Virtual Classrooms For Live Interactive Online Teaching

A virtual classroom allows your teachers to engage & interact with children online. Due to the social distancing norms created by COVID, we can overcome most of the barriers by using virtual online classes.

• Video conferencing ability – so teachers & children can see each other
• Audio conferencing – so you can hear each other
• Real-time text chat so children can ask questions. A transcript of these is emailed to the teacher later
• Interactive online whiteboard to aid in visualisation
• Library of learning materials – essential for providing more structured lessons
• Teacher tools & controls – just like in a physical classroom

Only parents & children who receive an invitation can join. There is no way any other person can join the meeting. Parents cannot share the invite with anyone else. Illumine records all the information about who has logged in on the call & only allows them if they are invited by the school. No one external can join the call unless the school's administrator allow them to.

An online classroom, like zoom & skype tends to have the important features of a video-conferencing tool but with additional features important for teachers. A virtual classroom is more than a video conferencing tool. The following features transform the teaching & learning experience in a virtual classroom:

• Interactive online whiteboard
• Library of learning materials
• Teacher tools & controls
• Ability to share lessons & accept submissions
• Manage & create quizzes
• Creating report card for children & securing everything in a cloud

What makes a room a classroom? What is common to all classrooms globally?

The whiteboard.

The online whiteboard is just as important, if not more important, to an online classroom. Why? It provides a shared focus point & enables teachers & children to collaborate on learning projects. Teachers can structure their lessons by embedding learning materials (pdf, video, audio files) directly into the whiteboard.

A whiteboard helps teachers & children get 'on the same page'. Rather than annotating (like writing on an interactive overlay), children can write/type/draw on the actual page & typically save for future review.

Embedding saved materials into the whiteboard enriches the learning experience, encourages child participation, makes it more efficient for teachers to switch between related concepts, engages more of the learner's senses & is just more fun. These are all important aspects of a ‘child-centered' learning approach, proven to be more effective than the old-school 'instructor-led' pedagogy.

 

When a teacher is in a physical classroom they use physical location, proximity & non-verbal body language to control the class. What about in an online classroom though?

A good online classroom typically includes a number of important controls for the teacher:

Teacher tools  –  Text tool, draw tool, eraser, shapes, pen colour, zoom.

Specialist teacher tools  –  maths tools, instant dictionary, instant verb conjugation tables, save or record the class, or save learning materials for the student to later review.

Group class tools –  raise hand tool, breakout rooms for larger groups, control of the student webcam – helpful if the child has a poor connection and needs to reduce internet bandwidth requirements, control of the student mic  – Yes, that means you can finally ‘mute' your child when required.

Users just need to download illumine software & nothing else. Illumine also offers host of other features useful for your school like announcements, collecting & sharing lesson plans, sharing photos, videos & more.