C. Moodle Proposal
Let’s Moodle:
A Proposal to Use Moodle in JK-12 Education and Professional Development at St. Clair Catholic District School Board
Background: Online learning is an emerging but rapidly growing phenomenon in JK-12 education. In terms of information communication technology, the nature of teaching and learning is changing. Several factors have led to this emergence, including the development of the Internet and Web 2.0, the use of information computer technology in instruction, the impact of social networking, and access to computers and laptops for learning. Online learning represents the latest delivery of distance or correspondence education replacing the mailing of content and completed lessons between instructor and student. Often online learning is referred to as e-learning where the “e” represents “electronic” delivery, easily delivered via the Internet.
Online learning can be delivered in a number of different ways. True e-learning exists where face to face contact does not occur between teacher and/or students and all learning occurs in the confines of a virtual or online world. Blended learning involves the addition of online learning opportunities in addition to the regular face to face classroom. Many of our classroom teachers are already implementing blended learning environments as they use wikis, blogs, First Class email, social bookmarking sites, Twitter, online drop boxes, etc. Teachers using these various tools have remarked on the classroom benefits they have noticed, which include: increased parental involvement, differentiation of instruction, keeping absent students aware of missed work/assignments, review and reinforcement of learning, as well as student engagement and interest. Unfortunately, the drawback of having teachers use various tools are also numerous, which includes building capacity, technical support, and pedagogical support. St. Clair Catholic District School Board (SCCDSB) needs a consistent platform to offer Blended Learning for JK-12 education, as well as teacher professional development. In fact, offering teacher professional development on-demand in this environment may well serve to increase teacher interest and utilization in their own classrooms.
Rationale: I believe our solution is Moodle. Moodle stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. It is a free and open-source e-learning software platform or Learning Management System (LMS).
Given that there are several learning management systems available for educational institutions, the SECTIONS framework (Bates and Poole, 2003) was utilized to determine the best fit for SCCDSB. The components of the SECTIONS model are:
S – Students: At SCCDSB, we could utilize Moodle for JK-12 students and teacher professional development. Moodle demonstration units were tested across the district with at least one primary, junior, intermediate and secondary classroom setting. Apart from initial logging in procedures, students at each level were able to navigate the platform.
E – Ease of use and reliability: As of October 5, 2010 Moodle had a user-base of 49,952 registered sites; 36,920,681 users in 3,732,772 courses in 210 countries and in more than 75 languages. Numerous JK-12 and post-secondary institutions across Canada have registered with Moodle with rapid growth in the past three years.
C – Costs: Moodle is free, open source software. Initial setup costs would be nil. However, if we were to adopt Moodle in each of our 27 elementary schools and 3 secondary schools, we have been advised to consider a server upgrade at approximately $5 000. With approximately 10 000 students and approximately 500 teachers, implementing this system would be very cost effective. The most expensive part of implementing Moodle would be the professional development for teachers to implement Moodle in to their classrooms.
T – Teaching and learning: Moodle offers the same functionality as other commercial LMS’ that were reviewed including WebCT/Vista, Desire 2 Learn. JK-12 uses will be varied from news items and calendars, to weblinks to reinforce learning, to dropbox submissions, to quizzes and surveys, to discussions and more. Strategies for effective blended learning will be modeled in teacher professional development modules (i.e. WHMIS, workplace safety, acceptable use policy, etc.)
I – Interactivity: Moodle offers asynchronous and synchronous learning opportunities. Higher levels of interactivity can increase student interest and student engagement, which includes quizzes, surveys, discussion threads, audio chats, embedded video, live links, etc.
O – Organizational issues: Information Services has been consulted and has indicated that few organizational issues exist at this point. Regardless, we recommend starting with some pilot classrooms featuring interested teachers, as well as providing teacher professional development opportunities. Moodle works on both Windows and Mac platforms.
N – Novelty: Moodle originated in 1999 and has continued to evolve. It is not considered to be a ‘novel’ learning management system.
S – Speed: With Moodle, courses can be easily modified and adapted as per teaching and learning needs.
Specific Plan: Once the Moodle server has been implemented by Information Services, it is recommended that the platform be used to deliver a teacher professional development module on a small scale – for example: digital citizenship (intellectual property rights and copyright considerations for educators). Teachers should be strategically selected to include those interested in incorporating Moodle in to their own classroom. Incorporating the Moodle teacher module in to an authentic learning situation would best model “Blended Learning”.
Both St. Clair Catholic teachers and learners will benefit from implementing a Moodle platform in our system.
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. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.
General Statistics – St. Clair Catholic District School Board, http://esip.edu.gov.on.ca/english/profiles/statistics_Comp.asp?ID=B67040 accessed October 7, 2010
Learning Management System, UBC Wiki. http://wiki.ubc.ca/Learning_Management_System accessed October 7, 2010
Moodle, Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle accessed October 7, 2010.
Moodle.org: open-source community based tools for learning. http://moodle.org/ accessed October 7, 2010.
Smith, R. Clark, T. & Blomeyer, R (2005). A Synthesis of New Research on K-12 Online Learning. Naperville: Learning Point Associates.
