Category Archives: e-Portfolio Post

10/8/12

LMS Proposal

 

Objective:

Mount Pearl Intermediate is proposing to design, develop, and implement a Learning Management System (LMS), which will run on a server (computer) running open-source software called Moodle. This server and software is online-based and will be used for the purpose of maintaining a series of classroom-based technology-related activities for our students taking place throughout the entire school year. This initiative will will focus on online blogging, video production, video streaming, online testing, social networking, and online desktop publishing in support of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Innovation Strategy, Innovation Newfoundland and Labrador: A Blueprint for Prosperity.

Project Description and Moodle LMS Background:

Diana and James L. Oblinger, editors of the book Educating The Net Generation, state that “..students spend so much of their time online…that they would have a strong preference for Web-based learning…”. Our Moodle LMS would only enforce this idea giving all stakeholders involved the opportunity to “..improve and enhance student performance by promoting and organizing communication among parents, students, teachers, administrators, and the community” (Perkins & Pfaffman, p.356). It is the intention of our school’s technology committee and the shared vision of our entire school to use a Moodle LMS for these purposes.

As one of the lead technology teachers at our school we are using the objectives listed above that were based on years of research and experience with the local server setup of Learning Management Systems. Our organization is committed to increasing student-teacher interaction and communication while at the same time focused on creating a space for parents, students, and teachers to connect in an online web-based virtual environment.  The theme for this year’s initiative will be called ‘Innovation – Giving Students a Digital Voice”. That voice will come from the design, development, and implementation of a Learning Management System called Moodle running on a robust and reliable business class Linux server providing multi-location backup using unlimited bandwidth and storage.

So what exactly is Moodle and how can it be classified as an open-source Learning Management System (LMS)? This software program was intended for producing engaging, rich, interactive Internet-based courses. It’s core design was meant to enable organizations the opportunity to offer both structured and formal training mixed within an informal learning environment where knowledge sharing occurs via forum discussion, wikis design, social networking, video collaboration, and online testing. Perkins and Pfaffman, two important voices in this field state in their article Using a Course Management System To Improve Classroom Communication that “..web-based applications are a solution..” to institutions looking towards online learning and that “CMS’s enable teachers to easily post assignments, lesson plans, announcements, and course documents….allowing students to participate in online discussions and chats and turn in assignments online”.

 

 

Determining The Best Software For The Job:

With all that in mind, Moodle is also open-source in that it is free to acquire, install, configure, and edit/change. This is one main advantage it has over many other LMS’s such as Blackboard, WebCT, Jenzabar, and Desire-2-Learn in that there is no purchase cost and it maintains a very large community of knowledgeable people who are willing to assist when help is needed. Moodle can be used “to support our traditional classroom instruction and facilitate communication” (Perkins & Pfaffman, p.36). Moodle is easy to use, navigate and can be set up within 15 minutes of access (Perkins & Pfaffman p.37). Instead of worrying about purchasing costly annual site licenses, Moodle will allow us the opportunity to focus our attention on design and development of powerful rich online courseware. Please keep in mind that we did not come to decide on Moodle without much thought amongst our technology team.

Determining The Best Hardware For The Job:

Because Moodle is open-source and has no licensing cost involved the majority of our costs will be incurred from a reliable and scaleable, business class hosting service that will be able to handle the volume, bandwidth, and scaleability we will need.  1and1 hosting has been our first choice of hosting servers for this online venture. Other contenders such as GoDaddy, Hostgator, Bluehost,  and Rackspace, were put to the test in our evaluation schemes below but fell short in a number of areas. Our hardware requirements were very specific due to the extensive testing we have been doing over the past couple of years while running a demo Moodle server in a virtual environment of VMware on one of our windows 2003 servers. Students, teachers, and parents had the opportunity to try out our beta virtual environment participating in Moodle virtual class discussions, submitting schoolwork, sharing ideas via live chat (audio/video) and working diligently on a Social Studies Wiki. This beta virtual environment was successful but very limited as we were plagued with bandwidth limitations, lack of SSL security, limited backups, and server speed. A generous contribution from your organization would fix all of our shortcomings.

Evaluating Our Choices:

As you can see below, our team has created an evaluation rubric to help guide the decision making process making it easier for you to understand why Moodle is the best software solution and 1and1 the hardware solution. Based upon our research, we would like to highlight the SECTIONS framework proposed by Bates and Poole (2003) when selecting an LMS as it also helped guide us towards our final software decision and therefore help solidify what hardware would be best suitable for the job.  This framework, in addition to providing a detailed rubric should help facilitate your decision to provide the necessary funding for our online learning initiative. According to Bates and Poole the most viable LMS would be one that meets the following criteria:

– It has a cost structure that is affordable.

– It centralizes and automates administrative functions including all records and assessments

– It is easy to use for students for self-directed, self-paced learning

– It customizes and delivers learning materials rapidly

– It supports portability and follows e-learning web standards

– It maintains a high level of security and encryption for everyone using the system

– It provides multiple avenues of technical support

– It allows for flexible online collaboration

– It conforms to all recent web standard designs

– It provides accessibility to all users independent of their OS, browsers, or device type.

– It has to provide uptime using current UPS technology while maintaining reliable backups.

– at both the strategic and tactical level giving them the edge and balance between an affordable, safe, and customizable Learning Management System.

Our school will need to have faith in a system that is dependable, scalable, safe, secure, and affordable. It is the consensus of our group that if we follow the above guidelines and adhere to the criteria put forth in the rubric below that should help set the groundwork and provide the necessary answers you may have toward a final decision on potential funding.

 

 

Rubric Used For Both Hardware & Software:


After running all potential LMS’s through this rubric and Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS framework Moodle stands out on top of our list for software and 1and1 web hosting for our hardware.

 

 

Technical Training:

Even though Moodle’s open-source community can provide immeasurable assistance, we would be remiss if we did not ensure that we had teaching mentors in our school that had the opportunity to attend professional training for both server implementation and Moodle design and course development. This would also be part of our funding costs. We are looking at several online course training sites like Lynda.com, Moodlebites.com,  and Lambdasolutions.net.

Timeline:

It is anticipated that if awarded INTRD funding then the pre-planning for server setup and online course development would begin immediately.  The organizing committee would be established and then meet regularly beginning this month.  All events related to the Moodle curriculum have already been pre-planned on our existing virtual server with a completion date when the funding for hosting is exhausted.

Financial Request:

Funding for this event is being requested from the Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development for the total amount of $20,000.00 (HST incl), $17700.00 pre HST.

In-Kind contributions would include the cost of using the facility (Mount Pearl Intermediate) and the management team of science and technology teachers who would make up the organizing committee for this event.  The contribution of their time during the pre-planning and execution of this conference is all projected to occur outside of normal school hours and would therefore be in-kind totaling $18,000.00.

Total Projected Costs For Entire Proposal:

Hosting services $399.99/month for 12 months $4799.88

Includes a dedicated server containing an AMD Opteron 4274 processor (2 x 8 Cores x 2.5 GHz), 32 GB RAM, 3 x 1.5 TB SATA hard drives in RAID 5 array, Linux Ubuntu 12.04 OS, SSL certificate, external Cisco-based IP firewall, PHP5 with MySQL 5 database with unlimited bandwidth multiple UPS backup as well as off-site server mirroring.

Training (online) $5,000

Custodial Support and Teacher/Volunteer Involvement (In-Kind) $20,200.01

Class set of ultrabooks and Mobile charging cart $10,000

Total (**HST Included): $38,000.00

Budget Notes:  HST is included in all budget costs indicated.

If awarded funding, our goals for this web-based virtual classroom would be:

  • To create an alternative form of interaction between students and teachers
  • To create a virtual environment that would help to inspire teacher and student learning
  • To provide the groundwork for a future virtual school
  • To provide awareness in the power of Learning Management Systems
  • To give teachers and students the experience in web 2.0 design and development
  • To give teachers and students alternative forms of testing
  • To help improve classroom communication
  • To educate the net generation

I would encourage our school district to adopt this new form of online learning passing on our knowledge and experience hoping that other schools will embrace it as a alternative form of learning.

 

 

References:

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. (p. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.

Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987).  Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.  American Association for Higher Education Bulletin,39 (7), 3-7.
http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm

Moodle. (2012). Retrieved October 4, 2012

From http://moodle.org/

Moodle. (2012). Retrieved October 2, 2012

From http://docs.moodle.org/23/en/About_Moodle_FAQ#Cost

Moodle. (2012). Retrieved October 4, 2012

From http://moodle.org/stats/

Oblinger, Diana G. and Oblinger, James L. (2005) “Educating The Net Generation.” EDUCASE. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, n.d. Web. 4 Oct 2012.

Perkins, M., Pfaffman, J. (2006). Using a Course Management System to Improve Classroom Communication. Science Teacher, 73(7), 33-37.

 

 

09/30/12

Proposed Flight Path

Proposed Flight Plan:

“An intelligent plan is the first step to success. The man who plans knows where he is going, knows what progress he is making and has a pretty good idea when he will arrive.”
– Basil S. Walsh

My name is Kevin Andrews and I live in St. John’s, Newfoundland. This is my very first MET course.

Currently, I teach grade 7 technology education at an intermediate school of 900 students along with serving as network administrator. On a regular day I can be found running around between classes fixing computers, restoring deleted files, running network wires, taking photos for the yearbook, and updating the school’s website and twitter/flickr feeds.

Over the past 12 years in teaching I’ve had the opportunity to work with and assist teachers, school administrators, and district personnel with their technology plans to help further implement technology in the classroom. My most recent experience (last 2 years) has been helping to incorporate a class set of iPads and wireless netbooks into our school by providing teacher in-services to help everyone feel more comfortable using this new technology so they can confidently integrate it into their class instruction.

In my experience, students are easily motivated when technology is seamlessly integrated into instruction and teachers are more willing to embrace technology when they are comfortable using it. This has been a mantra of mine for many years and so getting an MET from UBC was the next logical progression to help further my learning.

The University of British Columbia MET graduate-level program compliments my focus towards improving my education in the area of educational technology. Unlike most others, this institution supports a rich online environment where students are challenged to develop their goals within an active cross-cultural learning community . It is my intention to develop my skills as a technology educator and having the ability to study and participate online with MET curriculum specialists, students, and professors will only enhance my need to further my knowledge in technology supported learning environments. As a current educator, one of my goals is to develop an effective and interactive learning environment for students and teachers but finding ways to extend this type of learning has been challenging.

My intention and primary reason for taking the ETEC 565A course is to gain critical experience in the design and development of Learning Management Systems, social software, and multimedia so I may have the ability to supplement my teaching curriculum with rich interactive software, online blogging expertise, and knowledge of how to design and develop a complete Moodle course site. Having the experience, knowledge, and ability to develop a LMS like Moodle will enable my school the ability take the classroom online. Students will have the unique ability to do quizzes online, upload images, videos, and audio reports, embed encyclopedia pages, add twitter streams and Flickr slideshows, share their Glogster poster, create location based learning scenarios with mobile tagging or GPS locking, and many more options as I begin to learn and explore the course content. In Module 1 of the course I look to get inspired by Bates and Poole’s writings on ‘Framework for Selecting and Using Technology”, as they map out their SECTIONS framework providing critical background knowledge on how to design a usable model for selecting and using technology in my school and classroom. I look forward to learning more about becoming an effective technology teacher by studying the ‘NETS-S’ model discovering how facilitate, design, and model digital age teaching and learning. In addition, I am also curious to know how Moodle, WebCT, and Vista all stack up together and look forward to finding out which LMS is right for online learning. Other web-based approaches will also catch my attention like the ‘Pro-D’ case study and the practice of ‘Cradleboard’ which I’m sure will force me to think about when should and shouldn’t I use the web. The design and development of rubrics has always been a weakness of mine and I’m looking forward to developing that skill as I work together in groups to create a ‘Delivery Platform Evaluation Rubric’.

To be a better educator means staying on top of all the technologies and embracing them as potential teaching tools. As current technology coordinator for my school, I am currently working towards creating a curriculum for our school district using a class set of iPads and iTunes University. It is my goal to understand how people learn in order to develop an effective interactive online and tablet-based curriculum and using the techniques taught in ETEC 565A I believe I can reach that goal. Time spent developing my understanding of online communication tools via the Blackboard Learning System with my peers and correspondance with my instructor may help me achieve my goal. In addition, learning about the trending social media will keep me in check and provide me the opportunity to create assignments that are in tune with how students use online websites and social media in their lives. Alexander, in his article ‘Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning?” may help me make more decisions in this area. I have always had an interest in multimedia, and so I’m very excited about learning how to use that medium to help achieve my learning outcomes for my technology classes. George Siemens’, article “Evaluating Media Characteristics”, will prove to be complicated but none the less help further my knowledge on using multimedia to further achieve my learning outcomes. Learning about flash, creating audio via the open source program Audacity, discovering PalTalk and VoIP alternatives will help provide the necessary tools I need to master multimedia in the classroom.

Having a very busy life on top of dedicating long hours to my career I feel that time will be the deciding factor in my journey through this course. Using technology as a teaching tool requires time to familiarize yourself with resource and then time to create a teaching plan. As an intermediate teaching professional, I feel that some of the concepts revealed in this course make take years to fully develop while others can be implemented immediately. Getting students ready for blogging via kidblog.org will not take me much time, however, implementing a Moodle learning module may take a good portion of this year. Learning the way around a web 2.0 site might not be too difficult to understand, but determining how to create a rubric for it my prove more difficult.

For me technology is a powerful tool for collaborating and learning. Classroom learning activities can follow different pedagogical approaches and didactic concepts depending on the educator. It is important to realize that without a complete understanding of how to implement technology with student learning I will not be able to maximize my potential as an educator. With the guidance, direction, and understanding of Natasha Boskic, the ETEC 565A course is a step for me towards achieving many of my professional goals.