coordinating with others, it also keeps everyone else updated. However, I discovered that I really needed to adjust the idea a bit into monthly bitefuls organized by project since so much of the whole project requires step built upon completed step. So here is my version of "30 Things in 30 Days" or maybe it will be more like "300 Things in 30 Days". LOL And yes, I don't have 30 days for April since half of the month is gone. But then, I am listing a few things that I have already completed this month. Now, if I can just figure out how to do the html for a strike through to show that they have been done. For now I am just adding a red 'DONE'.

30 Things in 30 Days - Goals for April:

VHSG Goals - As of April 17, 2006 I have 9 weeks to set up the 9-week summer beta courses.

1. Summer Beta Tests of the new courses -
   1. DONE Announce them and ask for volunteers
   2. DONE As families volunteer set up Outlook with folders and contact information so it will be easy to keep everyone updated.
   3. DONE Send out welcome e-mail to volunteers as they come in. Include:
      1. DONE Welcome and thanks
      2. DONE Mention that they will need to install the web conferencing java program
      3. DONE How they can 'drop in' during open office hours to the classroom when my Yahoo ID has the virtual classroom link beside it
   4. Pre-course E-mails - What they will need for the courses - microphone for all, some software recommendations for the e-notebooking course.
   5. DONE Verify that everyone can get their e-mails when sent as a whole group and not lose them to an overly-aggressive  spam filter.
   6. 'Open House' presentation for volunteers and the curious
      1. DONE (04/20) Decide the content
      2. DONE (04/20)Create the slides
      3. Set date and create the announcement
2. DONE Check with Sarah Bean to see if she will continue her Virtual Homeschool Group Moodle site for another year and get approval on my idea to blend her VHSG Moodle site with my VHSG co-op/web conferencing idea.
3. DONE Set up the Moodle components of the Live E-Notebooking, K to 3rd Grade Math Meeting, and VHSG Algebra
   1. DONE Open up the new courses and set them up as topic or 9-week layout.
   2. DONE Create links in my blog sidebar for the new courses' Moodle addresses.
4. Live E-Notebooking Course -
   1. Make organizational decisions and incorporate the decisions into the Moodle design:
      1. DONE (04/19) How many days per week?
      2. What will be covered each week?
      3. DONE (04/19) How will the live online components blend with the assynchronous Moddle elements?
5. K to 3rd Math Meeting - This beta has already up and running for three weeks as far as the live course component goes. So my focus is to keep developing the classroom material and to begin the Moodle elements of it.
   1. Make organizational desisions and incorporate the decisions into the Moodle design:
      1. DONE (04/16) Set up Moodle topic boxes and the folders for the files needed to match the folder organization on my hard drive
      2. Upload files that are already completed
   2. Slides for the live presentation portion
      1. DONE (04/20) Fix the counting by 25 slide
      2. DONE (04/20) Add in some new math games
6. VHSG Algebra Course -
   1. Make organizational decisions and incorporate the decisions into the Moodle design:
      1. DONE Make the decisions on how the course will be organized
      2. DONE Set up the Moodle boxes and folders on both my hard drive and in Moodle so that they match.
   2. Slides for the live classroom component of the class
      1. DONE Set up the basic slide template for the live portion of the course
      2. Complete week 1 slides
      3. Complete week 2 slides

FAITH Homeschool Group End of Year Presentation Goals - As of April 15th, I have approximately 3 weeks to prepare:

1. DONE Complete and mail participant form
2. Graduate's Slideshow:
   1. DONE (04/19) Get pictures & life verse from the moms of the other two graduating homeschoolers
   2. DONE (04/28) Meet w/Gregory to select pictures for his part of the graduation slideshow
   3. Crop and clean up any pictures that have been cleared for it
   4. Graduation song to accompany slideshow.
      1. DONE (04/15) Select song
      2. Edit for time if needed
   5. Create the Slideshow itself.
   6. Meet online in my Elluminate room, in person, or e-mail slideshow to get other mom's approval
   7. Adjust slideshow if needed and once again meet for approval
   8. Burn slideshow to disks
3. Kids' Presentations
   1. Kids make desisions on what they will present at the end of year presentation
   2. Kids create/practice their presentation

ARVS Elluminate Game Day (I will be helping with the live online games)- Game Day will be April 28 so I have less than two weeks as of April 15th

1. DONE (04/23)  Find/create several more games
2. DONE (04/26) Test the games with the kids or other online volunteers
3. DONE (04/26) Modify games if needed. Retest game(s)
4. DONE (04/27) Forward the tested games to Lita Bledsoe
5. DONE (04/27) Facilitate Game Day on April 28th
6. DONE (04/27) Note any improvements or tips that can be made on games after the event ends. File as a notepad document with the games on my hard-drive for later tweaking.

Online Courses so far:

Both the K-3rd Math Meeting and the Math Co-Op (Pre-Algebra/Algebra) online courses are up and in a beta test right now. We have been using the algebra level pretty intensely for the last few days as a cram session for the standardized testing coming up next week. We even had a late 9pm to 10:30pm session to accomodate students - it felt like a real cram session with it being so late. LOL.

Plans for the future:

I have been considering how to define what I am trying to do. I definitely want to keep a hold of this technology and put it to use for us all as homeschoolers. I am uncertain if I might be jumping ahead of myself in trying to get a co-op up and running immediately. My co-op idea is to have many moms jump in with two feet and start offering courses themselves so that we have a rich array of classes that students can come in and take. The co-operative part being that if a mom teaches a class she gets to have free enrollments for her kids. If a mom doesn't teach a class, then there would be a small fee to help cover the costs of Elluminate and to give the teachers some small budget to cover their own expenses - software to design their slides, a good microphone, bumping up their internet speed if needed, etc.

I think that the idea is a great one, but my head is coming out of the clouds as far as how fast something like this is going to come together. The use of the technology is too new to expect moms to jump in like that. So, I am going to focus my time over the summer to offering several classes, tutoring sessions, and webinars. These will serve to help me refine best teaching practices for the online environment, introduce the technology to other homeschool moms as they and their kids participate, and hopefully bring in enough money to cover the fee for the Elluminate each month ($50). I don't want to drain our family funds. While I really am not wanting to do this to make any money (co-op is my ultimate goal), I also don't want to go into debt while teaching others either. LOL.

By fall, I hope to have fully-fledged and thoroughly beta-tested courses to offer. I am going to select courses that my own kids will need to take so that I am not spreading myself too thin. Their needs get met and I just invie other kids to come along with us. It is looking like I will have some or all of the following courses lined out by then:

K to 3rd Math Meeting and Learning to Read Classes:

The idea is to begin at the K level in the fall and the same kids can stick together all the way through 3rd grade. Hopefully other moms will come on in teaching too and then we can have several staggered skill levels happening simultaneously.

Math Co-Op (Algebra)

Algebra 1/2 and Algebra 1 will be the focus this fall. It will be a small group class with a one-on-one support time for kids that might need any extra help.

E-Notebooking

This course block will be open during each weekday afternoon with classes and seminars that will step the kids step through how to make electronic notebooks or portfolios of what they are studying in their own family's homeschool.

This will involve multiple skill areas -

A strong language arts component - research skills and composition

A strong art and design component - graphic art and design of their pages

A strong technology component - webpage design

And we will cover multiple types of e-notebooks -

Literature E-notebooks

Art E-Notebooks

History E-Notebooks

Science E-notebooks

Music E-Notebooks

I will need beta families over the summer to test out the courses in the design phase so that by fall the courses are ready to hit the floor running with most of the tweaking out of the way. If you would be interested in being a summer beta test family let me know.

Well, I have had several posts recently about how the new web conferencing tools can be put to use to allow families at a distance to co-op together. I have been playing around with actually doing it now for about a week. I have been using Vyew (currently free) and Elluminate ($50/month for a ten seat classroom).

Though I had listed several ideas about what co-op classes I would be working on first, it has turned out that math is the subject in need so I am focusing my energies there first. I have pretty well gotten my bearings on how to do elementary school level math delivery thanks to Aligirl's willingness to let her family be my guinea pigs. LOL.

As for where I am going with the idea currently, I want to get the elementary math meeting co-op material finished and fully tested in application with real students. Then I hope to teach others that might be interested in doing the co-op idea how to use the material and web conferencing to lead their own co-op classes. If we have several of these subject/topic co-ops going then it all becomes a larger co-op where we can pool resources and teaching expertises. I would love it if another mom who is fluent in a foreign language would put together a terrific web conference co-op to teach my high schoolers a language - not my gift at all! In turn, I perhaps could be teaching a subject to her kids that she would rather not be teaching - math, science, art for example.

