Learn 360: A Review

Today's AEA resource review of Learn 360 will be taken from my classroom perspective. As a reader, please keep in mind that what works for my classroom, may not necessarily work for your classroom and vice versa.

I only have a few major expectations for my students as the year progresses, and these are expectations that if you asked any of my students, they would know...almost like a way of life or a credo.

1. Always try your best
2. Always improve
3. Be responsible for your own learning

The common theme of all three of these is that I do not care what you have done in math up to this point. You could be the lowest level of math student in the history of math students. This does not concern me. I want students to understand that they can help themselves for the future by following these three statements.

I always try to have many options for students available at all times so they can be responsible for their own learning. This is where Learn 360 comes into play. Videos are always options that I have ready for students if they choose to use them. Videos come in very handy because it allows students to work at their own pace for the sake of the learning and the understanding.

Thus the first thing I was looking for was sharing options. In the overview, teachers can provide access to specific videos for students to use. This is a great feature because I do not normally show a video to an entire class, the video is more of an option for learning. I can also filter out what videos I want them to see or what videos are relevant, which is another plus. This also includes podcasts, which is another feature that my students could use.

I wanted to see how easy the actual functionality of the site was, so I logged in and gave it a try. The searching feature was the first part that caught my eye. I could continuously narrow down until I found what I wanted. There were many options for math. I found a video on adding fractions and I was pleased because it showed more "why" than "how". This concept of visualization is important to me. If you do not teach math, there looked to be numerous videos for other topics, but again, you would have to check them out to see if they fit what you were looking for.

The other important factor is cost. When used through the AEA, this service is free to our district. Free is the key work for these rough economic times. Anything I get in my classroom is grant written, and having something for free is welcome.

Some of the other features do not strike me as exciting. Blogging and calendars do nothing for my classroom because the students will have their own blogs and they all have calendars on their computers so those are unneeded. They do feature technical support through videos, phone, and email if you need help which may come in handy, but the support is not 24 hours but "will respond in 24 hours". This may be a deal breaker for some teachers who may have needed the answer 5 minutes ago.

Overall, this seems like a quality option that I will add to my list of resources for students to use. The cost is free, their are thousands of grade level appropriate videos to choose from, and the sharing option allows students to find and watch the videos on their own, or with a friend. My only concern for Learn 360 and many sites for that matter is how obsolete locations like YouTube and Blogger (free sites) are making other paid sites. Even with Learn 360, YouTube will be a staple in my classroom because of the unlimited amount of choices that it provides.

If you have any additional questions, please comment and I will reply with answers.

Official Learn 360 Site

Learn 360 Video Tour

Flyer on the Features of Learn 360

Credit given to the following: http://blogs.bcbe.org/