At very short notice the learning place. Ed QLD's on line eSpace decided to create a virtual classroom for each school. Many teachers already have this space. Next issue was that of course not all families are online so a paper mail out will support this. The obvious spin off for any schools forced to close will be forced to engage with on line environment. Nothing like a crisis to initiate change in practice.

Hello, my name is Greg Heisenfeldt and I am an education student at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids MI. Our topic this week in Tech in Education is virtual classrooms. We have had several school closings this year due specifically due to flu outbreaks. I am fascinated by this idea of emergency teacher plans. I think the biggest issue for our area would be the student's ability to connect from home regardless of what format is used. Some school systems would have a much easier time pulling this off than others. So my question would be, how could we make sure we reach every child? Should there be an emphasis on giving each student a laptop first, as in a 1-to-1 computing program before attempting school wide virtual classrooms? Thanks! Greg Heisenfeldt

BrainPOP UK has a free, embeddable movie that explains pandemic flu to kids in a way that they really love and understand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J2ftrIdGnE or here on the site - which includes a quiz: http://brainpop.co.uk/uk/category_42/subcategory_417/subjects_4683/