We can also use the web conferencing service to bring in homeschool or subject area experts to give us an online seminar. That would be so neat. Many of them already use PowerPoint slides in their presentations. Their slides can be quickly uploaded to the online conference and they can present their topics without the need of travel and boarding accomodations. They can present from home in their jammies and slippers if they want to. LOL.

I find this all very exciting in the possibilities that it could have. Even if no one else gets excited about teaching these co-ops too, I am still going to pursue it personally. I have so loved teaching the face-to-face co-ops here locally for the last 5 years. This just seems to be a natural addition or next step. What fun I am having. :0)

I hope to post an 'open house' event soon where moms that are curious about having their children simply enrolled in a co-op class or moms that want to really jump in and teach can come and see everything in action - live and online. Keep an eye open for it.

Remember my web conferencing post a few days ago? I found a free one on the net. It doesn't have all the tools of Elluminate, but it is really neat considering it is free. I have used it in a tutoring-style situation now with another Homeschool Blooger's two children and it works quite well. OK, OK, you are probably wondering why I am posting about this service. It is a tool where we can all help each other when we get stuck knowing how to explain something to our kids or we want to offer classes to each other via the net.

You can sign up to get your own free web conferencing account at http://vyew.com. You will get your very own number assigned to you. They call it a meeting number, but to me it seems more like having a private office with a room number posted above the door. Once you get an account, you will have a room that looks like this - I have added some text onto my whiteboard in this image.

Let's say you are teaching an online class using it or are going to tutor someone. The guest student doesn't have to have an account to join your meeting and so long as the students' browser is current on plug-in will not even have to download any software. Just send a link, they take it and their browser opens up in your meeting room. Alternately, they can go to the Vyew homepage and enter your meeting/room number to enter.

Once they arrive you can chat using the text chat feature. They have a voice-based call feature built in, but some students may get charged a long-distance fee from their own phone company if they are not in a local call zone of the phone conference provider. Considering many of my co-op kids are rural they probably will not be in a call zone. I have been testing Yahoo IM's voice feature with Yahoo IM running minimized in the background. The student(s) and I can hear each other so long as the student has a microphone. Today I am getting ready to test Skype to compare the sound quality and speed to Yahoo IM.

The teacher can control which students get to use the whiteboard tools. You can have all their priveleges removed and they will only be able to watch. Or, you can give a student access to his whiteboard tools (pen, eraser, shape tool, select tool, and pointer) by selecting his name from the student list, left clicking, and promiting him. You can even turn on all the kids' toolboxes at the same time. I am trying to remember how many students can be in there at one time. It was either 6 or 20.

Here are a few uses.

Let's say you and your child get stumped on how a math problem or concept goes. Most of the time, math things are hard to explain using typical text tools (square root signs, summation signs, fractions, etc.). With the whiteboard the steps can be written out just like a whiteboard on the wall can be - all with voice if you use an IM with a microphone. Just get the 'knower' and the 'knowees' together and the light turns on. LOL.

Another use might be to use this if you teach, or are in a homeschool co-op. The co-op kids could meet here for extra help, presentations, debates, or the class can meet together between face to face meeting times to work on a group project.

'Slides', images, can be uploaded so that presentations can be made in the conference room. Just like giving a PowerPoint presentation. The 'teacher' and students can use the drawing tools to annotate right over the slide. Today two students and I played around with using circles made with the shape tool for playing pieces with a gameboard-like background. We were able to grab and move the pieces around. There is lots of potential with this to play games both as a teaching tool or just for social fun.

If you know someone who has skills that you would like to tutor your children, this could be a useful platform to suggest to the potential tutor. The option to teach from home in bathrobe and slippers as opposed to driving to teach might be a selling point to convince that 'expert' to give it a try. :0)

By the same token, if you have a skill that other families would want to have taught to them, you have a great means of teaching via this tool. I don't know if you can use this free tool and charge to tutor. The license agreement doesn't go into that. Free is fine. You can always ask the Vyew owners/developers. If you use this free one and come to see it as a great way to offer fee-based turoring, you can bump up to Elluminate Lite ($50/month for 10 maximum seats in your 'classroom) or Elluminate Academic version ($65/mo average - you cannot buy this one by month. You have to buy a year's subscription. No seat limit). Of course the Elluminate will give you many more tools for what you have to pay.

There are bunches of other things that can be done which I will post about as I learn more. If anyone wants to play around with what this tool can do, just e-mail or instant message me and I will send you a link to come into my room. I can help with some school related topic or I can just show you how you can use it as a teaching tool to teach at a distance. My Yahoo IM ID is armoorefam. You can e-mail me at armoorefam@centurytel.net.

