[Moodle] Re: Moodle at home

[Roland Gesthuizen]

Following is an interesting reply by Kathy Hooper to the Moodle Post that I
just made on another list .. some good classroom practice hints.

Regards Roland
------------------------------
I found your discussion quite intriguing as it reflects the position I have
come to over the past ten years of playing around with
ICT<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=information+and+communications+technology>in
a large secondary school. I made my first Moodle site about three
years
ago in order to support the work done with my
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>s
in class and it proved quite successful. I felt I could not insist that my
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>s
use it however until I was sure that most of them had easy access to to a
computer<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=Linux>at
home. This year, after much persuasion, the school has adopted Moodle
and
the site has gone live. It has been a great success despite the fact that,
as yet, no time has been made available to properly
train<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=teach>all
teachers in Moodle techniques. The teachers are very keen to get their
hands
on<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=hands-on>it
however.

This year I have told my
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>s
(and they have accepted) that I expect each
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>to
have access to a
computer<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=Linux>either
at home or at school - they are available for use before, during and
after school. I pointed out that there was a time when schools expected
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>s
to provide their own pens and that this time had now arrived with
computer<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=Linux>s.
I am now planning my work with this in mind.

One of the strategies I am using is to put all the homework for the week on
the course calendar. The Monday of each week lists what needs to be
completed by the next Monday. The rule is I am not allowed to add anything
after Wednesday so that they do not get a nasty surprise on Sunday evening!
Included in the list is usually one or two links to
quizzes<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=quiz>.
The results of these are tabulated in the gradebook and I can easily check
to see who is keeping up. This has been partially successful - but it is
early days yet and it helps that I have a lunchtime duty in one of the
computer<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=Linux>rooms!

One of the most successful aspects of my earlier site was the
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>lounge.
Here 3
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>s
were in charge of a course page where they put on links and created chat
sessions and forums<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=forum>that
were related to the subject (sometimes!) I look forward to setting
more
collaborative work and as the
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>s
become more accustomed to working with Moodle this should become much easier
and more successful.

For me, one of the most important things is to encourage
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>s
to take responsibility for their own learning and so I am quite excited by
the opportunities that have opened up now that the school has adopted Moodle
and made it accessible to
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>s
at home. Sadly, as the teachers gear themselves up to use this technology,
many student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>s
have left this behind -
computer<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=Linux>s
are not new technology to them and for many
student<http://moodle.westallsc.vic.edu.au/mod/glossary/showentry.php?courseid=113&concept=student>s
they are not at all exciting.

cheers

kathy

On 22/04/06, Roland Gesthuizen <rgesthuizen at gmail.com > wrote:
>
> Good report from a post to the Moodle K12 discussion list about Moodle
> and Pupil's use of IT at home in the UK. (PDF version attached)
> http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=44129
>
> "The communication and collaboration tools that Moodle provides would
> be one way of taking some aspects of the leisure use of computing at
> home and re-purposing it to more educational ends ... if a school can
> provide this sort of functionality, then myspace, facebook and bebo
> perhaps become less appealing."
>
> Regards Roland
>
> --
> Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
> http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au
>
> "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
> change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
> --Margaret Mead
>
>
>


--
--
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/moodle/attachments/20060422/4cfac236/attachment.html