My reflection about Moodle
http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/
Building a moodle online course at first glance was a huge challenge for me as I had no previous experience with any of its affordances. That meant hours of researching various guides, looking at other examples of a Moodle course as well as practicing playing in the sandbox. This assignment was not collaborative, but I did post some questions to other students who answered as well as they could. Ultimately, reading and trying were my best strategies. I am proud of my effect to date as I have managed to meet the criteria as per the requirements. The two most challenging ones were setting up groups for the discussion forum topics and programming a module for selective release. I did manage to accomplish these tasks. Just this week I was looking at other examples and I was curious as to the linking buttons on the front page to modules. I emailed a few students who said I needed a code. I also found some teaching videos that were very helpful. Unfortunately when it came to admin settings to front page options I did not see that function. I decided that the linking option might not be necessary for my Grade Ones as it is easier to not get lost when it is on one page. See the bottom update to how I managed to accomplish the requirement of splash page interface GUI. I have come a long way in acquiring knowledge about Moodle although I feel that there is much more to learn.
Formulating how I was going to put together the course took a lot of thinking and planning. Since I teach Grade One, I wanted this to be fun and interactive, so I included some utube videos and an activity game to heighten interest. Revisting my Rational and Selection of LMS that I did at the beginning of this course I noted that one of the most important component I feel for educational pedagogy is providing activities of educational value. This week’s readings on how to ‘Evaluate Media Characteristics’ by George Seimens as well as ‘Using the Sections Framework to Evaluate Flash Media’ by Boyes, Dowie, and Rumzan was helpful to think about when providing activities. It is most important that any media selection supports learning outcomes. Looking at the activities that I included I feel that they are appropriate for meeting the Grade One learning outcomes for Social Studies. Within my moodle course I feel that I have provided forums, a wiki, a journal, resources, assignments and an interactive game to encourage student participation both individually and collaboratively. As well, my little ones will be learning the affordances of navigating an online course which is acquisition of pre-readiness skills necessary to scaffold lifelong learning. This is the general premise of constructivism.
Mohammed Ally in his book called ‘Theory and Practice of Online Learning’: Foundations of Educational Theory For Online Learning says,” Online instruction occurs when learners use the Web to go through the sequence of instruction, to complete the learning activities, and to achieve learning outcomes and objectives (Ally, 2002; Ritchie & Hoffman, 1997). A variety of learning activities should be used to accommodate the different learning styles (Ally, 2002). According to his model of components of effective online learning the variety of activities include reading textual materials, listening to audio materials, or viewing visuals or video materials. As well, acquiring extended information such as in a Glossary is important. Learners benefit from an online journal where they can reflect on their learning Ally, (2002). With this in mind I designed activities that were varied and met criteria. Looking back at each module I feel that each provides interesting and interactive opportunities for meaningful and lifelong learning.
Hopes for this course is that I could use it as part of my F2F teaching of the Grade One Social Studies curriculum that includes learning outcomes for knowledge building about Canada. I have acquired learned knowledge that I would like to use to collaborate with other collegues at my school to facilitate best teaching practices for educational pedagogy.
UPDATE: This week I had a major revelation about what a splash page interface GUI is. Finding that out led me on a mission to accomplish that. That mission is now accomplished with many hours of working and with some helpful posts. Wow! I feel good about having buttons linking to parts of my course. Thanks to great fellow students and my perservence, I can now say I know a little more about Moodle!
Reference:
Ally, M. (2002). Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University. http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/ch1.html
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.
Boyes, B. Dowie, S. & Rumzan, I. Using the SECTIONS Framework to Evaluate Flash Media. http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php/view=article&id=55
Siemens, George. (2003). Evaluating Media Characteristics. Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes. Originally Presented at AMTEC 2002 with Stephen Yurkiw. http:// www.elearnspace.org/Articles/ mediacharacteristics.html.