A Strong Spirit & A Sense of Community

I was looking for a way to engage high school students online and a way to support the school ESLRs with technology.

The Platform – Moodle

Open Source Software

http://moodle.orgMoodleroomsApprox. $150 per year for 5 courses

The Participants

Invited 10 students who would feel comfortable with one another

All in 10th Grade 3 Boys/7 Girls Actual: 2 Boys/4

Girls

Recruited 5 Guest Hosts

All employees of my school/church

The Layout

http://individual.mrooms.net/

Session 1: Truth

Session 2: Guard Your Mind

Session 3: God’s Will

Session 4: Reliability of the Bible

Session 5: Feedback

Sample Questions/Answer3. Do you feel equipped to guard your mind? If yes, what are some things you do? Do any Bible verses come to mind? Any websites or other resources you've used in the past to help? Having Christian friends and going to a Christian school is definitely a plus in our world.

However, there are always times when I hear those nasty words or comments and I'll look for Bible verses or I'll turn on my radio (it's tuned to KLOVE :D) just so I can

"enter" my Christian world again. I also find it comforting to go to battlecry.com and view some people's battleplans and read how they feel about the world we're in and how they cope. Somehow, I seem to find comfort is knowing that I'm not the only Christian who is struggling with the uncleanliness of the non-Christian world.

Emily,Way to go! I am so impressed that you turn to battlecry.com to see how other people are coping. Getting good advice from other Christians is one of the great things about being part of a Christian community at school and particularly at church. This is such a good practice, Emily. It will serve you well to seek out others who are further down their Christian walk to give advice.Also, as for your number 2, the older I get and the more I find out about what people do to each

other, the more disgusted I am. I guess you and I both don't have any trouble understanding that humans have a sin nature! We have so many reasons to thank God for saving us. I'm proud of you, Emily. Great thoughts. Thanks for sharing.Mrs. Meyer

The Successes & Failures

Successes Idea rec’d positively

by students Thoughtful posts on

spiritual issues High quality

information shared by guest hosts

Good feedback from students

Failures 50-60% involvement Minimal interaction No evidence of

learning from others’ posts

Found that my messages didn’t go through

Flexible Feedback

Results of Feedback

Which item represents the reason you had difficulty participating in this project?TIME

Which session's topic was most interesting to you? Truth, Guarding Your Mind, God’s Will

What was the primary reason you did not respond to the guest host's postings?TIME

Results

Did you like the idea of this project? Are you interested in online conversations like this for your classes at FCS? Why or Why not?Unanimous yes. Made you think, liked mentors/adults perspective, fun, growing experience to see how more people see things, good for teachers to hear from everyone, used it for a class before and was most prepared ever for a test

Results

Did you talk about this project with others in the group at school or on the phone?5 – Yes, 1 – No

Why do you think about half of our original 10 people chose not to participate?3 – No Time, 2 – Not Interested

I noticed that you didn\'t use text message slang or IM spelling to answer these questions. Why?

5 – Never use it, 1 - Other

Results

It seemed people were good at posting thoughts but not so good at responding. What should I do next time to encourage more posts back and forth asking and answering questions? How can we make it a conversation?

Did you feel that you learned something new?Yes – 5, More clarification - 1

My Reflections & Conclusions

Students have minimal time but they like this format!

This forum is good for giving students the time and space to think carefully and explain themselves.

The anonymity helps them open upWe need to schedule the time and the

means for students to engage in learning in a way appealing to them.