Moodling begins as school year closes
April 28, 2009
Moodle (www.moodle.org) is a free web site that the USD 284 Technology team has been developing. It acts as a classroom support for any class taught in our school district. It is currently in use by teachers participating in the evaluation program.
Moodle has many possible advantages for students, parents, and teachers, as well as administrators. Advantages include:
1) Less paper used for assignments. Moodle may enhance activities in a classroom (such as quizzes and paper writing) and also create new ones. (blogging). Moodle can cut paper usage in printing rough drafts as well as printing assignments that will be handed back.
2) Improves organizational skills. Students can see what is due for the course. Once the assignments are graded, students can see their progress in the Moodle grade book.
3) Starts and helps lead discussions. The blogging that has been set up allows students to discuss classroom topics more in-depth and without time constraints. The conversation can continue outside of the classroom.
4) Can act as an additional classroom support. The design of Moodle is such that teachers can give more support to students and individualized feedback on assignments that will be there for as long as the teachers leave it online.
5) Students work at their own pace. With Moodle, you can give students basic instructions on getting into Moodle and then turn them loose! This means that time used with technology can be used more efficiently and students that finish with time to spare can use the remaining time to add more creativity to their work.
6) Drives more technology usage in the classroom. When the kids have a schedule with activities to look to and reference, the teacher has more time to set up a document camera with a projector, play a video and have the students take notes, or create a post-movie reflection.
