Classroom+Management

 Active Discussion Board This page has an active discussion board for you to discuss the different strategies outlined below, and how they may be used in your own classrooms.

Classroom Management Strategies in a 1-1 Environment
toc Many teachers have understandable anxiety about the classroom management challenges computers can create. Here are some tips from experts that may help mitigate some of these challenges. Please post your own challenges and suggestions in our discussion area.

1. Establish a Routine:
Decide what students will always do when they enter your class. Will they plug in and open their laptops, or will they wait for your instruction to pull them out? Having a regular classroom routine helps students see the laptop as a tool for learning, rather than a tool for playing. It can also help reduce “dead time” at the start of the class.

Here is a short video clip on edtablishing a productive opening class routine. 

2. Establish Groupings:
Having students sit in rows when working with technology can pose many problems.


 * 1) All computer screens are facing the back of the room. This can create a sense of student activity anonymity, especially if the teacher is at the front of the room.
 * 2) Students in rows are more likely to look to YOU to support them if they have challenges with the technology. If placed in pods or groups, they are more likely to rely on their group’s collective knowledge. Helping each other with technical problems establishes closer and more productive learning communities and helps students gain independence and practice problem solving strategies.

3. Establish Clear Guidelines about Off-Task Activities:
This may be a departmental, or school-wide decision; or perhaps individual teachers will have the choice. Regardless, these guidelines should be made clear to all students and consequences should be enforced at all times. Most teachers find these challenges limited when activities are well-structured.

4. Have Top- Down Time:
Always give students time when they are engaged //away// from their laptops during your class. Have clear guidelines around how you indicate that it is time for students to direct their attention elsewhere. Be firm and consistent with this (i.e. don’t move on until all are following directions). During this time, laptop screens should be lowered to between 30 and 45 degrees. Some teachers have a code word they use. Keep your direction for this action consistent.

5. Use the Learning Community to Support your Efforts
Students generally enjoy using technology and interesting collaborative and constructivist tools in the classroom. One Branksome teacher, Jill Strimas, plainly states that misuse of the technologies being employed in her classroom results in those tools no longer being used. Many educators experienced in these environments have found this the clearest and best way to ensure that students use chat rooms, blogs, vokis etc. appropriately. Students do not want to let their class down by having them lose this privilege.

Click to view a short video on how students can support each other in learning adn pracitce with laptops.

6. Keep Students Busy But Not Frantic:
Pacing can be one of the most significant challenges in 1-1 environments. While down time for students provides a great temptation for them to get off-task on-line and can thus establish bad patterns of practice, experts say that tightly structured short activities can cause real problems for students or groups who like to take more time with their work. Having a regular routine of peer assessment etc. or additional activities for students to complete may help with this challenge. (See Lesson Planning for more ideas).

7. Software:
Your school may invest in software like DyKnow that allows you to pull up students' screens on your own. Even a whiff of this will be enough to usually keep students on task.

Creating Avatars
Students in classes should not be using pictures of themselves on any web-based software, especially that which involves regular on-line communications. Students can easily, and for free, create avatars that will replece these pictures. There are a number of easy to use and free sites for creating these avatars. This can be a wonderful initial constructivist exercise in your classes where students would be asked to create avatars which reflect either what they value, are good at, or want to learn. Some avatar creation websites have some content that would be inapprorpriate to share with your class. We recommend the following:


 * Reasonably Clever ** is a simple avatar creator based on Lego figures. You can change many things about the character. In order to save the image, students must do a screen capture into Paint or a similar program. Link below to the kid friendly creator. There is another, which is not appropriate.


 * The Simpsons Movie Avatar Creator: ** Create a fairly detailed avatar for free based on a Simpson's character. All G-Rated and likely to be very popular with students.

__Secure Student E-mail Accounts__
This brief screen capture video (Jingcast) shows how teachers can use their own **free Gmail account** to create separate log-in accounts for students using web-based software.This prevents students from having to use their own e-mail addresses to sign up for these accounts and ensures that all SPAM goes to your own e-mail, thus protecting them from any unwanted messages.

Teachers can also go to **gaggle.net** to create free and secure e-mail accounts for their students.

=Works Cited=

Ertmer, P. (2006). //Addressing first- and second-order barriers to change: Strategies for technology integration.// Educational Technology Research and Development. Springer Boston. Accessed at []

Keifer, Kate (2008). //How Do Classroom Management Techniques Change in Computer Classroom.// Colorado State University. http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/pcteacher/pop6d.cfm