Category: Tool Kit

My Digital Story

I have chosen to create a digital story that relates directly to my Assessment & Evaluation Course in my Moodle – that is, the need for change. I have used a bit of hyperbole in that I am making a connection to VERY old teaching environments. I wanted to make a point that a change in assessment and evaluation practices is needed now – and going back in time more than necessary is how I chose to move us forward. I find that using videos (with music) is more engaging than a slideshow but there is the risk of missing key ideas since the use of text is very limited especially in Animoto (my choice of tool). This application is very easy to use, very intuitive and students would have no problem creating videos within this site. However, the challenge is in ensuring that the activity uses higher order thinking – just like the posters and title pages of old, it can be quite easy to just download a large number of photos, add a song and call it an assignment. Our challenge is to ensure that students use critical and creative thinking when presenting their stories in this fashion.

Here is my story:

Tool Kit

Hanging Indent Curse is Over!

Post author By bcourey
Post date June 12, 2011
1 Comment on Hanging Indent Curse is Over!

Thanks to moonflowerdragon’s blog for helping me do the html code for hanging indents!

Saved my hide.

Tool Kit

In the Sandbox with Moodle

When I think of all the online courses I have taken in my lifetime, it is hard to believe that I have not had to create a course myself that was fully online. My experiences have been as a student on the learning end of WebCT Vista, or Desire2Learn, or Blackboard, but never an Open Source platform like Moodle. But here I am now working within a new format – Moodle – for the first time. It has been a few years now since I have been in a classroom, but how I wish I had been exposed to the ability to create an online course for my students! So now I get to create my very own course, but I am going to consider who my “students” are – they are my colleagues – my fellow administrators who could certainly benefit from some online learning, or should it be the teachers that I have been conducting PD sessions for over the past few years? Budget cuts have forced us to rethink how we conduct professional development sessions – and so instead of face-to-face sessions, perhaps a Moodle format would work. Imagine, designing a course that would bring administrators up to speed in say, Web 2.0 tools, and other great learning technologies. It’s worth a try.

But first, I need to learn more about Moodle – from the Toolkit, the online tutorials I have found, and from my classmates in this course. Looking forward to playing in my new sandbox!