To: Superintendent of Schools / Greater Victoria School District

I am writing to you to propose an inspiring and innovative initiative that would serve the students within the Greater Victoria School District. I am proposing that we adopt the use of Moodle, an interactive Learning Management System (LMS) for the 2012/2013 school year, to help bring our learning and teaching into the age of technology. The goals and results of my initiative would align perfectly with your vision for our school district; here is an excerpt from your message as it pertains to my proposal “The Greater Victoria School District continues to move beyond our current methodologies to implement new ways of learning.”

Sincerely,

Caitlin M^cKeachie

Teacher – Grade Three

Rogers Elementary School

 

Rationale

Moodle is an Open Source LMS which is used as a tool for educators to provide dynamic lessons for both online courses and to supplement face-to-face (F2F) learning as known as blended learning.

What are the benefits to choosing Moodle?

• Moodle can be implemented with low cost.
• Provides students with opportunities to guide their own learning, collaborate with classmates and share learning experiences.
• Moodle has a flexible interface so that teachers can create sites that will best suit the needs of their students.
• Provides a fun and engaging space for learning to occur.
• Creates opportunities for custom and tailored learning for diverse learning needs in the classroom
• Easy access to tech support
• Secure learning space because it is password protected
• Allows parents to be involved and view student learning more readily than F2F learning in the classroom
• Brings teaching into the 21st century

 

Method of Selection

When deciding to use any technology in the classroom, it is imperative to evaluate the effectiveness and usefulness of the technology in question. The SECTIONS framework written by Bates & Poole (2003) offers a comprehensive look at what factors are essential to consider when evaluating the implementation of technology into your classroom.

Students-Moodle is a very diverse program which can be tailored to your needs and particular uses. For my classroom purposes, I will use Moodle to create a blended learning environment, in which my students will be guided through F2F learning and enriched with the use of a Moodle component.

Ease of use and reliability-Moodle provides educators with a frame that can be easily altered, add content to, and tailor towards their students abilities and needs.

Costs-Moodle is free to install and develop web content. The only costs involved with using Moodle in the classroom is with hosting, however, if the district decides to go ahead with a district or school wide hosting site, the costs would be minimized. Therefore, providing our student population with an economical innovative learning medium.

Teaching and learning-Moodle has many possibilities to address the increasingly diverse learning needs of today’s students. Just one of the ways Moodle could improve student learning in my classroom, is the ability to bookmark web pages to our Moodle course so my students can quickly access the information they need for research.

Interactivity-Moodle allows students to learn through social constructivism in an environment where students can share their learning and learn from each other through collaboration. It also allows for parents to be part of the learning environment; parental involvement in students’ school life dramatically increases attitudes towards school and achievement.

Organizational Issues-Moodle offers an easy to use interface, which allows teachers to easily create their own content pages without hassle.

Novelty-Moodle has already been tested by other school districts with success, therefore is a safe choice for our school district.

Speed-Once a course has been set up on Moodle, the ease of use and speed is what draws teachers to use this LMS system.

 

Resources

There are few resources needed for the implementation of Moodle which is one of the reasons I have selected it. As mentioned in the cost section above, there are limited costs involved in setting up and using Moodle. These costs would be further lowered if the district decided to launch a whole district initiative. As for professional development for teachers who decide to use Moodle, I would suggest that an appropriate avenue would be to incorporate a Moodle information session within the ‘Tech Cafe’ series.

 

Course Development

Although Moodle can be used across the district for all grades and subjects, I will be focusing my course development on the grade three Science curriculum focusing on a Space unit to start. The content for this course is prescribed in the Ministry of Education’s website http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/sciences/2005scik7_3.pdf.  My students have a high level of engagement in this subject, and for this reason I think it will serve as the best way to encourage and engage my students in our online community. This unit will have three modules. The first module will focus on studying the planets. The second module will focus on studying other objects in space such as comets, black holes, nebulas, etc. The third and final module will concentrate on the constellations and how they can change with the seasons.

 

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to review my proposal for integrating Moodle as a LMS within our School District. As educators, it is important to ensure we are not static as educators rather, we should ensure we are preparing our students to succeed in the changing world we live in by reviewing our practices and aligning them with the world around us.  We must ask ourselves: What am I doing to to prepare my students for the 21st Century?

 

References

Greater Victoria School District www.sd61.bc.ca/ Superintendent’s Message

MOODLE. Retrieved February 4^th, 2012 from

• Moodle http://moodle.org/
• Moodle Docs http://docs.moodle.org/

International Society for Technology in Education. (2007). NETS Standards for Students. http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.

Chickering, A.W. and Ehrmann, S.C. (1996).  “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever,” American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), p. 3-6.