Where's your collaborative learning environment these days? One thing is for sure: It's likely not all in one place! One of my one-to-one students has a Ning and a Posterous blog. My Moodle and home blog are my mainstay, but I'm not teaching anyone there are the moment. A test I wrote for another Moodle course is up and running very well. Then there's a company Ning. I'm learning myself on Twitter, and using all sorts of sites like GoogleReader and Delicious to organize my own learning.
Of all the all-in-one packages, I think Moodle is still the best solution for school and college courses. It provides students activities for higher order learning, like forum, database, glossary and wiki. It's great for blended learning. Much of it is presenting and collecting/ organizing student work (if you need that it's the only choice!), but you can also assign more productive roles to your students.
I very much like the integrated tests for self-assessment. This is a type of learning that may be underestimated. I've been building tests for Spotlight now for two and a half years, so I know a little more about tests than back when I was using Moodle only for collaborative learning. Students like doing interactive quizzes as long as they're short and sweet to keep on track. Moodle includes the most extensive feedback options I have seen anywhere. This is what feedback in a Moodle test looks like (just click these to view them large):
I'm a fan of the test-teach-test approach to learning some basics, and Moodle has all the tools you need for that. Ning and the various tools you could embed in a Ning don't come close. But creating good tests in Moodle takes much longer than you think.
Still, I'm currently going with Ning for company courses, and be it simply to share experience with more trainers, but I'm wondering whether I should switch back. Or look elsewhere.
There was a hot dedate on Virtual Learning Environments (like Moodle) #vle at the ALT-C conference #altc2009 in a session entitled "The VLE is Dead" . With a good degree of inside cheekiness the first speaker summarized that the "e" in elearning stands for evil as a result of VLEs being the normal way education technology is run in schools and colleges. This, he said, is because:
1. One size does not fit all - but VLEs tend to homogenize 2. The student/user does not "own" the VLE - but users want to own the tools they use 3. The VLE is conning academics into creating content (not constructivist approach) which creates an unproductive learning model 4. The VLE is not helful for discoursive teaching, it prevents students from discussing with people outside their institution 5. Teachers can do most stuff with outside, free tools 6. The PLE (personal learning environment) is flexible, while the VLE is cumbersome
Yet schools and colleges have to deal with not all teachers having the necessary skills in alternative tools, and not all students using social networks like Facebook and Twitter that would make VLEs obsolete for most student work. (Noone seemed to be debating VLEs as a good place for quizzes and tests.) But the feeling was really quite strong that VLEs are more counterproductive than conducive to learning.
If you want to learn how to use Moodle in a well thought out distance course, two FREE courses are provided by Stuart Mealor, Managing Director of HRDNZ in New Zealand. He's also a Moodle Partner and Moodle Certification Manager. The same website also provides a series of teacher training courses called MoodleBites for a fee. These are the two blurbs:
Course 1: Understanding Moodle FREE introduction
This is a free course we created to help explain Moodle in 'context'; as a piece of technology, as a philosophy, and as a teachers tool. This is a prerequisite self-paced course that can be taken at any time before starting the full MoodleBites course and explores: Moodle history and development, Moodle history and development, Moodle fundamentals, and comparing Moodle with other Course Management Systems
MoodleBites is unique in three respects:
1. It has a focus on how to use Moodle features in teaching. 2. Throughout the course indicators are provided to the Moodle Course Creator Certificate (MCCC) Skills Sets - so the course is ideal for MTC candidates. 3. The course development team is international and MoodleBites has been written to be accessible for speakers of English as a second or other language.
Course 2: Moodle, Web 2.0 and social-networking
Since the beginning of 2007 I've been working on how to use Moodle in a Web2.0 / social-networking context. This course explores how to use how popular technologies with Moodle ...such as Skype, Yahoo Messenger and Flickr (photo sharing), social bookmarking (Del.icio.us, Furl, Spurl, etc.), Blogs (internal and external), RSS (in and out), Podcasting, tagging, and more.
The course also explores how to creatively use existing Moodle functionality in a Web 2.0 / social-networking way.
The aim is to develop a 'course' that is 'owned and managed' by the Learner, in which they can create their own space, sharing their content, controlling access, and linking to their wider personal web experience and presence. It is hoped this will help develop the learners Moodle skills, and also blur the boundary between 'learning content in Moodle', and 'social networking on the internet'. Some key criteria within this project are:
* Techniques used will not require administrator access - everything can be done by Teachers and Students * A focus on Integrating popular applications external to Moodle * Creating a flexible and dynamic space - or PLE (Personal Learning Environment)
I've signed up, and if you like come and join me. Contact course owner Stuart Mealor by e-mail: stuart (at) hrdnz (dot) com
We had a nice Moodle 101 course yesterday at MELTA in Munich and I realize that many people who didn't take part might also want to have a look at a Moodle course to test the waters. If you are one of those, just get in touch with me. The link to the site is http://annehodgson.de/moodle.
