Bob Irving :: Blog

Actually, they have nothing to do with dawn. I just thought it provided a dramatic tone for a headline.

We’re looking at getting some of the new Lego NXT kits. I can think of lots of applications for my computer classes, and a lower school science teacher and a middle school science teacher are also interested. The NXT has lots of shiny new features (like sensors), and I like what I’ve seen of the programming interface. Because we’re a private school, funding will likely be an issue. Maybe if we have about a hundred bake sales…

We’ve upgraded to Moodle 1.6 and about 8-10 of our teachers have expressed an interest in learning the Moodle. Yesterday afternoon, we offered a 45 minute intro to what Moodle is, what it offers, with a brief flyover of some of the more immediately useful modules (featuring assignment, journal, and grades). We also hit on adding resources and social forums.

I tried to stress that while it may all seem overwhelming at first, once you learn how it works, it’s pretty easy (like all other software!). And one of the great things about Moodle is that you can use as much or as little as you like.

I’m also excited about the MyMoodle feature.

During my English 7 class, I introduced my students to their new Moodle home. Since no one had ever used it, we had about 20 minutes of general chaos — finding the url, usernames and passwords, how do I….? However, after the chaos settled down a bit, the kids seemed to really enjoy it. One asked if all their teachers would be using it. I said it was a choice that teachers made according to how they run their classes (in other words, no).

I set up their first assignment, gave them a personal wiki space to write in, and let them go. Oh, and I told them at the end of the class that their grade for their book talk was on the site but wouldn’t tell them where. Mwuhaha.

After a lot of discussion about awesomely cool new educational software ventures (like Elgg and Drupal), we've decided to stick with Moodle for the time being. For several reasons:

1. The KISS principle. While we techie types get all starry-eyed over the Latest and Greatest, most teachers just want something immediately practical and not time-consuming. Who can blame them?

2. Why not simplify our jobs as well, and work really hard to master just one tool? For instance, there are a zillion search engines, but you'd find yourself a lot more productive if you mastered Google. So we'll focus our efforts for now on Moodle.

3. And students don't like always learning something new.

4. Some of our teachers have used Blackboard and found it useful. The local IU, which hosted BB, have now gone to Moodle. Yay! And we can host it here.

5. Moodle 1.6 has some cool new features, like blogs and podcasting.

Stay tuned for further developments!

Today is Day 2 of the school year. Yesterday was, as expected, exhilarating and exhausting. But everybody seems excited to be back, and we’ve got such a great bunch of kids that it’s hard not to be energized! (oooh, that’s 4 “e” adjectives in 2 sentences, for those keeping score at home..)

Getting ready to upgrade Moodle to 1.6 and start playing with it. Several teachers have expressed interest this year in using it, which is great. I am personally interested in using the wiki module more. I have only used it as an individual workspace for students, so they could work on writing stories here or at home and not have to move files back and forth. I’d like to see how it works with some group assignments, as well as a storehouse for notes on the books we’re doing in 7th grade English.

and all through the house, teachers were scurrying back and forth, hither and yon, trying to get ready for the explosion we'll experience tomorrow when all our students show up.

I teach at Lancaster Country Day School in Lancaster, PA. We're a small independent school, with about 500 students from PK-12, all "under one roof". I work in the middle school, but we all get together for our first official meeting in the fieldhouse, and it's a lot of fun to see all those ages and grades together. As per a tradition started by our upper school co-presidents a few years ago, the seniors take the youngest ones by the hand and walk them from the field house through the front doors while the school bell tolls. I'll post pix tomorrow if I can get some.

It's like the beginning of spring training in baseball, when every team feels they can win the World Series. All that hope and anxiety always makes for an exhilirating day. Fortunately, I've been at this "a while" (let's just say over 25 years), and my personal philosophy is, "If you can make it through the first two days, you can make it through the year." 

Just wanted to post about a great week I spent at the beginning of August this summer. The name of the program is Summercore, and it's run by Steve Bergen and Lynne Shalman of the Chapin School in NYC.  It's specifically geared to independent school teachers of all levels of comfort with technology. Steve and Lynne have been doing this for about 25 years every summer, and it shows. 

They have amazing resources for teachers in their Summercore Primer (two thick books that all participants get). It's obvious that they have worked as teachers and with them, so they know the challenges and obstacles that face people. But I saw that everyone from absolute newbies to "old hands" benefited from the intense week.

One thing that really struck me was that they started the week with some "drill" on basic computer knowledge. And by basic, we're talkng bits, bytes, binary math, etc. I've always intentionally skipped over this, thinking that people just need to know how to use computers. But it seemed to help de-mystify the computing experience for a lot of people. And I think that is really valuable. 

I also enjoyed working with "regular teachers", those who struggle with technology. They aren't opposed, they just aren't comfortable. I would guess that lots of teachers are in that category, and it really helped me to sit alongside them. One teacher mentioned, after a fantastic short lesson on "10 MS Word Tips that will revolutionize your life" , that he wished his tech coordinator would do more of that, instead of rss, podcasting, and wikis. In other words, we are sometimes pushing the "latest and greatest", but not helping teachers in practical ways that will save them time every day. Point well taken!

Their website is a gold mine of information. And the week is well worth the price of admission. If you're looking for summer inspiration, check out Summercore!