I enjoyed searching through the various communication tools available to instructors in Moodle because it gave me a good overview of what exists for instructor\/student communication. It was interesting to match the tools I liked best with my instructional goals. The challenge was picking the right tools for the right reasons.<\/p>\n
Although I like the idea of a wiki to connect students to each other and the instructor, it didn\u2019t seem like the right tool for literacy learners because it invites the sharing of writing which may intimidate some students. Instead, I chose the discussion forum and the chat tools.<\/p>\n
I wanted to start with something very basic so the students could connect easily without a lot of technical confusion. I worked in the literacy field for many years and found that students can easily become overwhelmed because of negative school experiences. Instead, I could use the forum to answer questions and help students along the way. Students could connect with others at their own literacy levels which promotes a sense of independence.<\/p>\n
I could use the chat tool to personalize my class and connect with students immediately. Literacy classrooms are very learner centred and instructors try to develop a sense of community early on.<\/p>\n
As an instructor, I found the forum tool very user friendly. It was easy to set up new discussions and I could see where the date could be set easily. This tool would give me a lot of flexibility while also allowing me to control when discussion topics would close. I think the discussion tool is a great way to keep the lines of communication open throughout the duration of the course.<\/p>\n
The chat tool was equally easy to set up and I would use this in the beginning, middle and end of the course to stay connected to my students. The only thing I didn\u2019t like was the time issue. I would have to find a time that suited most of my learners.<\/p>\n
I think what surprised me the most was that I hadn\u2019t considered the importance of keeping connected with my students online. In the classroom it was obvious. Recently, I created a writing course for literacy learners and now I want to go back and add in the chat tool and perhaps change my discussions. Overall, setting up these tools was a very enlightening experience that I think will benefit my students in the future.<\/p>\n
Please see my communication tools page for more information about the forum and chat tools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I enjoyed searching through the various communication tools available to instructors in Moodle because it gave me a good overview of what exists for instructor\/student communication. It was interesting to match the tools I liked best with my instructional goals. The challenge was picking the right tools for the right reasons. Although I like the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":658,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/brannonhamilton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/brannonhamilton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/brannonhamilton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/brannonhamilton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/658"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/brannonhamilton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/brannonhamilton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/brannonhamilton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/brannonhamilton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/brannonhamilton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}