The workshop was planned as a one-off event, but there are materials and a few YouTube tutorials for self-study, plus a couple of courses I've put together.
I’ve been hearing a lot about Moodle lately. The MVHS has it now, and so does the LMU. Recent CELTA courses have been using it, and even my kids have got Moodle at school. So what is it, and do I have to learn how to use it or even get Moodle myself?
Love, Madeline
Dear Madeline,
Moodle (http://moodle.org) is course writing software that is used to create “online learning environments”, or “virtual classroom” websites that can be stocked with all kinds of contents, including media, exercises and links. In addition, Moodle includes communication tools, such as forums (where you and your students can leave written messages for the whole course) and chats (where you can all log in and text each other to your heart’s content). There are nifty course management tools for assignments so you can organize the feedback you give your students as well as various tools to give your students both automatic and personal feedback on their work.
So, Moodle is not a commercial platform that comes already stocked with materials, like Macmillan English Campus. It needs to be filled up by a person who designs and writes the course. It’s “open source software”, which means the source code can be looked at and understood by people who can read it, and it’s freeware that can simply be downloaded on the Internet. Anyone wishing to set it up needs quite a bit of technical skill, though, and I had to get help to set up my Moodle site. There are some costs involved, too, since you need to rent space on a server to host your Moodle site.
So do you have to get Moodle? No. But it’s not at all difficult to use if a school you work for has it. You needn’t be put off if there’s not much content in a Moodle site, as it can be quite fun to put together a course with brand-new material, right? Be sure to attend an introductory workshop to see what it’s like to work with this tool before you take the plunge. I really recommend creating a lot of interactive quizzes, which your students will love to click away at for instant feedback. I took my extensive Moodle course with the Bayrischer Volkshochschulverband. It was run by Margit Kanter, and many VHSes are now offering courses run by alumni of that program. Just talk to your local VHS course coordinator.
Now, do I use my own Moodle site much, is the demand high? Frankly, no. I have offered blended learning courses, where my students are assigned homework and projects. Moodle makes it easy to manage assignments and the ensuing correspondence, to find things, get and send messages, post and read feedback, use links etc. Everything is neatly organized, very pleasant. No hassle with incoming emails and attachments. So Moodle shines as a platform for a classic teaching setup, with the teacher giving and correcting assignments in a virtual classroom. I’ve had courses like that, for instance Jobline for the LMU, but not many others so far. Why? Frankly, my adult learners don’t have the time or inclination to do homework. If they want feedback from me on their written work, they will tend to mail me directly.
That’s not what I originally intended to do with Moodle, because for one thing my teaching is generally much more geared to what my adult learners need ad hoc. Also I promote collaborative learning projects that need initial input from me but give my students a lot of leeway, and I was hoping the Moodle forums would work well for that. However, Moodle’s weaknesses are the weakness of online learning in general, namely that it is exceedingly difficult to create the many dimensions of spontaneous social interaction and learning in a more or less text-based online environment. There is just no way that Moodle, even when you add a lot of extra technology such as Second Life, can replace the face-to-face interaction that is so productive in collaborative projects.
Then, Moodle is a closed-off, password-protected platform. This is nice if you want to keep your virtual classroom door closed. On the other hand, you don’t get the surprise visitors that add spice to life. Being out in the Internet, surfing around and posting comments in open forums can be far more stimulating than what a small group of people can produce. So open-access blogs and wikis that everyone can read but only your and your invited students can write in might be better, after all.
The rest are didactic details. I’m not happy with the Moodle blog function. I was originally hoping that students would keep their own blogs to chart their learning progress, but that’s not happening. Few people are born bloggers - they prefer a clear assignment. Also, while wikis are wonderful tools for collaborative learning, the Moodle wiki is too complicated for students to have fun with. When technology is not really great to work with, it’s counterproductive, because it puts people off completely.
That said, I do think online learning platforms are here to stay. And frankly, I much prefer any type of platform that lets you look at the code and add your own contents over one that provides you with a closed box of contents and charges you an arm and a leg for it. So Moodle is good. Take a good course to find your footing and get started. We’ve only just seen the tip of the iceberg in education technology, so I guess I’ll just have to keep moodling through.
Love, Cousin Web
Want to set up a Moodle site to practice on? Go to NineHub.com, a free webhosting site where you can experiment to your heart's content.
You're a teacher who wants to explore the potential of online learning for promoting learner autonomy, and learn a five-stage didactic model that works? Read Gilly Salmon, E-tivities.
Want to see a really nice Moodle site? There are lots out there. The Open University LearningSpace is probably the biggest one.
A great online community on Ning, the social networking site, is dedicated to Moodle discussions: iMoodle
Experimenting with Moodle and online learning may be fun for us, but will the students enjoy it? Caveat! Just watch highschool students complain about the way their teacher uses Moodle for everything:
