VirtualClassrooms

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Many universities and colleges use course management systems to facilitate online classes and even as supplements to face-to-face courses. These types of tools are finding their way into the k-12 classroom as well as more and more schools have adopted standards that require students to take an online class before they graduate or at least have a significant online learning experience at some point in their secondary education. There are many different tools that are available both for a fee but also for free. Nearly all of the sites listed below are both free and don't require a download. I have included only these sites rather than providing links to the vast array of tools as I am more interested in promoting free tools that can be quickly put to use by teachers with minimal technical ability and knowledge.

**Uses of Virtual Classrooms in Education**
Virtual classrooms or class management systems provide a secure and private online presence for teachers and their students. You can provide access to different assignments, files, links and multimedia much like in a basic webpage but do so with the knowledge that your audience is limited to only your students. Teachers can also provide access to these online classrooms to parents so that they can take a more active part in the learning of their children. Most of the virtual classroom tools that are available also provide some kind of discussion tool that allows teachers to extend conversations beyond the physical walls of the classroom and also make those conversations permanent by archiving past discussions.

Educational Benefits of Virtual Classrooms
Having a virtual classroom to complement your face-to-face classroom provides many great learning opportunities. Your students get a chance to practice a variety of skills in an online environment such as uploading and downloading files and participating in an online discussion. They also get to learn about the responsibilities of being part of an online learning environment, which will help prepare them for taking fully online courses in the future. These environments can also provide parents with a way to stay connected to the classroom and even give them a chance to contribute to the learning through participation in discussions and contributions of resources.

Specific Ideas for using Virtual Classrooms in a k-12 Setting
Click here to add or view a lesson plan or idea for using this technology in the classroom.

**Relevant Online Tools**
The following tools are currently available to schools and teachers and most are free.
 * [|Moodle] is free but requires that software be downloaded and hosted on a server. There is a fairly large following of Moodle in the education community and a growing body of research surrounding the use of this environment in k-12 settings.
 * [|Claroline.net] is similiar to [|Moodle] in that it requires software to be downloaded on hosted locally and that it is an Open Source tool.
 * [|NICENET] is a non-profit organization that provides a virtual classroom tool called the Internet Classroom Assistant to teachers for no cost. It is similar to the other tools in it's list of features and is not supported by ads.
 * [|edu2.0] provides access to a variety of communities centered around different topics and learning objectives. They also have a growing library of resources contributed by their members that include quizzes, tests, projects and self-paced courses.
 * [|Ecto] is another online learning environment built on the notion of social networking, collaboration and sharing of resources.
 * [|SqoolTools] is a virtual learning environment created by a former teacher and school technology coordinator. The site is free but supported by ads but they plan to offer a subscription service that would allow you to remove the ads from your classroom site.
 * [|WiZiQ] is a virtual classroom that is really designed to allow you to conduct interactive teaching sessions by sharing presentation slides such as Power Point, using an interactive online whiteboard and communicating with students through live chat and video. There is also a large collection of presentations and content that you can tap into and use in your own teaching. This tool is better suited for active teaching in an online environment rather than managing a course with assignments and so forth. This had been a free tool but they now charge.
 * Piazza is designed more around allowing students to post questions and have them answered by their teacher or other experts in the field. It does allow you to post certain kinds of class materials as well.
 * ClassConnect is designed a bit more for creating lessons and teaching online rather than a full fledged online classroom but it still may meet the needs of certain teachers.
 * BrainHoney has a wide-range of features and offers a free account for individual teachers. Schools can purchase an account for a broader range of controls in order to manage an entire building.
 * Haiku also offers a free single teacher account where you can create up to 5 classes. They have a very robust range of features with the free account.
 * Edmodo is more of a blend between a social networking site and a LMS. You will notice that some of the traditional features of a LMS are missing but if you are looking for more of a collaborative environment where your students get to contribute more to the content of the site, this may be the choice for you.
 * Twiducate is another social network type site that could also be used as a LMS.
 * Schoology blends social network and LMS as well but has more of the traditional LMS features included.

These tools that can be purchased for a fee. It's also possible that some states are providing these tools to their schools either for a reduced cost or for free. You will want to check with your administrator or technology coordinator to find out if any of these are available to you and your students. top
 * [|Blackboard] is one of the more popular commercial products available in this category. One benefit of this kind of service is the dedicated support staff you have access to should you run into problems.