Creating Online Class Communities

Jennifer DormanDiscovery Education

Jennifer_Dorman@Discovery.comhttp://links.discoveryeducation.com/OnlineClasses

Creating Online Class Communities

• Discovery Education• Edmodo• Diigo• Ning

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/

After logging into Discovery Education, select My Classrooms from the top banner.

Click on Create a Classroom to get started.

Name your class

Set the start and end dates

Select students from your school/district roster and/or add new students.

Review your class.

Create duplicate classrooms if necessary (e.g. different subjects for elementary classrooms, separate classrooms for Reading and Writing in Language Arts blocks, specialized populations for integrated classes, etc.)

Select My Builder Tools to create and assign assignments, writing prompts, quizzes, and assessments to entire classes or to specific students.

Assign any media asset to entire classes or to specific students by selecting Classroom/Students, selecting a class and/or students, and setting assigned and due dates.

Assign any media asset to entire classes or to specific students by selecting Classroom/Students, selecting a class and/or students, and setting assigned and due dates.

Students log into Discovery Education to view assigned content, track progress on completed assignments and assessments, and access bookmarked content through My Content.

Account Level Discovery Education Administrators can go to their My Admin page to import students and manage student account access and configuration.

Admins can download step-by-step instructions for formatting the data and uploading the spreadsheets.

Microblogging for the “Classes”

Edmodo is a private microblogging platform that was designed to be a safe alternative to traditional social networks to use in the classroom.

Teachers and students can send notes, links, files, alerts, assignments, and events to each other.

What is Edmodo?

Teachers sign up for accounts, and then create groups.

Each group has a unique code which is distributed by the teacher to the class.

Students then sign up (no email address required) and join the group using the code.

How does Edmodo work?

MicrobloggingPublic Timeline (RSS)Assignments and GradesStore and Share FilesNotifications (SMS)Share Links and EmbedsPrivacy ControlsClass CalendarSubscribe to Feeds

Features

Creating Groups

Step 1: Click Create

Step 2: Share the group code with students

Adding Assignments

Accessing Assignments

Tracking Assignments

Adding Notes

Adding Hyperlinks & Widgets

The new Share tab will provide users with a direct URL link to the media asset.

This link can be posted online.

Posting Discovery Education Media

Uploading Files

Adding Alerts

Adding Events

Calendar

Adding to the Public Group Timeline

Only those items that the teach shares to the public timeline will be viewable by people outside the class.

Public Group Timeline

Setting Group Activity NotificationSet Twitter, email, or SMS alerts in Settings

Bookmark

Public or Private

Share to a Group

Post to a List

Broadcast on Twitter

Annotations and Tags

Highlight Text

Add Sticky Notes

Diigo Educator Accounts

www.diigo.com/education

What are Diigo Educator Accounts?

These are special premium accounts provided specifically to K-12 & higher-ed educators.

You can create student accounts for an entire class with just a few clicks (and student email addresses are optional for account creation)

Students of the same class are automatically set up as a Diigo group so they can start using all the benefits that a Diigo group provides, such as group bookmarks and annotations, and group forums.

Privacy settings of student accounts are pre-set so that only teachers and classmates can communicate with them.

Ads presented to student account users are limited to education-related sponsors.

What are Diigo Student Accounts?

Student accounts are Diigo accounts created by approved teachers through their Teacher Console.

Classmates in the same class are automatically added as friends with one another to facilitate communication, but students cannot add anyone else as friends except through email.

Students can only communicate with their friends and teachers. No one except their friends can send message, group invite, or write on their profile wall.

Student profiles will not be indexed for People Search, nor made available to public search engines.

Diigo Tutorials and Support http://sn.im/diigotutorial

Diigo Groups

Diigo Group Features

Shared group bookmarks – sort by tags, date, and users

Group forum

Widgets – tagrolls and linkrolls

Group auto blog post

Security Settings – Under 13• Under 13 accounts – students are unable to customize their

profiles (no image uploads, etc.)

Teacher Console• The Teacher Console will appear in your profile list• http://www.diigo.com/teacher_entry/console

Create a Class Group

Class Groups

Convert Existing Groups• Open the group• Click "manage group" • Click “group overview”• Under group details, click "edit" • Change the category to

"Education - K12" • The group will be upgraded to a

"class group" with ad-free status, secure student accounts, and will appear within the Teacher Console

Add Members

Adding Students WITHOUT E-Mails

Add Students with Existing Diigo Accounts

Print Member Login Information

Manage Members

“If you build it they will connect . . .”

Create your own targeted educational network with Ning.

Ning Network Features:Member profile pages

Individual blogs with public and private post and comment settings

Threaded forums

Chat rooms

Share music, photos, and video

Privacy management settings

Step 1: Name Your Network

Step 2: Describe Your Network

Step 3: Select Features

Step 4: Customize Your Network’s Appearance

Step 5: Set Network Preferences in Manage Network

Step 6: Apply for Ad Removal for 7-12 Educational Networks

Select a name and URL address for your Ning network.

Note: The URL must be at least 6 characters long.

Decide if your network should be public or private

Create a tagline that will display on your network banner

Describe the purpose of your network

Select tags, language, and country

Select features for your network and place them in the columns.

Educational networks for students over the age of 13 can apply to have advertisements removed from their network.

Profile questions are completed when someone joins or applies to join your network.

Add additional tabs for other websites.

Create sub-tabs and decide which categories of users can access the tabs.

http://tinyurl.com/22cwdc

1. Visit http://help.ning.com/ and select Contact Us2. Sign into Help with your user name, password, and network URL3. Complete the form as indicated below and submit.

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