The aim:

• exposure to a few strategies to support active learning
• practice in English
• have fun

All these students will be teachers sometime.  The hope: just to see a small demonstration in a class with interaction could trigger an interest in teaching a little differently.

I still value Moodle as a Walled Garden.  I see this as a feature, not a bug.  Moodle 2 is a bit tough at first.  But I’ve taken a philosophical view: new users (or even old users) must experience it first.  Hence I do an EXPERIENCE  > CRITIQUE (DESIGN) > BUILD trajectory. And I think now (for my sanity as well as the good of the populace) it is actual essential for real and meaningful learning.  I try not to put myself in a position to do anything in less than 3 hours.  With snacks, pen and paper and space preferably.
How can you build a course in something using tools you have not experienced as a user?

Field trip to a Moodle course

I do an excursion to a coffee course:

It’s really nothing fancy: most people can find some strong feelings about coffee (either for or against) and you can see a few things in action  like forum posting, comments (in the comments block), watching a video, following a link, downloading a document and actually submitting an assignment.
Then glossary, wiki . .   maybe.

The critical question for my sessions has been “OK, put your teacher hat on now.  You’ve experienced a forum.  Of what value could this be in your classrooms”

Bullet points.  The value of Moodle for learning:

• Enhances communication
• Improves collaboration and interaction (providing some good tools)
• Enables file and link sharing.
• Saves time (Hmm!!)

Upcoming workshop: Monday and Tuesday of next week.  Four hours, including 30 minutes to get logged on and a really nice healthy afternoon tea. This time I think is the critical mass to prevent inoculation and actually infect.  Get some experience of good practice.  Build some relationships.

However, with the latest school project, bringing the science department and the social sciences online (with Moodle) I have made a course subject specific, and I am on the scrounge for some screen snaps of good Moodle courses.

I spent a week in Auckland in late March considering this question.  Moodle shut down on me.  Where better to work then Columbus Coffee

1. You need an awareness of adult education principles (not just theory thought)
   I love Kathy Sierra’s concepts and delivery.  One random link.
2. Y0u do not lecture.
   Huge debate on LinkedIn HETL Higher Education forum at the moment.  How can researchers in their field (eg forestry, aquatics or pi-meson theory) be so keen on evidence and process and so slow when it comes to Education Research on the basics?
3. You use video
4. You respect the knowledge already there.
5. You remember: YOU ARE NOT INDISPENSABLE. All the romantic words: facilitate, guide, mentor, model.  Do it.
6. Have hard edges where it counts. There can be no doubt about taking blood pressure, catheterisation, pill dosages, completeness and clarity in records.  (Just to name a few aspects)
7. Have fun.
8. . . .        use online wisely.

OK, the challenges of TIME, pressures of Goals not aligned with activities . . .
More will surface on this I am sure.

You will notice there is nothing here about Mobile access, web 2.0, RSS.  The people I work with at the moment are not really there yet.

There is a little angst over some aspects of Moodle 2: the filepicker, the navigation, the lack of plugins, video mishandling.  But there is progress coming.

Wishist

a Improved forums

This is my top priority. It was in train for Moodle 2.1 but has gon from the roadmap now.  Most of the items in this list have a tracker items, some have code as well.

1. Save draft posts (How often do we want to write in two sessions?)
2. Subscription at the thread level (Update: requested in 2004 with a huge number of votes tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-1626 now looking like some progress)
3. Ability to freeze a thread
4. Sticky threads
5. Improved ability to mark forum posts for followup
6. Export at the end of a course
7. There are a few more . ..

Obviously the Open University ForumNG (docs.moodle.org/en/ForumNG) has a lot of these features. There has been talk of getting this into the core. (moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=137549)

b Blogs: minor enhancements

We have comments on blogs now. But

1. Need ability to restrict blogs to view by course members
2. Need ability to see a list of blogs for members of a course preferably with numbers of new posts.

Comment: Navigation around blogs has proved confusing for some.  Posts in the Moodle.org forums consistently confuse functionality of blogs with forums.

c Navigation improvements.

See image for a course navigation: we now have the navigation scroll of death. In workshops I’m finding users loosing their way. There are some unpredicatable actions.  Like when you click on a section title, you don’t go to that section.

Ideally include a simple section navigation block:

• Single section:

  ” title=”https://github.com/leizhang/moodle-block_menu_site_and_course

” target=”_blank”>github.com/leizhang/moodle-block_menu_site_and_course

There are a few other aspects that I am sure will be addressed in future versions.

d Groups: Self enrolment options.

e Clone an activity or a template function.

Backup and restore just doesn’t cut it.
Late breaking news: tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-11288 this has been started.  “A x2 icon”

f Admin email notifications

1. on account creation (e-mail to admi)
2. on self-enrolment in a course (e-mail to teachers)

(Optional to receive these of course)

g Multiple file upload

Improvement to the Add a resource > File.
Some sort of multiple file deployment option.

tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-12810 the old Flash uploader will not work now with the new files.  But something is needed.  And fix long menu links. (See above)

h Useability for admins

Less scolling to get to the “editing on” functionality, and the “Save and return” link. I like the new WordPress admin bar that appears at the top.  :

Think of the 12 most common functions this close in Moodle.  Ability to tweak the editor without server access.

i Improve media management

In 2.0.2 you cannot resize media.  May be fixed in 2.0.2+
See: tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-26697

Not strictly Moodle: Greater Christchurch Schools Network.  (Built around the Christchurch Loop)

http://www.moodleinschools.org.nz/ Moodle in Schools: MoE supported site.

ecdf Supported Moodle sites repository.  (Higher Education)

Wellington Loop Moodle.

I have moved on from the University of Canterbury.  Below is my old bio.  (From uctl.canterbury.ac.nz/derek-chirnside which is still there as I write this). I’ll be sorting a new version soon.  If I had bothered to update it for 2009, it would have said: “Moodle is in, we now are making the transition to using Moodle.  We have a model for the transition: dividing up the faculties, each with a UCTL contact, introductory workshops and specialist follow on workshops.  Hundreds of courses making the transition in one way or another.

Now I’m doing a contracting work, mainly around workplace learning, staff development and organisational learning – all with an online aspect, and all involving some form of Learning Management System.  (Organisational Learning: there’s a surprise – I’ve been interested in this for a while, but never really had a chance to use any of this except more at a personal level)

(My Old) Profile

I have a background in Physics teaching, having made a switch from Chemistry and Maths. Since 1977 I have taught in a range of schools and settings including intermediate, High School and one year (1998 – at the Department of Physics and Astronomy and CPIT) in Tertiary.

In terms of Educational Design, prior to 2000 I did not even know such a field existed.  However I found I had been doing it for years in a range of teacher professional development projects (including Denis Chapman’s wonderful Riccarton Project) and many national science and physics education conferences. in December 2000 I took over from Alan Cutting at the Christchurch College of Education working in quite a remarkable context: the POLO distance education programme.

In the distance education side of my life I am indebted to Prof Mike Wells (now Professor Emeritus, Montana State University-Bozeman) who taught a distance course I was part of in 1998 (“Real World Problem Solving”, via First Class)  Here he modeled many of the practices I later adopted as my own.  I was ready for 2001 when the courses at the College moved to having a serious online presence with the development of Interact, our home grown learning management system.

In 2002 I was part of the establishment of Learning and Information Services at the College of Education: one of the few institutional restructures I have seen that produced an unequivovably better result than what was left behind.  With Maureen, Rosemary, Kerry, Glen, Bruce, Donna, Rob, Fiona, Angie, Des and Tim we sought to integrate services and support around flexible and distance courses.  This was conceived over some wine and cheese during an Educause conference in Adelaide.

In 2005 I shifted to the UCTL at the University of Canterbury, first on secondment and later as part of the merger.

My role here at UCTL mainly centres around course design, both online and in flexible or blended courses, with some staff development and policy involvement. My specialty areas are blogs and wikis in knowledge management and learning, communities and e-learning.

I use ICT, but I resist people defining me in this light: I am interested in teaching and learning strategies, particularly those that assist engaged or active learning (both online and not). Learning theory has traditionally been classified in three: behaviourist, cognitivist and constructivist.  I see a fourth as significant: social practice and situated learning.

Online learning, using online tools: should help improve learning outcomes, save time and help us feel better about our teaching.

Current Activities

Recently: Moodle trial, podcasting workshops, using video clips in online courses.

December 2008. Currently: I am working with Moodle transition (Gradebook, Groups, Forums and wikis), getting StudentNet set up for another year, helping with some case study approaches to classes and a new project with Massey.

Recent Presentations

2007 Oporto, Portugal. Workshop with THEKA (midway through a three year professional development project): Communities of Practice: leadership practices and planning.  Link to Blog Post on this .

2007 Chuxiong University, China: Teaching Strategies to Support Active Learning
Two days of workshops, mainly physics-teacher oriented, but tons of others came.

October 2008: Podcasting Workshops (Tai Pe Tuni Polytechnic, Greymouth)

November 2008: The use of Web 2.0 tools (Blogs and wikis. tagging and RSS) to support ongoing Professional Learning.  Karero Learning Centre, Greymouth.

