Proposal

The names have been changed slightly to protect the innocent / unaware.

Application for the use of Moodle in schools

Dear Mr. McNamanam and Mr. Alpert,

I am writing this proposal to ask for your partnership in bringing Moodle into the Eastern School District.  I would like to see teachers use Moodle to support courses at the intermediate level, in particular the new Literacy program, Social Studies, and Health (perhaps Science as well). I chose these courses as  Moodle’s strengths include such things as online discussion (preferred by at least 2/3 of students, and viewed as superior, according to Baglione and Nastanski), the sharing of work, and quick feedback from peers and instructors.

Moodle is an open source Learning Management System (LMS). It was made with social networking, constructivist learning principles, as well students’ and teachers’ needs in mind. Students learn by doing, and construct their own knowledge; group learning is also encouraged. I feel that Moodle will augment and enhance the learning of students in these classes, help to provide for differentiated instruction, and, once set up, decrease the workload of teachers who use it.

To select which LMS was the best to use in schools, I used two things: a pre-existing rubric from the University of North Carolina (Pyke, 2008), as well as the criteria from Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model:

Students: what is known about them, and how well the technology suits their group or range?
Ease: how easy is it for students and teachers to use it, and how reliable is it?
Costs: what is the cost per learner?
Teaching and Learning: what kinds of learning are needed, and what approaches and technologies will support them?
Interactivity and user-friendliness: what kinds of interaction are enabled, and how easy is it to use?
Organizational issues: what organizational requirements and barriers may need to be addressed?
Novelty: how new is the technology?
Speed: how quickly can courses be mounted, and how fast can materials be changed?

In a comparison to other systems, Moodle’s net benefits beat the competition. Also, Moodle fared well when keeping in mind Chickering and Ehrmann’s “Seven Principles for Good Practice…”. Moodle: 1) encourages contacts between students and faculty, 2) develops reciprocity and cooperation within a class, 3) uses / supports active learning techniques, 4) facilitates prompt feedback, 5) helps to emphasize time on task, 6) communicates high expectations, and 7) respects the diverse talents and ways of learning of our district’s students.

While Moodle is free to use, there will be costs in terms of support, maintenance, and training. I think an implementation plan would include:

• A September training session: 20 teachers would attend. It could be the Site Technical Contact (or another interested teacher) from each of the 15 intermediate schools, as well as an extra teacher from the five schools with a larger enrolment. There should also be a follow-up meeting later on in the fall. Substitute ($140/day) and mileage ($20 average) costs for the two days would be $6, 400 not including any snacks or copied materials.
• Extra information / discussion on at least one of the pre-existing STC meeting days (no extra cost).
• A hands-on session for teachers on the November PD day (no extra cost).
• A session during the PEITF convention in the fall (no extra cost).
• Maintenance could be done by STC’s or schools’ ITSS technicians.

Start-up costs for training would then be, I estimate, no more than $7, 000. This does not include any server expenses. I believe small schools like my own could house Moodle on our own server. Larger schools may need to expand the size of theirs or purchase space elsewhere (from $60/month for 125 users, up to $300/month for 5,000 users from lambdasolutions.net – schools could share space and save money).

I hope you see this as a worthwhile opportunity for the teachers and students in our classrooms.

Sincerely,

Stephen McQuaid

References

Baglione, S.L. & Nastanski, M. (2007). The superiority of online discussion. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 8(2), 139-150.

Bates A. W. & Poole, G. (2003).  A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In A.W. Bates & G. Poole, Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education (pp. 75-108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 4.

Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6.

Pyke, J. (2008). LMS rubric from ECU (Bb, Moodle, Sakai). [PDF file] retrieved from http://lmseval.uncc.edu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=10&Itemid=59

Wilson, T. (Producer). (2005, November 5). The Savvy Technologist talks to Martin Dougiamas [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from http://support.hopkins.k12.mn.us/podcasts/STP-MartinDougiamas.mp3