vicki's e-portfolio

It done!! I think. No, it’s not, I’ve logged back in to tweak.  There.  Now.   I think.

Is it ever really done? Are teachers ever really done?

Building my Moodle site has been a laborious process, long and drawn-out. Reflecting on it now feels like quite the challenge as I mentally re-navigate the ins and outs of visiting and revisiting what a splash page is – or a GUI – and how I could possibly build one.  And what does it mean to create a web page?  What do I need this for?  After a month and some of scrolling through my typed-in labels I had composed  for instructions, I learned:  I could create a web page and keep the front page clean. Still small voices with organizational concerns in the back of my cerebral cortex quieted.

Building the content has been a mostly joyful experience. It has been fun to walk through and build the online elements that I would – will – gladly have accompany my face-to-face (f2f) course; it has been challenging to devise a splash page with a GUI (graphic user interface) that allows students to navigate via hyperspace rather than the scroll bar, creating a class web page that actually works like web pages that “other people” build. Even as I write this though, I am trying to calm the still small voice that says I really need to create a “back to top” button. I probably will. I think I know how. Now.

I didn’t know how before, that’s for sure. Using Moodle has been a big help, as have colleagues in the Moodle discussion forum (and some via email) in ETEC 565. I did not use the Moodle forums from Moodle.org so much, though ultimately that was where the GUI finally started to click. I was very happy to have the Wimba experiences from class. It was comforting to feel a bit more in touch and be walked through some Moodle possibilities. Ultimately, I found a lot I could figure out via trial and error, similar to how my dad will just keep driving when I think he’s lost and then lo and behold he pops out just where he always intended to go – except I really do think he knew all along. With Moodle, I didn’t.

I used a lot more gas to get to my destination than my wily dad would ever need, and a lot of that in idle as I contemplated and mulled.  Even still, I am popping back and forth evaluating my “groups” forums. Sometimes they seem to display right, but not consistently, so Using Moodle is currently opening – again – behind this page as I write. Time to comb through with a finer tooth and see what I missed. This is where trial and error fails me. I try to fly solo, but I just don’t have the background yet. Using Moodle is my under-appreciated co-pilot, but even then, as I see now having combed through, I need an updated version… or a personal moodle expert. Luckily, I have something akin, in Vista Blackboard, in our discussions (so here I go)… oh no! I just learned something new. Blessings and curses. Thanks be to John, it was at the moment of writing this, bouncing between my open tabs, that I solved my endless scrolling page issue:  create a web page for my instructions for each module!  No worries. Time is an issue, but with investment comes pay-off.

And so it is clean.  Cartoon icons set with titles locked in place via an invisible table.  Titles and ‘toons anchored to appropriate units, instructions transferred to web pages linked back to appropriate anchor on home page, wikis fixed, selected items programmed for date-specific release, others hidden for manual selective release, grading options selected for journals forum, selected blocks set on side for handy and helpful links without overwhelming second language students, and my own postings posted and relevant self-created media embedded or linked to enhance and scaffold learning. Reflections on my own personal learning underway.  I think we’re there.

Some trial and error was on purpose, some was not. I enjoyed – am enjoying – playing merely for the purpose of seeing how it changed – changes – the site or the presentation of an element on the site. Some elements though … this has been exhausting, albeit in a satisfying way. I am going to enjoy a month off of obligatory computer work.

References

Cole, J. and Foster, H. (2007). Using Moodle – Teaching with the popular open source course management system. 2nd ed. Retrieved from http://download.moodle.org/download.php/docs/en/using_moodle_2e.zip