In the posts on MirandaNet about the axing of BECTA one of the contributors, Leon Cych posted this comment:

I’d much rather see teachers who have developed “open” expertise, sharing it with each other at a social event in a transparent way, rather than traditional models of training. If someone has found an innovative and useful way of working with software or hardware then they often develop a highly developed generic expertise and forge new pedagogies round that and often ways in which it has not been thought of by the software companies themselves. TeachMeets are rapidly becoming seed beds for grass root talents sharing and disseminating 21st Century skills.
I have seen this time and time again at TeachMeets (teachmeet.pbworks.com) and that model is finally beginning to catch on.

From the TeachMeet site:

What are the tried and tested structures from Teachmeets?

• 7 minute short presentation (sometimes 2 or 3 lined up)
• 2 minute nano presentation (3-5 one after the other)
• Break out sessions (@SLF 4 speakers took up 4 different locations, participants chose to listen to who they like)
• Random speakers – Classtools fruit machine.

And this, from teachmeet.pbworks.com/Organise

TeachMeet is an unconference, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t need organising. Early on, get a small group together to get everything sorted out for your event

. . . . and some structure/rules:

Some rules might be: no PowerPoints, micro-presentations must last no more than seven minutes, nano presentations no more than two, no selling of products, everything must be happening in a classroom now.

We all know the best parts of conferences are, of course, the coffee breaks and social events, where you get a chance to pore over someone’s laptop for 15 minutes and learn one new really cool thing you can actually use, have late-night discussions over serious stuff, helped along by a few drops of amber. Why not just make this the conference itself? Provide coffee and tea all day long, lots of muffins and biscuits

In other words, PD by the people for the people, what’s happening now, presented by the people doing it. A great structure for an UnConference.

A final comment from Leon:

“Training” is a bit of a cul-de-sac, or rather a one way street, in my opinion. It is a single function or pathway to doing things. Much better develop an independent mindset that can think and route around what resources are available rather than going down a proprietorial route.

A way ahead maybe?  Effectiveness, lower cost – and fun.

These are some of the roadblocks put forward as real or perceived issues by teachers who expressed a keeness to share and to collaborate or work together on resources – or at least being open to the idea.

The main issue was finding the stuff that they really wanted when they wanted it.  Several repositories were mentioned.

There were at least two issues in this respect.

Personalisation.

With some resources there is a perception that style issues, idiosyncrasies and personal preferences of the writer mean they can’t easily be used by other teachers.  “The effort to fix this is often too great”

“Style can get embedded and is hard to alter”

Context

Similarly with context: there was a perception that many resources were just too context dependent.

One example: grammar exercises became quite differently expressed if they were part of an ESOL course, journalism course or an essay writing support package. You’d expect that.  But there was a feeling that some resources were developed in such a way that meant they were still too context dependent.  Worksheets with several questions unusable (maybe with a curriculum difference, or a grammar point not yet taught) in PDF format could not be edited.

“Tagging has helped – (But we are not there yet)”

Even so, there were some teachers quite positive towards the idea.  It just had not quite worked itself into a solution for them yet.

Others however felt that there was some good progress in their area.  It is here that I am particularly interested: what factors tend towards success?  What can be done to promote this?  I think there are three aspects to this that I can point to in the data.

The trial is now in week 7, and I am still unsure how to answer the question “How is it going?”  We are having a lot of fun, have discovered no showstoppers; a wonderful staff show and tell last week.

e-mail patterns

I am convinced there are ‘email patterns’ just like there are ‘wiki patterns‘.  We are aware of the basics: like ‘Me to’ e-mails sent to a group, reply all when it’s not needed. e-mail across the corridor etc.  I have a feeling I am going to need some rational presentation of these for my team.  That’s strategy one.  The second is having tools to replace the bad habits.

xobni

Today Jess sent me an invite to Xobni (inbox spelt backwards) It looks cool, I will wait a little before I install it. Yet another startup. Just when you thought all the good five letter acronyms were taken. Has an endorsement from Bill Gates.

This is an e-mail app for outlook/pine that clusters emals, sucks out attachments.

I have tried to see an analogy of this.  It could be the swiss watch makers after digital came out.  They spent time trying to make their watches better.  it’s not quite the right analogy.   will try xobni when I get back from a holiday that starts today.

Links from Luis Suarez (who is still on an anti e-mail campaign): From 10000 to 0 Emails in an Inbox in 24 Hours Describing using GMail.  Here is his first comment on lists, which we all know.

Merciless Unsubscribing

Email 101 lessons always say that you should unsubscribe to as many newsletters as you can. I was getting about 50 a week, most of which I didn’t EVER read. The first thing I did on Sunday was to unsubscribe from most of them and delete the majority of past ones that I’d put in my ‘read one day’ folder.

I hate the ‘read one day’ folder.

This post is not finished, just abandoned. . . .  but I want to go on holiday, the family is up, eggs and bacon are on the table.  6 hour drive to paradise.  But I will post anyway.