Remote Learning Tips for Blocksmith Teachers
Over the past few months, we have collected your feedback and put together our best practices about remote learning with Blocksmith. We just had to share!
We have drawn from our own experiences teaching remote camps and have combined customers' feedback to provide you a clear list of benefits and recommended practices.
Benefits of Remote Learning with Blocksmith
Self-Paced Learning
Far and away the most important: Our self-paced Quest curriculum is accessible directly in the Builder. Translation: there is no need to keep every student on the same page over a video conference!
The classic teacher-led, projector-based, lesson format has been turned on its head in the Blocksmith Quest curriculum. Instead, we encourage students to guide themselves in project-based lessons, and suggest having skilled students act as teachersthemselves!
Instant Sharing
There is no need to manually transfer saved projects via email or otherwise! Each time you save a project in the Builder, is it instantly uploaded to the cloud.
That means the teacher can easily keep track of student's work and ensure they are staying on task.
Multiplayer Matches
This is a favorite of most remote learning camps! Your students can complete a final multiplayer game project in which they are encouraged to beta test and help debug each others' games. Beware: often much fun and hilarity occur!
Recommended Practices
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Identify your most skilled students early on! You can encourage them to help other students, and/or run your Zoom/Hangout chat as a Blocksmith Expert.
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Have students sign up for account and request access to your workspace the week before your camp or class begins. That way you won't spend an entire class session on just trying to get people set up.
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Dedicate some time for students' project presentations. This has a couple benefits! It is an exciting time where students can explain and answer questions about their projects. But it also ensures that students will stay on track since they will share their work in front of their peers.