My name is John Cunnian and I am a secondary school teacher in Nanaimo, B.C.. I was trained as a biology and chemistry teacher, but I currently have an assignment teaching junior French and science in the French immersion program.
Through my self-assessment using the NETS standards, I identified that one area in which I could use technology better is to collaborate with students and parents. I already use email regularly to keep in touch with parents, and I send progress reports home by email. I do not currently have a webpage for my courses, and haven’t really been interested in trying to maintain such a public space. I would like to create a place that is limited to parents and students, which allows me to collaborate with them and for them to collaborate with each other.
The immersion program is both very rewarding but yet frustrating at the same time. Though my students are typically (though not always) quite strong, mature and motivated, there is one element that seems to sink too many of them: attendance. My students are constantly away on sports trips, band trips, dance trips, exchanges (I have two students who were absent for an entire term!) and family vacations, not to mention absences due to illness and the odd suspension. I find that a huge amount of my time is devoted to preparing for someone to be absent or trying to get them caught up once they have returned. The reality is that they fall behind in spite of my efforts.
I would like to use a LMS, like Moodle, as a complement to my courses. This would allow me to support my students as they are away so that, once they return, they are able to seamlessly transition back to class. Ancillary goals are to use this system to support struggling learners and to challenge strong students. Furthermore, I would like to have a venue for parents to get information about my courses and to contact me.
In terms of assessment, I would like to learn how to create quizzes and tests in Moodle. Ideally, I would like to learn how to easily convert my existing tests and quizzes into electronic assessments so that, again, absent students can keep up with everyone else in the class.
I can see social software, such as a course discussion page, as being a means by which students can help each other review for an exam (such as their upcoming final exam next month) and to be used by students to get help either from myself or another student.
Finally, a LMS like Moodle would be a great place to gather some links to multimedia that might help students who are struggling with a concept. These multimedia links needn’t be any different from those that I use already. Making these resources available to my students can help those who tend to be more visual learners.
This is the path that I would like to explore though, admittedly, it is quite ambitious.
References:
National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm