Essential Applications

During COVID, as essential workers, teachers knew we must all continue the daily battle to help kids learn. Teaching during the pandemic was challenging and forced us to tap into our creativity and adapt our traditional teaching styles to the new online environment. We learned how to use new technologies like Zoom, Google Meet, and MS Teams. We had to find ways for students to create and submit work on devices with marginal wifi, often on devices many times inferior. Some had to do all their work on their phone because that was the best option they had. Can you imagine typing an essay on your phone? Adaptation occurred for us teachers, and also required students to adapt. Some continued to excel, fighting through the difficulties of the pandemic, while others were casualties of the process, succumbing to the loneliness, depression, and social-emotional drain that robbed them of some of the most important times of their young lives.

As we moved out of lockdown and the online learning environment back to more familiar ground and back into the classroom, I discovered some essential applications that I brought into the virtual business environment during the pandemic. These applications improved the way I teach and will continue to be used as we emerge from that restrictive environment. I wanted to share a couple of essential applications with you that made my job so much easier and integrated well into the VE classroom and online.

Managing a virtual business classroom requires years of practice. There are a couple free online software that lets your students work in a closed, collaborative, project-based environment. One of the challenges of teaching VE is the sheer number of things happening simultaneously. For new teachers, this can be overwhelming. Unlike a traditional academic class, where everyone is always doing the same thing at the same time, in the virtual business environment, you could have students working on 20-30 different projects or tasks simultaneously. In this work-to-learn model, students must take ownership of their learning and work independently or in small teams. project management tools really help in this environment. I orginally used a program called Trello, which was free, but the went to a pay for use model and the free no longer works for teaching in the virtual business environment if you ahve more than 10 students. Below are my recomendations for some free alternative that are hopefully not blocked by your district.

Milanote

Milanote is a free. The online management software allows you to create boards for your department teams. The program starts with 100 elements for you to use, however if you "refer" your students to sign up and create their own free account, you can earn 100 extra elements (total of 200) that you can use and that would be plenty of elements for the company. The software is easy to use and allows your students to develop their own department look and feel, similar to them having their own cubical at the office where they can organize it and decorate the way they want. Ultimately, you can edit what they include, but I think the freedom helps them have more buy-in to the class and company experience. I have set a sample firm that you can visit HERE. In addition, you can view a company that used Milanote for the year in the class buy clicking HERE. Milanote is my top choice at this point.

ClickUp

ClickUp is a free. The basic program is free and easy to join and set up. I recommend you set up five spaces for your firm, combining departments as needed (5 is the max for a free account so it can be a bit cramped). Using the basic Starter setup for everyday tasks for your TO DO, IN PROGRESS, and COMPLETED status lists. On the lists, you can add an unlimited number of cards (like Post-it notes). Students can move cards between status lists. When you click on the card, the information becomes visible. You can control the color, due date, and directions, create a checklist for students to follow, and can have active links to files, websites, and videos to supplement the tasks.

For both these options project management was a game-changer for my virtual companies. This is where the tasks I give the departments are created. Opening the card allows you to build out one complete assignment for the department with a title, due date, and complete directions. I include points that can be earned, and you can add a sequential checklist for students to check off as they progress through the task. I require my students to attach evidence of their work to the card by uploading or linking a file. I high recommend exploring both to use in your classes.

The Remind App.

Remind is a simple free communication tool you can use with your classes and companies to create a group texting environment that allows you to communicate with your students without sharing personal phone numbers. It can be driven from your phone or your computer. The application allows you to broadcast short announcements or reminders and will notify your students that they have received a Remind message. Though broadcast messages are short, The app allows you to have in-depth conversations with individual students When responding you can limit student interaction with each other so they can only respond to you as the teacher with text replies. Remind communicates with students in the environment that they are most comfortable with, their cell phones. I found this an essential tool for traveling with kids as they get notifications immediately on their phones, and you can send out reminders on where and when to meet, leaving times for field trips, and reminders of due dates. With the Remind app, you can set up groups (departments), and all members of that group can communicate, you can add the student leadership (Chief Officers) to administrator status so they have the ability to also send out reminders to the team.