As I had my observation this week, Dr. Montrois witnessed firsthand one of my major challenges. While introducing a new content area and making sure all students understand the content. Most of the time it requires some one on one time with the students while the other students are working or supposed to be working on the content on their on. I seem to get so involved with the student I am working with that I lose touch with the rest of the class and they commence to playing games on the internet or other actions not appropriate to my content area.
The way my lab is, I cannot move the workstations around for easier viewing of their screens. They are in three rows of ten with each having computer station. It makes it difficult to maintain and observe student behavior at all times.
I am running into similar situations in my class but I am able to monitor the screens because of the way my class is set up. Are you able to view the screens if you are in the back of the class? If so, perhaps you could set up a temporary station in the back when studenets are working on lab actvities. What about time limits for completing actvities and assigning grades to them? There are webtrac activities that my students complete and they have quizzes at the end of ecah section which the students must complete. In some cases I included rubrics for students when working on the computers. One of the areas that I deduct points from being on the computer is "appropriate use of time". One last thing I started doing is giving students who are doing their work an extra "bonus point" for being on task during the activity. The point can be added to the project grade or some other actvity they work on. I hope some of these ideas help.
ReplyDeleteLast year, I tought a computer applications class in which I was faced with this same problem. My teacher's work station was in the front of the room; from there, all I could see was the back of the computers. So, I never sat there. I would go up front to get the class started and then, if I wasn't walking around the room, I sat at an open student station in the back so that I could see everyones computer screen.
ReplyDeleteI also found that I was helping the same students everyday and this made it hard to monitor others, so I found a couple of my really bright students in the class who really knew more about computers than I do, and I used them as classroom assistants. I allowed them to assist students with questions. The students caught on to this quickly and started asking them for help instead of me, which was wonderful!
Also, (and I'm not sure if this is an option for you) I had our IT person install NetOps in the classroom. This allowed me to see everyones computer screen from my computer screen. It also allows you to send them instant messages or completely take away their Internet Access, which I did often and they hated it.
Isn't it amazing how wonderful technology can be but what a hassle it can be at the same time? Good luck and have a good week!