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Resources for Teaching via ATM:
Ideas for the ATM classroom
This page is dedicated to presenting ideas for incorporating ATM technology into school curriculum and other uses for the system.
If you have an idea that you would like to share with the MDLP community, please send it via email.
Supplementing Courses
Look at ways to supplement ATM courses . . .
- As we gear up to deploy the new statewide MOODLE server you may want to get your staff fired up about taking the FREE training and using the online teaching tools to supplement your ATM classes. It is hoped that this added flexibility will help with scheduling issues.
- Consider offering a course partly via ATM and partly online.
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Offering Alternatives to Regular Classes
Having trouble making schedules fit with other schools? ATM offerings don't always have to take the form of a regular class . . .
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Offer classes or programming during off-hours before and/or after school.
- Arrange for students to meet with tutors at other locations for enrichment, remediation, or personal attention.
- Offer students who are applying to colleges and universities the ability to use the ATM system to meet with advisors for admission counseling or interviews.
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Utilizing Enrichment Programming
It is critical to remember that distance learning via ATM is a great way to bring enrichment programming into your school . . .
- Have your kids visit the Bronx Zoo or the Kennedy Space Center and talk live to real zookeepers and astronauts. Programming such as this can take the form of virtual field trips. To learn more, visit the virtual field trips section of this site.
- Utilize the ATM equipment to allow local libraries (town, high school, or college) to offer an introduction to library services and research techniques.
- Invite an expert to speak to students about their first-hand experience in a field or subject being studied.
- Interview the author of a book a class is reading via the ATM system.
- Design your own virtual field trips on a topic and offer it out to other interested schools.
Any of these ideas will also be great for elementary and middle school students.
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Collaborating with Schools
Group projects that might normally done between two groups within your school or community can also be done with groups at remote locations using the ATM network . . .
- Offer classes team-taught with teachers at two remote sites, sharing subject matter expertise or a unique approach to a topic.
- Encourage teachers and students to collaborate and exchange information and best practices with other schools via the system.
- Have student councils meet and discuss school related issues.
- Form a partnership with foreign language departments from other schools and let the kids talk back and forth.
- Identify a buddy school either in Maine or another state. Have students communicate with "video pals" at that school to experience diverse cultures and ways of life, both economic and ethnic (e.g. rural vs. urban).
- Compare and contrast holiday traditions with another school. For example, in New England we celebrate Patriot's Day. In California (where they don't), Cesar Chavez's March 31st birthday is a holiday for civil servants. Or in Suffolk County, Massachusetts they not only celebrate Patriot's Day, but also Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day.
- Hold contests between schools via the ATM system. Debates, spelling bees, trivia challenges, and similar events can be done with students at remote locations.
- Have your students design and teach a lesson on biology or chemistry to students at another school.
- Try sharing a scientific experiment with a school in another state. Compare the results - do things like temperature, humidity, or barometric pressure affect the outcome?
- Known (or unknown!) for an outstanding program or project? Model it for other schools.
- Working on a joint project (e.g. a grant) with another school? Meet via ATM to work on it and share ideas.
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Moving Beyond Students
Frequently sites get caught up with thinking about student classes and while this is a worthwhile endeavor it often is responsible for limiting a site's viewpoint.
To be most effective you should also look at what distance learning via ATM can do for your teachers and administrators (for example professional development courses and enrichment) and what it can do for your adult community at large (for example Adult Education and community events both for enrichment like guest speakers and for training like EMTs and Firefighters).
Professional Development
- Explore the possibility of taking a graduate level course via ATM (even those offered via a different video-conferencing medium, such as ITV).
- Hold regular brainstorming sessions via the ATM network with colleagues at other locations.
- Use the ATM system to facilitate the mentoring of new teachers who may have limited peer support groups within their own school districts.
- Conduct interviews, meetings, conference presentations, and other administrative tasks over the ATM system to save travel time and costs.
Community Involvement
- Conduct town hall meetings, government hearings, school board meetings, court functions, and other government-related activities via ATM.
- Host public health discussions broadcast to other ATM sites in your community and beyond.
- Special interest organizations, clubs, committees, sports teams and more can use the ATM network instead of traveling to state-wide meetings or to share ideas with similar groups located geographically distant.
- Offer adult education classes and seminars in areas such as English, literacy, job training, etc.
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