An Evaluation of Moodle for Secondary Grade 6 to 9 Summer Learning Program:
What I enjoyed most about this assignment is that this course was designed by two members of our group, and they are officially launching it this summer in our school district. I found this assignment meaningful because I have never worked with Moodle before and had no experience with this Learning Management System. Through research, tutorials, and my personal navigation, I discovered how I can customize Moodle for any course, with a focus on student-centered learning. There were many plugins that I came across that I would personally benefit from through an online learning program, and it extended my thinking of how I can better support my students. We used the Bates SECTION model (2003) which supports choosing and using media in education. I have found this particularly helpful when making decisions about what technology will enhance learning in our classrooms and schools. It has helped my school justify our decisions when we needed to agree on a way to spend our technology budget for the school year. It also supported this project when we chose to use Moodle as our LMS of choice.
I always find group work to be quite challenging, as each of us has different expectations and deadlines, both in the MET program and in our careers. However, through this program I have connected with many educators in the Lower Mainland (British Columbia). We have found working together to be beneficial because we can meet face-to-face and collaborate in a way I find more meaningful to my professional development then through group chats. We also connected with a member who lives on the island. There was an ease about this project because each of us was familiar with Skype and Google Documents, so communication was not an issue. I felt that we respected each others opinions and ideas, and it came together successfully. I thoroughly enjoyed working with this group and look forward to the remainder of this term and the collaborative efforts we will produce.
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Hi, my name is Danielle Peters. I am a grade 3 teacher in the Surrey School District. I have previously taught grades 2, 5, and 6. I am also one of our districts Coding teachers. Once a week I visit other schools and teach students about design thinking, coding, and programming. I work with Scratch, Scratch Jr., and Swift. During these workshops I teach the classroom teacher how to implement the new ADST curriculum. I am passionate about literacy and authentic assessment. I am heavily involved in my school community. I am one of the Leadership teachers, I coach basketball, and I am on the Social Emotional Learning Team. I am passionate about sharing how technology can support authentic learning. In my classroom we use digital portfolios to share evidence and communicate student learning. You can follow me on twitter and journey through the year with our class @DeeKellyP.