Using Moodle for a Grade 2-3 Collaborative Science Unit

The following proposal is intended to address the needs of five elementary school teachers who teach Grades 2-3 in British Columbia.  These teachers are interested in designing a unit on space that immerses their students in a true online experience.  21st Century skills’ approach are becoming more important for students progressing through the K-12 system in Canada (B.C. Ministry of Education, 2003.  and Premier’s Technology Vision, 2010).  As a result, the teachers are requesting funding for a server to support a Moodle, an open source online Learning Management System (LMS).

The course will be designed collaboratively between the five teachers to ensure that the Province’s Placement Learning Outcomes (PLO’s) are met.  The students will then be taught locally how to navigate the LMS while working on a series of modules both independently and in smaller working groups.  The groups will be composed of students in different schools engaging with one another using several Web 2.0 tools to work and engage in dialogue with their peers.

Rationale: 

The use of Moodle as the primary LMS was identified due to it’s open source nature which would effectively keep the costs down.  Districts would be responsible for paying for a server to host the Moodle and the teachers would need to maintain the server.  Despite not having technical support, the teachers would act as support as they navigate through the Moodle architecture which has been noted to be a “teacher’s  dream [for] course management” (Brandl 2005) and “after initial setup, enhancements are easy” (Menges 2009).

The Benefits:

21st Century skills’ based learning is currently high on the radar for school districts across British Columbia.  It’s imperative that teachers provide collaborative learning opportunities for students within their own classroom and with peers separated by geographically.  As such, learning to become a responsible member of the online community is important.  The modules will simulate real world working environments which are motivating to students who observer their adults using digital tools for communication purposes.  A sense of responsibility will ideally be felt by the students who are working digitally with other students with whom they have never met.  This process will be facilitated by the instructors at each site and should be an excellent introduction to online education which can be more dynamic than face to face lessons.

The use of an LMS is critical as it would host the separate modules and allow for a central location for the teachers to access the information and modify or adapt the material as they see fit.  In addition, the open source nature is an excellent way to keep costs down as future upgrades will likely be free of charge.

Evaluation

The selection of a Moodle was based on Bates and Poole (2003) SECTIONS framework for selecting an appropriate learning management tool.

Students – Grade two and three students within British Columbia are ready to embrace technology, however, proper technology education needs to be modeled and taught to ensure that they can learn to become responsible members of an online community.  The ability to extend their learning into their homes and across geographic location is an important step in life long learning.

Ease of Use – Moodle acts as the main site that students access.  In several trial runs in elementary school, students have “responded favorably” to Moodle (Menger, 2009).  Functionalities are built into Moodle that allow the teachers to see when assignments have been submitted and when contributions have been made (Klaus, 2005).

Costs – The main costs from this project comes in two forms: the implementation time of course material onto the Moodle by the teachers and an online server host.  The notion is that one course site implementation can be subdivided between the five teachers as they work collaboratively on material that they are comfortable with.  Future reiterations of this projects are to follow after a trial run.

Teaching and Learning – Due to it’s online nature, there is no need for students from all five classrooms to be online simultaneously.  Asynchronous communication is one of the benefits that will draw students back online.  In addition, as the site can be accessed at home, parent involvement can reinforce positive learning habits.  Moodle will be an arena where both teachers and students can learn collaboratively on what works best for cross classroom integration of projects.

Interactivity – Moodle has a diverse amount of communicative tools that include wikis, chats, messaging and conference boards.  As the open source community continues to develop, the options increase.

Organizational Issues – Initial implementation of the course will prove to be difficult.  Sorting the students into various groups and managing them across classrooms will require extra collaboration between teachers as well.

Novelty – Moodle is well developed open source platform and will serve to interest our young students quite well.  As new features are developed they can be readily adapted into our course.

Speed – Course updates can be made easily after the initial setup (Perkins & Pfaffman, 2006).  A reliable server, however, will be required to host the Moodle site.

Conclusion:

An online Moodle course that invites a younger generation into the online work to work collaboratively in a simulated real world situation is not only novel but exciting.  Students’ work will be an audience to not just their classroom teacher but to their peers, other students, other parents and classes around the province.  This project breaks down the concept that information can only be learned in the classroom and expands them into skills that are transferable in real world situations.  While some may hesitate at inviting young students into the online world, we could not disagree more.  These students are in need of guidance online and this experience will allow us to educate our students on proper online etiquette as they learn to navigate in this new space.

 

References:

BC Ministry of Education: K-7 Science 21st Century Learning (2009). Retrieved on September 29, 2012 from:   http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/dist_learning/21century_learning.htm

BC Ministry of Education: Science Grade 3 Integrated Resource Package (2005). Retrieved on September 29, 2012 from: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/curric_grade_packages/gr3curric_req.pdf

Brandl, Klaus. (2005.) Are You Ready To Moodle. Language Learning & Technology, 9(2), 16-23. Retrieved on October 1, 2012 from: http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num2/review1/default.html

Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6.

Menger, Beth. (2009.) Using Moodle (Open Source Software) with Grade 3-6. School Library Monthly, 26(2), 21-22.

Perkins, M. & Pfaffman, J. (2006). Using a Course Management System to Improve Classroom Communication. Science Teacher, 73(7), 33-37.

Premier’s Technology Council: A Vision for 21st Century Education (2010). Retrieved on September 29, 2012 from: http://www.gov.bc.ca/premier/attachments/PTC_vision %20for_education.pdf

Salpeter, Judy. (2003). 21st Century Skills: Will Our Students Be Prepared?  Retrieved on September 27, 2012 from: http://www.techlearning.com/article/45157.