{"id":11,"date":"2009-05-09T17:17:32","date_gmt":"2009-05-10T00:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/?page_id=11"},"modified":"2009-05-30T14:42:42","modified_gmt":"2009-05-30T21:42:42","slug":"lms","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/lms\/","title":{"rendered":"LMS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note:\u00a0 I don\u2019t foresee having to submit a proposal in order to be able to use an LMS. Since I don\u2019t have a permanent contract and have been working between 2 school districts, at this point I would use my own personal website to host my LMS. For the purpose of this assignment, I am assuming that a district would want a written proposal for the purpose of having Moodle installed on the district site. <\/em>
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\nLMS Proposal<\/strong><\/p>\n

As one of the goals of our school district is to increase the use of educational technology in the classroom, I am proposing that the district adopt a Learning Management System (LMS) that would meet the needs of students and many interested teachers. As per the ISTE\u2019s 2008 Standards for Teachers<\/em>, the ability to \u201cdesign and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments\u201d is listed as one of the essential components with respect to the use of educational technology (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008). By using an online platform in order to deliver content, students will be able to enhance their learning experience both in terms of subject content and digital prowess.<\/p>\n

I would like to propose Moodle<\/a> for the LMS as it is the most logical platform both for students and teachers. As we are working in a K-12 environment in the public school setting, I first made a list of \u201cmust haves\u201d that I took into consideration before recommending an LMS. My list was influenced by Bates and Poole (2003)\u00a0 SECTIONS framework which was created in order to provide a framework for the selection of educational technology tools. In reviewing this framework, I considered \u201cEase of use\u201d, \u201cStudents\u201d, \u201cTeaching and Learning\u201d, \u201cInteractivity\u201d, \u201cOrganization\u201d and \u201cCost\u201d to be the most applicable with \u201cCost\u201d ultimately being the decisive factor. I think applying the SECTIONS framework is essential in ensuring that the district adopts an LMS that will provide the best fit.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Free
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Support must be available
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ability to upload documents (.pdf, .doc, .ppt), images (.jpg, .tiff) and multimedia (.mov, .mp3).
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Discussion forum in order to support an interactive environment.
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ease of use for teacher and students \u2013 The chosen LMS should be relatively easy for teachers who are technological novices to learn and should be easy for students as young as 10 to navigate.
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Organized \u2013 It must make sense\u2026 activities and assignments need to be located in a logical and obvious position.<\/p>\n

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After researching other LMS (WebCT\/Vista and Sharepoint LMS), I have concluded that both of those would meet the needs of our district in every area except for cost. At this point an LMS is a new technology for the district to adopt and in the process of seeing how teachers and students use it, I propose that we adopt an open source system that does not have a price tag. The cost for this implementation with be nothing. The Moodle code is free and existing expenses in the district will cover the web hosting required. Support is a crucial issue when considering new educational technology, as evidenced when the district brought in SmartBoards last year. Technological support for teachers will not be instantly provided through a third party but there is a lot of great help guides and video tutorials on the web and the Moodle community is also very supportive. The District Technology Team could take it upon themselves to provide some after school inservice about getting started with Moodle and use the District Technology Sharepoint site as a forum for educators to ask each other support questions. I recognize that hosted support through an LMS is ideal, however, I think you will find that many teachers in the district are already familiar with Moodle and our district is very supportive when it comes to teachers helping teachers. Everyone using Moodle has had to rely on online tutorials and literature, therefore, these materials have been refined into very user friendly and easy to understand resources.<\/p>\n

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Several of Chickering and Gamson\u2019s (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education<\/em> would also be supported, particularly the ability of Moodle to use active learning techniques. In my experience navigating through Moodle courses and starting to build my own Moodle course, I am confident that students will be thoroughly engaged through interaction with peers, navigating through content and links and producing their own content and ideas for others to see. The Moodle environment has all of the functions to support an active learning environment and this can be further achieved by applying Chickering and Gamson\u2019s (1987) principles during the creation of course content.<\/p>\n

I feel that Moodle is a great platform for the purpose of the district\u2019s educational objectives and by installing Moodle, I think that both those experienced and starting out with educational technology will be able to provide their students with an active and progressive 21st century learning experience.<\/p>\n

Please see the following links for more information:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0 Moodle as used by most of the teaching staff at Maple Ridge Secondary<\/a>
\n–\u00a0\u00a0 Moodle\u2019 official site<\/a>
\n–\u00a0\u00a0 Moodle tutorials<\/a>
\n–\u00a0\u00a0 ISTE\u2019s Standards for Teachers 2008<\/a><\/p>\n

Reference List:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In\u00a0 Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.<\/p>\n

Chickering, A.W. and Gamson, Z.F. (1987).\u00a0 Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.\u00a0 American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), p. 3-7.<\/p>\n

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers. Retrieved May 30, 2009, from http:\/\/www.iste.org\/Content\/NavigationMenu\/NETS\/ForTeachers\/2008Sta\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ndards\/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note:\u00a0 I don\u2019t foresee having to submit a proposal in order to be able to use an LMS. Since I don\u2019t have a permanent contract and have been working between 2 school districts, at this point I would use my own personal website to host my LMS. For the purpose of this assignment, I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}