Using screen-o-matic to record my lesson

Hi everyone,

Here’s a screen-o-matic recording of my lesson plan. I show here how the lesson is supposed to work.

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/clnlh14Lt

 

Moodle training videos

I have found a few useful videos on step-by-step how to do various things on moodle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google document on all participants’ lesson plans

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EZXLYzZu8NJTy-qYzWaQkPMgjMxNIQ22d49FatjZkjY/edit

Authentic Learning

Key notions of authentic learning

• Learner must be active- be able to connect their prior knowledge with new knowledge being presented.
• Constructivists assert that bringing the real world into the classroom learning environment is paramount to promoting learning.
• In short: “In order to make student learning relevant to real life experiences, learning environments must be authentic”

Authentic learning has the power to actively involve students in their learning and motivate them intrinsically.

Characteristics

Learning is centered on authentic tasks

• Students are engaged in exploration and learning is inquiry-based
• Students develop higher-order thinking skills
• Students produce final products that can be shown to an authentic audience in the outside world.
• Learning is student-driven with teachers and other members of society acting as coaches or facilitators.

Reflecting on these characteristics, I believe this kind of learning model mirrors Project Based Learning. I often visit BIE (www.bie.org) which offers a vast number of resources to implement this model in the classroom, including a DIY section (http://www.bie.org/diy) . I have recently found you can plan your own project online and save it. The address is: http://www.bie.org/project_planner .

This is a very general introduction to the topic. I have uploaded a couple of conference papers that teachers can read later.

Bibliography

Authentic Learning: A practical introduction and guide for implementation. (2003). Meridian, A middle school computer technology journal, 6(1), 1-3.

Further reading: Al for 21 century  Mantei-Kervinauthentic_learning

Forum feature: important for students-teacher collaboration

The discussion forums provide great opportunities to learn. As teacher learners, we learn from the other participants and from researching for information and adding them to our responses. As participant/student learners, we learn when we respond to the topic of the discussion because we check for information and when we read and respond to the teacher and our colleague’s ongoing posts. Learning comes as a result of engaging in the discussion forums. The responses can be enriched with multi-media in the form of text, audio, video and images.
You are invited to practice the role of an active participant and model what you would like to see in your students/colleagues or teachers.  Yes, students can help teachers learn about their specific needs and how to cater to those needs.

A News forum is automatically created for each course and is a place for general course announcements.

There are four different types of discussion forums a teacher can choose from:

• Standard forum for general use

An open forum where anyone can start a new discussion topic at any time and any student can reply to any posting.

• A single simple discussion

A single topic discussion developed on one page (group mode cannot be used with this type).

• Each person posts one discussion

Each person can post only one new discussion topic (everyone enrolled in the course can reply to the posted topics).

• Q and A forum

Instead of initiating discussions, the instructor poses a question to the class. Students may reply with an answer, but cannot see the replies of other students until they have posted their own response to the question.

Week 2 Reflection

In this week, my group and I experimented on uploading resources on Moodle. It was a great experience though I had to do quite a bit of trial and error. Editing posts using HTML to embed video codes seemed easy but proved to be tricky. For some reason, our moodle page was a bit slow and took a while to show the video I embedded. I thought I had done something wrong, but I hadn’t. Additionally, it was hard to upload a picture in the right size to make sure it looks well. I also had to get used to how to manipulate the different activities moodle allows you to create. They are generally in a “fill in the gap” form and it doesn’t help when you have the activity already done in Word. I would certainly use other types of activities which do not require this “filling-in” as I have a vast amount of resources already made in Word, Powerpoint and SMART notebook. I would probably upload them directly to moodle instead of using the “activity” choice. There are a couple of them that may be useful because it allows you to manage when students complete it, which would be quite useful and would save me time on marking. This is always a bonus!!

Week 2- My first moodle lesson

Here’s a screenshot of my first moodle lesson. It took me 3 hours to finish it, but it contains a title, some text, an inspirational quote, a video, a picture and a series of activities: a file, a link, an assignment, a forum, a WizIQ and a comprehension worksheet. Phew!

Basics of moodle

Here’s a slideshare on the basics of moodle.

Introduction for teaching with moodle.

Presentation week 1 activities

Welcome to my Moodle for teachers blog

I have created this blog to share my journey in learning a bit more about how to use moodle in my classroom effectively. To start with, I am adding some links for this course and will start talking on my “moodle journey” soon.

Learning Moodle in a worldwide community at EVO