eLearning For Teachers: Di Goodman (Epoff)

Day 1 of the TIGS Moodle for Teachers PD workshop - 11th August 2009

12 TIGS teachers from across the K-12 curriculum gathered for a 2 day workshop on Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th August to learn how to use the features of Moodle. Moodle is the chosen tool for developing our online teaching and learning portal, Narradan

Our trainer, Julian Ridden (known as Moodleman), is an outstanding educational facilitator who has empowered teachers across NSW to establish up online learning enviroments for their students. Check out his Moodleman Blog that has loads of great Moodle tips and ideas. Scroll through the archives or so a specific search for a topic

Modular (add to adjust change, develop to suit the needs of the user)

Object

Oriented

Dynamic (able to adapt to different needs and uses)

Learning

Environment (blends various tools to create a learning environment)

Moodle is an LMS

Content management system - eg a blog or a wiki

Document management system - eg sharepoint, share drive

Learning management system - eg Moodle, a tool to manage learning

Moodle Characteristics

Not a one-size-fits-all tool. Its an adjustable environment for learning communities designed using pedagogical principles. Teachers shape the product as they use it

Free Open Source Software (FOSS) which means its liberally licensed to give users the opportunity to research, analyse, use and improve the software due to its free unlimited availability and access

For the delivery of learning activities (wikis, blogs, assignments, quizzes etc) and the posting/publishing of resources (powerpoints, image galleries, audio glossaries, podcasts, documents, photos, links etc)

Great communication tools (forums, discussion tools, chat rooms, etc)

Modular: all of its components are adaptable and flexible. New tools and features can be added or altered

Can be customised to suit teacher’s needs

Compatible with different standards eg Mahara for ePortfolios; Sloodle (Moodle for Second Life)

Allows for differentiation of task: journal, image galleries, repositories, portfolios, certificates,book resources, podcasting, video conferencing, story writing, digital storytelling

Who uses Moodle?

Since 2003 users have grown to 56,000. Inside these users there are 9 milion educators

Check out the community of moodleusers  http://www.moodle.org. This Moodle forum is a vibrant community of users who post valuable information.  I encourage you to contribute to this community of practice. You can also follow Julian Ridden via his alias ‘Moodleman’ on Twitter

Samples of Moodle online courses

Schools are reluctant to share their Moodle courses however Julian has setup a Moodle Playpen to provie some examples and allow you to see some courses that have been setup by various teachers. This site allows guest access