K. M. Burrows

While distance learning was a time of stress and turmoil for many of us who were suddenly thrown headfirst into the challenge of digitizing our classes, it’s impossible to deny that this period of struggle resulted in some bright spots and awesome ed tech advances. One rapidly-emerging fad that might have crossed your radar is the Bitmoji or ‘virtual’ classroom.

Virtual classrooms make it possible to create a static ‘home base’ in the digital world, a place where your students can return to for access to all of your classroom resources, necessary information, fun games or activities or videos, and anything else that you might wish to share with your students in a digital space. Virtual classrooms not only help with organization and communication, they help build a sense of community. Students are able to get a feel for your personality through the classroom design, and you are able to incorporate all sorts of elements to delight and excite your students even from a distance.

Bitmojis, little animated versions of you, are an optional but common part of the virtual classroom process. You can use the Bitmoji app on your smartphone to create your own digital character with tons of style choices that allow you to dress up, dress down, or dress to support your favorite team. Then, you can select from a wide variety of Bitmoji poses to add yourself into your virtual classroom! A how-to post for creating your own Bitmoji is coming soon!

This blog post series will dive into the process of creating your very own virtual classroom from scratch. The process is a lot simpler than most people realize, not to mention completely customizable from start to finish. I’ll guide you through each step of the process with tips, tricks, and tons of freebies (digital furniture store, anyone?) so that you can build the virtual classroom of your dreams and create the perfect online space to welcome your students in the fall- regardless of what the school year will look like.

Stay tuned for Part 1, Choosing a Classroom Background, and in the meantime check out this curated selection of Virtual Classrooms to inspire your creativity!