Whenever educators get together, whether it's in person at conferences, in their schools, or on MBC in Topics and EduTalk, there's lots of brainstorming going on. Veteran teachers always seem willing to share best practices with those experiencing online learning for the first time, and new teachers bring fresh insights and questions that keep everyone on their toes.
Usually, the collaboration is spontaneous and informal, but lately I've been seeing a push at the district and state level for teachers to work together to develop and share digital curriculum. This is a good thing on many levels:
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Teachers have the best sense of their own students' needs and interests, and can target these needs without being constrained by availability of textbooks and other offline media
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Schools and districts can stay up to date with new curriculum, without having to wait months or years for textbooks to catch up
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Heavy investment in textbooks can be redirected to forward-looking projects, needed infrastructure upgrades, and up-to-date technology
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The environmental footprint is improved by reducing the amount of paper that is used and discarded with every school term.
The state of Indiana is one example of a high-level mandate for online curriculum. Educators there are free to create their own digital curriculum to replace textbooks. To further that effort, many have begun meeting up inside an MBC topic area, Indiana Statewide Collaboration, to form collaboration groups by grade level and subject area. It's a nice model for educators in other states to follow, and My Big Campus has some excellent tools for this type of collaboration.
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Bundles -- create complete courses with text, online resources, videos, files, images, quizzes and assignments, to share with students, your whole school or district, the entire My Big Campus community, or any Internet user via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
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Bundle Exchange -- Find and adapt Bundles created and shared by other My Big Campus educators. Browse by subject area, standard, or keyword, or "subscribe" to a standard to see newly published Bundles
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State and Common Core Standards -- attach standards to Bundles and Schoolwork questions
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Schoolwork -- import the pre-designed ExamView tests supplied with many curriculum tools (or import your own), then assign to groups or individual students
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Academic Reports -- see which classes and students are meeting standards, and who needs extra help
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NROC and NBC Learn content -- standards-based multimedia courseware, either alone or pre-compiled into Bundles, for you to use in your own Bundles and lessons
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Training -- our hands-on, free, full-day Indiana Training Camp sessions have attracted huge demand (they're actually oversubscribed and there is now a waiting list), but we have many other training options for those inside and outside Indiana.
All of these tools work well for individuals and groups, and can easily scale to larger groups, as our Indiana colleagues have demonstrated so well. But why stop at the school, district, or even state level? My Big Campus has the tools and the audience to erase boundaries and bring people together. Digital curriculum equalizes opportunities for small and large, urban and rural, advantaged and disadvantaged schools. And My Big Campus is the perfect place to make it happen.
Want to learn more? Got some experiences to share? Let me know in the comments.
Several months back, My Big Campus partnered with NROC, so that we could offer NROC Learning Objects to Bundle creators for use in the classroom. Today, I'd like to show you how you to use this content-rich multimedia courseware in your My Big Campus classroom.
What is NROC?
NROC is a library of online course content that includes Math, Science, Social Science, and Humanities courses for high school and college students. The NROC Project leverages contributions by education leaders, charitable foundations, and individual teachers and learners, to make online course content available to everyone. NROC courseware is correlated to state and national standards, and brings the power of multimedia to today's curriculum.
How much does it cost?
Because we feel this is a valuable resource for educators and students, My Big Campus is making NROC Learning Objects available to MBC users during a free trial period between now and March 31, 2013.
After March 31, school districts will need to become NROC members to continue using this content.
NROC content is free for individuals to use through the public website HippoCampus.
How can I use NROC content in my classroom?
Wondering how to get started? First, enroll in one of our free training webinars presented by MBC Senior Coach Libby Lawrie. You'll find signup information for this and other tutorial webinars here. Libby has also created a Professionals-only Topic group on NROC Resources and Courses, where educators can share content, discuss applications, and collaborate on learning projects.
You'll find NROC course outlines in the MBC Bundle Exchange, created by My Big Campus staff. These bundles contain everything but the Instructor's Guides, which require an NROC membership. Individual NROC Learning Objects are also available within My Big Campus for you to incorporate in Bundles. If you'd rather jump in on your own, this 45-second video shows how easy it is to find, then drag and drop NROC content into your Bundles.
Also, check the Bundle Exchange for tutorials created by other My Big Campus users. I especially like MBC Coach Rachel Porter's bundle Introduction to NROC Learning Objects, which contains an introductory video, plus sample bundles showing how she uses NROC learning objects in her lessons.
