Joining a Digital Learning Community

A Digital Learning Community, or DLC, is an interactive resource for educators and students to communicate and share ideas and resources with each other.  The community usually incorporates technology in order to enhance the classroom environment and students' learning experience.  When looking for five DLC's that would benefit my own classroom, I tried to look for free resources so that all my students could have access to them.  Since I teach math, I also tried to look for any that were specifically math oriented.  Listed below are my five DLC's that I think would benefit my classroom:

1) Edmodo - I have actually used Edmodo in my class before and it is a great resource for both teachers and students.  It is a free website that also has a mobile app so students can receive updates on their phone.  Teachers can post homework, respond to students' questions, and give students a preview of the week ahead.  This free resource provides students with an opportunity to connect with their classmates and teacher when they have questions concerning any of the material that is being studied in class.  Teachers can also post links to helpful resources for students.  https://www.edmodo.com/

2) Khan Academy - This is a free resource that offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that allows students to work at their own pace.  Teachers can use this website to help struggling students by showing the instructional videos or providing additional practice with the exercises.  Students can work through these exercises both in and out of the traditional classroom. https://www.khanacademy.org/

3) Math Train TV - This is a free resource for videos over a variety of math topics.  These videos were made by other teachers and students as a beginning of a project for a math class in California.  Students are able to create their own instructional videos and post them, or watch a previously created video to help further their knowledge of a mathematical topic.  http://mathtrain.tv/

4) Open Study - Open Study provides a free resource for students to share thoughts, comments, ideas and solutions to homework or study problems.  This is an area where students can connect with others who are studying the same material.  This could be extremely beneficial to online learners, or students who cannot make it to school everyday. http://openstudy.com/

5) Jing (through TechSmith) - This resource is a free computer service that allows users to capture basic video, animation, and still images, and then share them on the web.  This would be a great resource for teachers or students to post videos or solutions to homework problems so that students can view them and ask questions. https://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

I chose to join TechSmith as my DLC.  They have videos and tutorials for educators to learn how to incorporate even more technology into the classroom.  I think this resource could benefit my students outside of the classroom, and help my students who are absent see examples from what they missed in class.