The state of digital education

Here's a fascinating graphic depicting the state of digital education that shows that elearning saves money compared to instructor-led training. That's a sad and misleading statistic. Just having completed an e-learning course, I think that those two types of instruction are very different, requiring different learner skills and providing different learning opportunities. One of the findings of the past years in education is that one size does not fit all. Any educator worth his or her salt will use digital technology very judiciously to empower learners and allow them to access materials and social learning contacts they wouldn't otherwise have.

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

A comprehension quiz using ProProfs Quiz Maker

This is another ELTAS Tech Tools Day task

Pre-task thinking:

• Can self-correcting online quizzes motivate learners, and if so, how?
• When would you refer to ones available online?
• When would you want to write one yourself?
• What would your students get out of creating a quiz and posting it for the others?

Barbara Sakamoto is using the ProProf Quiz Maker, a simple and free quiz-making tool, for her quiz series, "What you can learn from my PLN". (Last quiz here.) Each quiz features five blogposts on teaching, and you can even win Japanese sweets if you get the questions right! And now she's making a quiz especially on tech tools and using technology in time for the ELTAS Tech Tools Day.

So please do her latest quiz. Then come back and create a quiz of your own using the software.

Step by step:

1. Select a presentation or an article or blogpost online.
2. Formulate comprehension questions and possible answers, including one correct one and two or more distractors.
3. Register as a user on ProProfs Quiz Maker.
4. Go to Create a Quiz and select "Scored Quiz"
5. Type a quiz title, add tags and an introduction.
6. Type in your questions and add a comment containing a tip (but not the answer).
7. Edit your score settings.
8. Select your quiz category.
9. Press "Create a quiz".
10. Embed HTML code in your collaborative learning environment OR do what Barbara did, create a link to the quiz form.
11. Note that you can change your quiz after saving. However, all entries by quiz takers will then be reset to zero.
12. Please post a link so that we can participate in your quiz.
    

Getting your students involved in the Read/Write Web

At MELTA we have a workshop coming up on 27 February 2010 with Karenne Sylvester, who has been teaching blended learning courses using Ning, a social networking cum online course creation tool. She's started an online series on how to learn English on her blog. Her first post is on how she gets her students reading blogs, and includes the blogs she recommends to her students, and they include my favorites and introduced me to some new ones, especially Dominic Cole's, a blogger who keeps up not one but three very interesting blogs. Really cool. This is Karenne's list:

1. Dominic Cole's: http://alittlebutoften.blogspot.com/
2. Toby Crawley's: http://bite-sized-english.com/
3. Markus Brendell: http://www.der-englisch-blog.de/
4. Neal Chambers': http://www.englishspark.com/en/blogs
5. Berni Wall's: http://www.gapfillers.co.uk/
6. Nik Peachey's : http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
7. Jeffrey Hill's: http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/
8. Clare Whitmell's: http://www.theenglishweb.com/
9. Chiew P Nang's: http://acliltoclimb.blogspot.com/
10. Sue Lyon Jones': http://esolcourses.blogspot.com/
11. Anne Hodgson's (yeah! thanks!): http://annehodgson.de/

I'd add Dominic Cole's main blog: http://www.dcielts.com/archive/
Karenne will be starting up her own blog for learners again, too.

And what about the Business Spotlight and Spotlight crowd, who write real blogs, and nice ones, too, but for a magazine? For some reason the blogging world hasn't accepted them as one of their own. I'm not sure why that is. Is it unacceptable to recommend a magazine blog? Or is it that they're not engaging on Twitter, or commenting on other people's blogs? I figure that might be a faux pas in the blogging community. Yet the blogs are clearly directed at a language learner, and are explicitly educational. I don't think that's a bad thing.

1. Debbie Capras's: http://www.business-spotlight.de/blogs/deborah-capras/
   
2. Ian McMaster's: http://www.business-spotlight.de/blogs/ian-mcmaster/
   
3. Eamonn Fitzgerald's: http://www.spotlight-online.de/blogs/eamonn-fitzgerald/
   
4. Dagmar Taylor's: http://www.spotlight-online.de/blogs/dagmar-taylor
   
5. Mike Pilewski's: http://www.spotlight-online.de/blogs/mike-pilewski
   

Moodle

From the MELTA News archives:
Dear Cousin Web,

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.

Just starting out with blended learning? Read Pete Sharma & Barney Barrett, Blended Learning. Using Technology in and beyond the Language Classroom and Gavin Dudeney & Nicky Hockly, How to Teach English with Technology.

You’re a teacher already using Moodle and want to expand your didactic range? Read William H. Rice, Moodle Teaching Techniques. Creative Ways to Use Moodle for Constructing Online Learning Solutions for ideas on how to use the Moodle features quiz, question, choice, wiki, glossary, lesson and workshop.

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: