When I began reading this book I was expecting to learn a bunch of “real-life” classroom applicable examples of using specific Moodle features. While it did list many of those examples, it really focused on learning theory and creating a positive learning experience and community. The book mentioned many educational psychologists and philosophies of teaching and learning. Each time the authors explained a feature or gave an example of classroom use of a Moodle feature they also reminded the reader to make sure the activity was tied with the course outcomes and the learning objectives.

I thought the discussion about learning styles and effective teaching practices was interesting as my education has been in technology and not k-12 education. One thing I liked about the book is that for each feature example the authors gave a variety of ways to accomplish the same thing, giving the reader an option if they prefer one way or the other. Another thing that the authors provided were tips or recommendations on using each feature. For example, effectively running a chat and chat etiquette, taking the fear out of assessments, how to create and maintain exciting and engaging forums, etc. I guess you can call it “best practices” of the Moodle features.

As I mentioned before there were some awesome ideas on using Moodle features – without going into detail here are a few:

• Using the Chat module with a guest speaker
• A self-assessment practice quiz using the Lesson module
• Creating a flash card activity with the Lesson module
• Guided note-taking with the Wiki module
• Using the Glossary module for student submitted quiz questions

One note to mention is if you’re expecting to come away with created activities as you follow this book you should have some basic Moodle experience.  This book does not go into step-by-step, detailed instructions for most of the modules. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to know Moodle already in my opinion. This book did a good job of convincing the user that Moodle can create a learning community that is easily adaptable to different learning styles and offers some great teaching strategies to accomplish this.

Drawbacks

As with all of the other Packt Publishing Moodle books I’ve read I wish the screenshot images were in color. Another thing I noticed is a difference in our district’s Moodle (v 1.9.7) settings page for some modules and the screenshot images in the book (I believe the Choice activity looked a *bit* different). I was also made aware that the Gradebook is out of date. As always, take into consideration the frequent updates.

Wrap Up

In the end, I enjoyed the book and learned the most about having an “effective” course and what that even means. As I mentioned earlier, I am a techy person not a teacher, so I am at a point where I need to understand more about theory and teaching and learning strategies. This book had me nodding a lot and just “made sense” (if that makes sense!). It put things in perspective as each and every activity was tied with the course outcomes and made me aware of some of the things that are needed to create an effective learning community such as student confidence, fear of assessment, feeling comfortable with their peers, etc. And don’t get me wrong I am talking about the “theory” stuff becasue that is what interested in but there are many cool ideas and tips to using the modules. I only listed a few above. Visit Packt Publishing for more details on the contents of Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques.

Ignatia/Inge de Waard commented

hi all, the screenshots made available are in fact screenshots from a collaboration between the Institute of Tropical Medicine Alexander von Humboldt (IMTAvH) in Lima and the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp. We were working on it with a Peruvian/Belgian team. I posted the team effort and project here:
http://tinyurl.com/yapp736

Check out  the blog post explaining effort!

“Martin announced at the #imoot2010 that MoodleHQ will be working on an iphone app once Moodle2 is finished.” – (via @moodleman on twitter)

I feel as though Mobile Moodle will create tons of opportunities for classroom and student use. Just a few ideas off hand include student response systems (instant feedback), no need for checking out computer labs and 24/7 connection with Moodle courses (if using an iPhone, smartphone..) for teachers and students.. extending the school day is always a plus.

Check out the full post at Moodlemonthly.com or join the discussion at moodle.org!

Edit: There are several different Mobile Moodle projects, applications and discussions but the specific project mentioned and screenshots shown on moodlemonthly.com are from the site: http://www.bravenewcode.com/products/wptouch/

A little background on Moodle in our district: 2 years ago a grant was written to implement Moodle into our district. Since Moodle itself is free, the grant funds provided for the server hardware, training, staff development, etc. To make a long story short we made Moodle completely voluntary and available to certain groups of people (per the grant). All users who would be editing courses had to get mandatory training.

The Moodle User Group idea came after some of the initial trainings and we were trying to think of ways to support and help our Moodle users as they began their Moodle journey. We decided that the most useful thing we could give to users after the initial training was “time” and one on one support while they were working.

A Moodle User Group session consisted of

• 2 or 3 hour paid “work time” session
• no agenda
• limit of 8 attendees
• 2 Moodle trainers

All attendees must have gone through an initial beginner Moodle training before attending a MUG because these sessions were for users who already had an understanding of Moodle and how to edit a course, so they could just dig in and work on their course.  The reason there was a limit on the attendees was so we could be more one on one and help users with their specific questions. This was helpful for users because often times they would run into small (sometimes big) issues that prevented them from going on to the next step. With help right there for them they could quickly get their issue solved and move on, whereas if they were working at home or school they would’ve had to stop and email the question or just say whatever and not do it (which happens a lot!).

As teachers attended the sessions and found them useful they began signing up for dates with their colleagues who taught the same subject. This created a lot of collaboration and really helped spread the word about Moodle.

MUGs were not only great for staff, they were great for the Moodle trainers as well. As a Moodle admin, I don’t have the same experiences as a teacher since I do not actually have students, grade assignments, etc.  As I mentioned earlier many users run into issues that they just overlook and don’t inquire about because it’s not important enough, they don’t have the time or they think it can’t be changed. Throughout all of the MUGs I heard about issues that I wouldn’t have heard otherwise. And chances are if 2 out of 8 users have the same question or issue there are dozens more in the district with that very same question or issue.

The big “kicker” for MUGs is the “paid” part. Chances are we wouldn’t have had the same success if the sessions weren’t paid. We were able to pay staff with funds from the grant. Money is always an issue and it’s not always there but if you are planning a Moodle implementation I highly suggest planning for paid staff development like these MUGs.

As we all know many teachers nowadays already feel overwhelmed and like they don’t have time for anything new. Why would they spend time transferring lessons and course work that are already made into a tool like Moodle? We won’t go over that answer here as we all know the benefits of Moodle, but after the initial training and they see the possibilities the next step is giving them “time”. I think a tool like Moodle really needs some sort of small group work time. One reason is because Moodle is a very robust tool and it takes some time to get comfortable. Another reason is because it takes a bit of up front work and if a teacher doesn’t have the time or support to get started after their initial training it will be hard to jump back into it a month or two later.

So, to sum it up Moodle User Groups were a huge hit in our district and were very useful for our users. It created some great collaboration, enabled teachers to create well developed, engaging courses and they created some pretty advanced Moodle users as well. I will leave you with a quote from a teacher at a MUG who was half-joking as she said “Whoa! I just learned two great things! That’s more than any other workshop I’ve been to!“

Focuspad is a Moodle module/activity aimed at encouraging and supporting creative writing. Pieces of writing are saved as posts and managed through the library. read more

Here is some “about” information for this Moodle activity taken from the ‘find out more‘ page on the module’s official site.

What can you do with Focuspad?

Review

I played around with Focuspad as a student as well as a teacher. At first glance it looked very elegant and smooth but it seemed a little confusing as to what everything was meant for and did. For example, I didn’t know if this was public or only the teacher saw it, I was unsure if clicking “done” meant I could not edit it again and I was just unsure of how the whole thing operated. It took me only a few minutes to get the hang of it and now it seems pretty darn easy! It is a one time cost of $99.95 (for every Focuspad sold $5 will be donated to Moodle). You are able to put it on as many installations in your organizations and you have access to any upgrades.

There are two elements to Focuspad: the library and the editor. The library is open source and the editor used is what you have to pay for. The general idea of Focuspad is a Moodle activity where students can write (within Moodle – no uploads of Word files) an essay, fill in blanks from a template, fill out a learning log, etc. and hand it into the teacher. It is a very slick and attractive activity. It works very much like Microsoft Word and it’s really cool because the students see the entire piece of paper and layout. It’s not like Moodle’s WYSIWYG editor, where you see a small box with some buttons in the middle section of a page.

What I liked:

A student can make their post public or private. This is a great option to allow a teacher to make an assignment for their eyes only when students should not be able to see other student’s work, but you can also choose to make it public to share their work and findings with their classmates.

The ability to edit multiple times within Moodle (if that setting is set) is a real convenient feature in my opinion. A student can start an assignment and finish it later or add on to it later like a journal.

The ability for teachers to create templates. This is a pretty awesome thing to be able to do. If there are guidelines or a certain format the teacher wants students to use they can create a template. The only drawback or issue I see is I was able to edit the template, so students could accidentally (or on purpose) edit the template. There may be a lock on this but I did not see it.

Everything is done within Moodle!!! This is the best part of the module. Kids do not have to have a word processing program or worry about uploading files. No worries about versions of Microsoft Word or viewing PowerPoints.

In Conclusion

I think this Moodle Activity Module is a very smooth, easy to use and useful feature. It sort of combines the blog, the journal and the advanced uploading of assignments into one. The fact that a student can work on an assignment, stop, come back the next day and finish it and then hand it in – all within Moodle is great. Moodle does have an “online assignment” but it does not compare to Focuspad. I think teacher’s would love this activity. I haven’t seen any other comments or reviews on Focuspad but I would be interested to see other reviews. In conclusion, after playing around with this Moodle activity I see it as a very useful tool that is more enhanced and robust than any standard writing assignment activity. I will be interested to see what upgrades they have to this activity and any other resources they come up with. Before actually purchasing and installing this feature I would have to test it out and see if there are any bugs but it is something to definitely take a look at.

Related Links:
Find out more
Moodle Focuspad Playground
Download/Buy Focuspad
Discussion about Focuspad
Focuspad on Moodle.org Modules and Plugins
Mintranet
Mintranet Blog