I couldn't sleep last night due to being too stuffed up, so I got up and sat in the dark with my computer. I couldn't sign in to blog due to the upgrade still being in progress   Which was probably a good thing, my touch typing is still rather clumsy and it was too dark to do anything much more than touch type. So, I toured the net and came across http://www.ChristianCourses.com. Several ministries have cooperated to produce this site. One of which is maker of Our Daily Bread Devotional booklets. I remember being a brand new Christian and being given these to help me to learn how to have regular quiet time each day.

This is a site to do more than just visit and bookmark! The quality level is fantastic! Features:

• Course content is via professionally produced streaming video
• A student management system that will let you assign this to your 7th grader's and up and let them work their way through certification. The acheivement of the certification is hinged upon passing computer scored quizes/exams on the course content. According to the website, churches often use the certification system to train staff and volunteers. You can have your student show you his certification page to show what he has achieved and use that as a basic of a grade and transcript entry.
• But it is more than computer scored quizes. The assignment structure is such that the student is expected to journal/reflect (private) personally on the topic and participate in commenting (public text comment system) to structured questions that the course administrator proposes.

I am working my way through two courses now. I am very, very impressed with everything I have seen and participated in so far. I plan on introducing the site to my three oldest and getting them enrolled in one of the multi-course certification programs.

Here is a copy/paste of the 'about us' section of the site:

Things are bit too hectic here to jump right in to this idea before fall, but I wanted to get a bit of feedback. For you moms out there, would you or your kids find it interesting to participate in online classes where the kids would

- hear the course teacher and other students through their PC speakers

- be able to communicate using a PC microphone

- Be able to interact onscreen by moving objects on the white board around, writing to the whiteboard, and using pointing tools.

- be able to watch PowerPoint-like presentations, the teacher writing to the whiteboard, see software applications onscreen that the teacher is using (such as PrintMaster or Windows Media Player movies) and actually be given control of that application so that the student can try a skill, or be taken websites with the teacher as the guide to see guided simulations.

- be able to play recorded sessions of the above when for some reason the student could not be online at the time of the session.

 - within the lesson see teacher and/or student (optional) webcams; recorded video of things like a science lab, an artist demonstrating a painting technique, how to sign, etc.

 - have a one hour class every day of the week at a set time with one day of the week participation either in-person if you live close enough or as a 'virtual in-class student' if you live beyond reasonable driving distances - the hands-on labs and activities done on this day will be broadcasted using webcams in the classroom. If I can find moms willing to venture in to this with me, we can even have host home sites dotted all over the country. Kids in a local areas can travel that one day per week to be together for hands-on stuff themselves in the cell groups. I would train the cell group mom a few weeks prior to the hands-on lab day and she would lead it. Then we would all meet together using the conferencing software I have been descrbing.

With the above technology, would you be interested in the following courses to start off with - many more to come in the future:

• Art taught by a practicing professional watercolor and pencil portrait artist
• High school chemistry classes with a separate but supporting private or small group algebra tutoring component for any student that needed the math help.
• How to make a plant biology topic electronic notebook

What level of computer and internet access to you have:

• Fast computer with at least 256mb RAM
• DSL connection

It will cost me $41 to $51 per seat per month just to buy the conferencing technology (it is a monthly subscription). I would be donating my teaching time free. This being the case, would you pay $41 to $51 per month for what I have described so that at least I am not out of pocket for the conferencing cost?

LATE BEAKING NEWS - ADDED LATER:

I just talked to the sales rep and I misunderstood the pricing structure for the lower end, Elluminate Lite level of the software. It is not $41/seat it will be about $50 for a whole ten seats. Yes! thatt means the per seat cost is merely $4.10. Now that can make this very doable!!!!

Please respond to the above questions by posting a comment in the comment section or contacting me via my e-mail addy armoorefam@centurytel.net. Please do pass the word around to other homeschool moms too. This will be a big financial risk if no one shows up for the classes because I pay for the technology whether we have all the kids we can fit or whether not a soul turns up. I need to know if there is enough interest to have a safety net's worth of people to defray the cost.

For those that are interested in learning more about the conferencing technology that we will be using, go to the Elluminate Live website at http://www.elluminate.com. Once you are there, you can watch recorded sessions to see how the tools work or even get involved with a live session. Pre-recorded sessions are at https://www.elluminate.com/site/external/event/playback