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To Moodle or not to Moodle

I recently attended a training session at WestOne where I was introduced to Moodle, an open source Learning Management System (LMS). Open source simply means that users have access to the source code of the software. Anyone can download and use Moodle for free.

It was created by a West Australian, Martin Dougiamas and it has become very popular with educators around the world. There is a community of people who are using the system and as well as developing the product, are willing to help new users.

Central TAFE currently relies on WebCT, which is the only LMS that is supported by WestOne. If the demand and preference for Moodle was to increase, consideration may be given to increasing the choice of LMS in the future. This would however depend upon the availability of resources, for lecturers to have a choice between two systems.

I found Moodle to be a user friendly package and it has many desirable features. To find out more about Moodle, visit http://moodle.org/

You can join the community and there is a demonstration site with sample courses you can try as a teacher or a student.

Online Research – help a colleague

Sue Waters is asking for assistance in finding out types of collaborative projects educators are using with their students, the reasons why they become involved in these projects and the tools used for the collaboration. See her request here.

In another post she asks:

I’m hoping you can help me in the following ways:

1. Please complete my survey on Tools for Managing Your Workload – will take less than 1 minute

eLearning Tools

As anyone who reads this blog knows I am an advocate for the use of Second Life as a teaching and learning tool.

subQuark where eLearning meets Second Life is a blogger who (to quote from his blog) promotes “the use of Second Life as a video source.  I truly believe it’s a viable option for eLearning providers.  I even have a person from the University of Glasgow using it for continuing education credits for doctors!  So it may just be what you need to!  It certainly would add to your toolkit.”

He has links to many ideas relating to how others are using SL. These may be just what our lecturers need to give a lift to their eLearning activities.

If you are interested in LIS education in virtual worlds, you are invited to join the LIS Educators in Virtual Worlds Group for a meeting in Second Life tomorrow, Wednesday, January 28 at 3 pm SL (8 am Thursday Perth time) at the open auditorium on Info Island in Second Life. Agenda items include discussion of the GSLIS student union being built; an introduction to Second Life instructional tools with Hypatia Dejavu and a discussion of the types of LIS courses taking place in Second Life. If you need a teleport IM Lorelei Junot, Maxito Ricardo, or Maija Mulberry in world.

If you get a chance to attend please say hi to my avatar, Galia Beck.

And do let me know what you would like to achieve as an educator in SL. I may be able to help.

Digital Age Skills

Today’s teachers and students need Digital Age skills. To show how these may be achieved the ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education, has released the next generation of NETS for Teachers which focuses on ”using technology to learn and teach.”

NETS for Teachers is deceptively simple one-page statement that categorises what a teacher must strive for under 5 headings:

• Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
• Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessment
• Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
• Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
• Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

This follows on from last year’s NETS for Students , another deceptively simple looking document with the following headings:

• Creativity and Innovation
• Communication and Collaboration
• Research and Information Fluency
• Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision making
• Digital Citizenship
• Technology Operations and Concepts

These documents should help you as a teacher or as a learner to set goals for each of the benchmarks and perhaps incorporate new skills gradually so that you are not overwhelmed by all you are trying to do. If you keep a record of your achievements in a blog then you will have already learned one new thing.