How do I encourage my school or district to join NROC?
Many districts already subscribe to NROC, and can continue using this content through My Big Campus once the free trial period ends in March 2013. Contact your school's curriculum director to see if you already belong to the NROC Network.
I'm eager to hear how educators are using NROC content in their classrooms. Ask questions related to the subject of this blog, or share your success stories in the comments.
Several months back, My Big Campus partnered with NROC, so that we could offer NROC Learning Objects to Bundle creators for use in the classroom. Today, I'd like to show you how you to use this content-rich multimedia courseware in your My Big Campus classroom.
What is NROC?
NROC is a library of online course content that includes includes Math, Science, Social Science, and Humanities courses for high school and college students. The NROC Project leverages contributions by education leaders, charitable foundations, and individual teachers and learners, to make online course content available to everyone. NROC courseware is correlated to state and national standards, and brings the power of multimedia to today's curriculum.
How much does it cost?
Because we feel this is a valuable resource for educators and students, My Big Campus is making NROC Learning Objects available to MBC users during a free trial period between now and March 31, 2013.
After March 31, school districts will need to become NROC members to continue using this content.
NROC content is free for individuals to use through the public website HippoCampus.
How can I use NROC content in my classroom?
Wondering how to get started? First, enroll in one of our free training webinars presented by MBC Senior Coach Libby Lawrie. You'll find signup information for this and other tutorial webinars here. Libby has also created a Professionals-only Topic group on NROC Resources and Courses, where educators can share content, discuss applications, and collaborate on learning projects.
You'll find NROC course outlines in the MBC Bundle Exchange, created by My Big Campus staff. These bundles contain everything but the Instructor's Guides, which require an NROC membership. Individual NROC Learning Objects are also available within My Big Campus for you to incorporate in Bundles. If you'd rather jump in on your own, this 45-second video shows how easy it is to find, then drag and drop NROC content into your Bundles.
Also, check the Bundle Exchange for tutorials created by other My Big Campus users. I especially like MBC Coach Rachel Porter's bundle Introduction to NROC Learning Objects, which contains an introductory video, plus sample bundles showing how she uses NROC learning objects in her lessons.
How do I encourage my school or district to join NROC?
Many districts already subscribe to NROC, and can continue using this content through My Big Campus once the free trial period ends in January 2013. Contact your school's curriculum director to see if you already belong to the NROC Network.
I'm eager to hear how educators are using NROC content in their classrooms. Ask questions related to the subject of this blog, or share your success stories in the comments.
We've got an exciting new feature to talk about this week that my developers and I think will make it easier for teachers to create and share self-contained, standards-based lessons. We're calling this new feature "Bundles," and it's currently being tested by a hand-picked group of MBC educators. Here's some of what you'll see once testing is complete:
- A new way to collect videos, group content, documents and text into self-contained online lessons
- Alignment with State and Common Core Standards
- Reusable content objects from the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC)
- Sharing: with your own students, your school, district, or the entire My Big Campus educator community
- A Bundle Exchange, where educators can search for Bundles to use and adapt in their own curriculum
- User ratings and comments, and links to "like" your favorite bundles on MBC, Twitter, Facebook, and G+
- Branches: Take an existing Bundle and make it your own: adapt and remix, and share it again
What to expect
We're making some changes to the MBC user interface to replace Collections. Here’s what to expect:
- A new name: Bundles
- A new link: Direct access to Bundles (formerly Collections) in the left navigation bar
- New functionality: Bundles can include Group pages, State and Common Core standards, NROC content objects, and freeform text
- Sharing options: Publish your Bundles to the Bundle Market to share with other educators; adapt and remix Bundles shared by others
- Redesigned Your Stuff page: Collections will no longer appear on the Your Stuff page. You’ll now find them in Your Bundles
Get up to speed
We're hosting live Webinars this week for all interested educators, to walk them through the new features and explain some of the changes we're making to the My Big Campus interface. To register for a webinar, click the link for the day and time that works best for you.
For those who can't make it to either presentation, we'll be recording and posting a "highlights" video in the MBC Orientation Center topic.
Interested in a sneak preview?
We've opened up testing to all current MBC Coaches, and they're already busy developing their own Bundles for the Exchange. In time for launch, we need more testers, and more content. If you're an educator, and you're interested in helping us with this project, send a Conversation to our lead developers Ryan Bond or Carson McMillan..