Class+Sizes

Numbers are not over 12 in any Coronet classes - 12-15 from one school I would image would be much easier to work with in a VC lesson than 6 from 6 individual schools - now this is a real juggling act for the eteacher. How many of our schools have purpose built rooms that accommodate more that 6 students? What should we be discussing here - numbers, connections or venue? Hello Jan, in reply to your question about whether we are discussing class sizes, sites or venue, I think it is about discussing all of it, because I think depending on "the mix", then the way the class is delivered online can also differ. Last year I had 5 students from 5 sites and this year I have 14 from 8 sites and if I was delivering the 5/5 again, I would do it differently from what I now know. As you know, one of my schools is buying a teacher from your cluster and there are 11 in that class and the teacher runs it very efficiently and uses a LMS to support their learning and it works very well, but without that online enviornment I don't think it would. In this situation there is also a support teacher there to assist, we have 20 agriculture students in Telford classes and also have a tutor with them as well so they can follow on with the work. So, what I think we need to be discussing is the importance of finding what fits best for whatever model we have. I wouldn't like to be told that I could only have 5 sites and then only 5 students, but I don't want to be told that I need 20 students in an online class either, I actually think that is too many. For me I think we simply need to be sharing our experiences and assisting e-teachers in finding what works for their situation. I think the idea of having a "buddy or mentor" to assist an e-teacher in their online environment would be very valuable. The course I am doing requires us to look at each other's online sites and critique them. This has been really valuable. I am putting all of the comments around this discussion in our VLN wiki so when people have time and the time is right for further discussion, all the comments can be drawn on, so please keep adding your ideas and I will post them in the wiki.
 * COMMENTS FROM JAN COLLIER - ePrincipal - CoroNet - 28/5/2009**
 * COMMENTS FROM CAROLYN BENNETT - eTeacher & ePrincipal (FarNet) - 28.5/09**