Facilitating+a+Virtual+Classroomm+Activity


 * Facilitating a Virtual Classroom Activity **
 * __ Description: __** Online/virtual classes are becoming more and more popular. Throughout the past seven weeks I have had to opportunity to participate in not just the use of blackboard for a virtual class but also to participate in a virtual class meeting on Wimba. Wimba is a program that allows you to meet with your students without having to all be at one location. We actually met via Wimba on weeks when we did not have to go to class. I found the idea of having a virtual meeting was very helpful because I was able to still speak with my professor as well as show her things that I may have been having trouble with. Wimba allows you to communicate with others as well as allows the teacher to share his or her screen so that they may walk the class though a particular process. Wimba also allows you to upload powepoint presentations as well which is a great way to present things when meeting virtually.


 * __ Process for Determining Virtual Classroom Activity: __** I decided to prepare my virtual classroom activity to be a summary or wrap up their assignment for my Virtual Class on blackboard. For this activity I used the program Wimba. I added onto my Blackboard toolbar a tab for the Wimba Class. I then created my Wimba Classroom and linked it to the tab on the blackboard toolbar. For this virtual meeting through Wimba I created a powerpoint presentation that was called Insights into Data “Putting It All Together”. This presentation was uploaded to the virtual classroom and was shared with my students. As my students viewed this powerpoint I narrated along to reinforce all items that the students needed to complete to be handed in with their Weather Data Project. It is always good to archive your presentations because not all of your students may be available when doing a virtual meeting. By archiving your presentation your students can go back at any point and time and look at the presentation to possibly clear up any misunderstandings or to review maybe how to do something that was shown in class or to even just make sure they completed anything. This is a huge benefit to archiving your presentations or meetings.


 * __ Reflection: __** I really enjoyed using Wimba over the past few weeks. With the interaction that I have had with Wimba I have really made many more connections of all the possibilities of virtual classrooms. Through the used of meeting virtually with a program like Wimba groups of students are able to meet with the teacher without all being in the same location. The development of the classroom was very easy as well. Once the classroom is developed you have so many options. You can use it as a place to just talk, a place to share presentations, a place to share your screen with your students so that they can see how to do certain things. There are so many options through the use of a virtual classroom like Wimba. I think that my favorite feature of the Wimba Virtual Classroom is the fact that in quick second I am able to share my screen with my students and walk them through a particular task or project. I think that this is important for students when taking a virtual class because even though a virtual class allows for the flexibility for not having to go to class every week there are still times when it helps to have someone guide you on what is expected of you.

**__Link to Virtual Classroom Activity: __** media type="file" key="_wilmu_s__304944_1_758580_2010_0503_1606_53.m4v" width="300" height="300"