Re: moodle

["Carla Beard" <carla@webenglishteacher.com>]

Jim,

 

You can download Moodle from moodle.org. Lots of people don't know about it
because it's Open Source software, not MS or Mac. 

 

The book is Using Moodle: Teaching with the Popular Open Sources Course
Management System by Jason Cole. Used copies are available at Amazon. 

 

Yes, 2 or 3 - or 15! - teachers in different parts of the country could hold
book discussions together. Great idea! 

 

Carla Beard 

 

 

  _____  

From: middle-lit-owner@interversity.org
[mailto:middle-lit-owner@interversity.org] On Behalf Of jimjceleb@aol.com
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 6:44 AM
To: middle-lit@interversity.org
Subject: Re: [middle-lit] moodle

 

Carla,

You really have piqued my interest. I don't know anyone who has even
mentioned Moodle . I thought someone was just goofing around when I saw it
in the message box. If it can do what you describe here at the right price
(free!) how can it stay a secret! Where I find it? I assume the book is easy
to find since I have no one to turn to for information about the many errors
I will make. Can this be set so that two or three teachers in different
parts of the country could hold book discussions together?

Jim

 
-----Original Message-----
From: Carla Beard <carla@webenglishteacher.com>
To: middle-lit@interversity.org
Sent: Sun, 9 Jul 2006 16:41:15 -0400
Subject: Re: [middle-lit] moodle

Alex, 

 

Let me answer the easy question first: our tech guy suggested it, set it up,

and encouraged us to use it. He even used his own funding to buy us a Moodle

book. Granted, we had to share it among six teachers this (inaugural) year,

but the fact remains that he made it happen for us. 

 

Now the other question: what all do I do with it? 

 

1. I give objective quizzes/tests. Moodle grades them, tells me the scores,

does an item analysis, discourages cheating 3 different ways, allows for

make-up work at the student's convenience, and -- on the rare occasion (LOL)

when there's a mistake in my key -- allows me to correct my mistake and

regrade every single quiz.

 

That feature alone is worth the slight learning curve. Just think how much

paper I've saved by putting all my quizzes online. (BTW, Moodle is pretty

intuitive -- I thought it was easy to learn. I bought my own copy of the

Moodle book and almost never used it.)

 

2. I post assignments to which students can respond in multiple ways. A

student can post a response on Moodle that everyone else can see, and I can

post responses to it that everyone else also can see. I can also post an

assignment to which students can respond by uploading a file that only I

will see. The response could be anything digital: an essay, a slide

presentation, a podcast, a poster. (If I am in a bind, I can upload an old

worksheet, have the kids do it digitally, and have them submit their

answers. That's a bad use of technology, but sometimes it happens. At least

it saves some paper.)

 

3. I post a question on a forum (bulletin board) and let students respond

both to my question and to their own ideas. This worked nicely as both pre-

and post-reading activities. 

 

4. This past year through a fluke of the schedule I had a class of only 10

students. Only one of them really liked to discuss, though; the others paid

careful attention and had thoughts but didn't necessarily speak in class.

When I took them into a chat room on Moodle, though, they opened up, and we

had some good discussions. 

 

Security is very tight in these chat rooms. All conversation is logged, and

the room exists only for the amount of time I determine. I can set it up so

that only those with a password may enter. It's not like a chat room on,

say, MySpace.

 

5. We can create a class wiki to demonstrate learning and to use as a

reference. Mind you, the one time I tried this at the end of a unit on

Anglo-Saxons, it was a disaster, but the fault was mine: I hadn't structured

the requirements carefully enough.

 

6. We can create a class glossary. I actually haven't done this yet, but

it's on my "to do" list for next year. 

 

There are more options, but these are the ones I used during the one

semester I had it. In the spring I had to miss some school due to a death in

the family, and I set up a forum with the assignment. Students who were

struggling could post questions, and I would post responses in the evening.

What I found, though, was that other students also posted responses, so it

created a help network. 

 

In my next career, I would sell Moodle -- but it's free. 

 

Carla Beard

 

 

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