http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=19&rid=922
Much of the evidence would not be available but for the Moodle space.
Here learners respond to the question: what are the benefits of our Moodle environment?
Moodle News :: Blog :: ArchivesAugust 2007August 03, 2007http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=19&rid=922 Type: Audio/Video From: elearningformusic Published: 3 August 2007 This report presents just a smattering of the activity in the NC Music Moodle space in its first year. Looking back over what students have achieved is quite staggering. Much of the evidence would not be available but for the Moodle space. Here learners respond to the question: what are the benefits of our Moodle environment? Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=19&rid=922 Type: Audio/Video From: elearningformusic Published: 3 August 2007 This report presents just a smattering of the activity in the NC Music Moodle space in its first year. Looking back over what students have achieved is quite staggering. Much of the evidence would not be available but for the Moodle space. Here learners respond to the question: what are the benefits of our Moodle environment? Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=77246 by Martin Dougiamas.If you believe Moodle should win this award, please nominate us: Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=77246 by Martin Dougiamas.If you believe Moodle should win this award, please nominate us: Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/07/handouts-to-videos.html
Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/06/one-more-for-constructivist.htm For those of you who have been following this blog, you will recall that last academic year 05/06 I ran a trial with my HND Computer Systems Engineering students where I used the VLE to investigate the delivery of about 20% of the course material based around the Social Constructivist model. The particular framework that I chose for this was the ‘Community of Enquiry’ from Garrison, Anderson and Archer. Well as I said then, results looked promising but it needed more data and so here are the results from this years trail 06/07 for both percentages and grades as measured against 2002-2005. I think you will agree that it does look more than encouraging and I shall be featuring these outcomes in my Camel presentation at the college on the 2nd of July this year.Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/06/self-evaluation.html If like myself you are deploying much of your full time course delivery over Moodle , then you will no doubt also be realising that while there are many advantages to this for everyone regarding administration, are there any similar enhancement to outcomes? Well I have to say probably not, after all, good teaching, good notes and resources are exactly that whatever the medium you deliver them by. If you have been reading this blog then you will know that I have been trialing methodologoes such a 'Communities of Enquiry', with some success. Even so I still find myself trawling round for some realistic model for self evaluation, and thats when I came across this article that I find myself getting somewaht enthusiastic about. Of course the test is going to be can I implement this through Moodle in some way, well stay tuned for that one. Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/06/video-formats-and-storage.html Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/05/thinking-about-your-vle.html If like us here at Bromley College you have been deploying a VLE, then like me you may be wondering after having structured courses with all kinds of content from Word files to podcasts, where the technology is moving and what the outcomes have been. If you are thinking along these lines, then you will be interested in the findings of the JISC funded projects that are about to enter their second phase, you can find the site here. I read a summary in the May 2007 edition of Cilip Update, which seemed to promote the conclusion of student preference for social networking over pure VLE, with the suggestion that educators are becoming concerned about the future of the traditional VLE. For my part I have no real evidence that this is the case, have you, please feel free to post.Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/03/vles-and-poor-attendance.html I was surprised by the concerns expressed in the recent HE Forum about VLE’s leading to reduced attendance. And so an emailed was circulated to a national list, not by myself I must add, to see if this is generally seen as a problem. The responses indicate the opposite. You will find a link here to some of the responses that you may find useful. The question posted was:- Using a VLE might lead to a reduction in attendance. Does anybody on the list have to deal with this worry? Is it true? How do you counter it? Please feel free to inform us of your own views on this subject by replying to this post.Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/03/project-leon.html Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/03/vle-project-2-completed.html Going by the transactions from the latest learning trial using Moodle, here at Bromley I feel certain that I will be looking at another successful outcome. There were 23 students taking part of which only 16 eventually completed the project and between them accounted for over 12,000 transactions in four weeks. For all those who did manage to stay the course, I presented feedback assessment for collaboration, and there is without doubt overwhelming support from them as well as a sense of achievement. However for students who’s engagement / attendance proved patchy before the project, the new approach seemed to be of little positive influence.Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/01/learning-in-virtual-world.html Just lately a lot of my time has been taken up with Second Life, if you have yet to try virtual worlds then let me recommend the experience. My principle reason for the whole venture is to see how this new semi-immersed virtual reality can be utilised for teaching and learning, even as an extension to our continuing work with Moodle. On Saturday 17th of Feb at 5pm I will begin hosting some presentation trials that will be looking at the Linden Script, that’s the language in SL, and comparing it with other main stream computer languages. So if you are free around that time and would like to come over for a short and small class and supply us with some feedback in another reality just click here and I will look forward to seeing you. Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/01/video-beats-audio-star.html Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/12/using-moodle-to-deliver-self-fi Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/11/podcast-or-videocast-which-do-y Do you podcast you lectures? . I have started this in a small way but from the system logs the results were not encouraging. Anyway I started to give the whole idea some serious thought recently. From my own perspective, if am driving or travelling on public transport, then yes I would listen to a podcast, however if was sat in front of a computer, then I would appreciate something more visual. The feasibility of videoing and editing a whole lecture on a regular basis would for me be unrealistic. But do you really need the whole lecture, well no, and all I record usually are selected parts in audio using my PDA. Anyway I decided to pop one of my audio tracks into one of CrazyTalks avatars, the result, good, judging from the Moodle logs, the media is definitely getting a better response. If you would like to take a look just click here. Please feel free to feedback on your own experiences by posting to this blog.Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/11/free-learning-resources-from-ou free and open educational resourcesIf like myself you are always on the lookout for some quality e-Learning materials, then you simply have to take a look at the Open Universities Moodle site OpenLearn. The resources here are free to use and are of an excellent quality, well done OU. Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/11/time-for-second-life.html Anyway I am off to my alternative reality now, but do stay tuned to see how things go. Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/11/value-added-moodle.html Our adoption and increasing use of the Moodle vle has further allowed us to explore a variety of teaching methods, that facilitate our students the opportunity for personalisation, to extend their learning beyond the traditional physical boundaries and time constraints of class based lectures.A bit Just a tad more that 50. Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/10/second-life-from-dartmouth.html I hav e just looged out of the first Second Life conference for teachers, I think. I got into the conference from a French restaurant in Dartmouth via rather a weak wifi signal, in fact I am Blogging from here still. There were plenty of people and some interesting proposals for future projects, its all looking extremely promising, all in all a great show. Well done Optimus Paul.Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/10/google-for-educators.html Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/09/social-networking-so-far.html I have some satisfaction and surprises reviewing the way in which my plans for introducing a social networking forum are working out with the courses this year. I have given the rounded figures in the table. A couple of points come to mind for me: 1 by far the most active group is the BTEC National General, but this is a year 2 group, so they already know each other well by now. 2 Though the HND group seem to have shown more activity than the BTEC National Software, in fact less then half, 9/23, of the HND have yet to actually post their own details, does age make you more cautious in these forums? Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/09/podcasting.html Last week I decided to start using a podcast approach as part of my regular Moodle material. I have incorporated these as part of my level 4 groups work in Object Oriented Design. The course is delivered as a series of lectures accompanied by detailed course notes and assessed using a portfolio approach of exercises. It’s the presentation in class of these exercises that I have decided to make available as mp3’s. I have installed them all into their own folder and students access them through Moodles Add a resource/Display a directory feature. I decided against the usually highly mobile podcast approach, as I know very few of the students actually own one. I shall be sure to report on their popularity and utility in due course Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/09/tell-and-post.html I started three new level 3 groups today and as a first exercise decided they should begin to make use of Moodle by posting lifestyle styles and ambitions to a forum. Postings could include links, particularly if they had Myspace, some did. I then asked them to reply to at least 2 postings, but not if they were already friends; I encourage this in support of the need to establish a virtual presence, after all given the diminishing requirement of funding bodies, students are only actually at College 2.5 days a week, so what happens the rest of the week? Well maybe it can be virtual, lets shall see. A significant proportion of postings were as I anticipated in youth code; medium is the message! I am reassured however given recent finding by Bev Plester and Claire Wood at Coventry Uni. Its early days but be assured I shall be collecting and posting feedback from the groups on these and other online activities. Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/09/myspace-induction.html The HND course officially started today with an induction. I had an hour to present myself and courses to them. This year has been really different though rather than explain courses in detail with references to handouts, assignments and grading, I talked almost exclusively about the part Moodle would play as a delivery platform in support of the collaborative leaning framework and assessment strategies that proved successful in last year’s trial. Upon ending the presentation rather than give out advice on pre-start of courses reading, I asked them to get a Myspace account, fill out all the categories and be sure to post comments to at least two from others. My plans are that the Social networking aspects of Myspace will not only form the first point for an ongoing trend of collaboration but be the foundation in forming an online presence and identity. Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/09/save-n-forget.html Things Moodle-wise here at Bromley are looking OK for the start of the coming academic year. The new vle is up and running and the old version for 0506 is now only available to staff. Just the other day I found that I am to be teaching on the OO Development and OO Applications courses (that’s all about objects to us programming nerds). The courses uses Java and so I decided to begin populating Moodle with some of my Java CourseGenie materials, but was unsure where they were, home, work, CD, usb? Then I remembered that I had uploaded all that stuff to our DSpace content repository, great, logged in found them straight away no problems, of courses no folders to navigate, because there are none, meta-data discovery is the way. Uploaded the content as a Moodle Scorm Activity, finished, isn’t this the way it should be though? Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/08/xbox-on-syllabus.html I have a sense or resurgent enthusiasm again with regard to the place of games in teaching: re my posting to this blog on 3DML and Robocode, when today I read that Microsoft are to offer XNA Game Studio Express, a free consumer version of Xbox tools that will run on a PC. In fact my interest in games has taken an upward leap after discovering the Sleeper Curve in Steven Johnson’s book ‘Everything bad is good for you’ ( I can recommend it). The suggestion is that our pop cultures game playing has contributed to our ability in managing rising complexity and cognitive demands. I wonder what impact the mention of xbox programming would have on the syllabus?Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/08/coalescing-virtually.html Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2006/07/interactive-white-boards-for-fr Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/08/so-long-intranet-welcome-dsace. DSpace Content Repository - Tuesday, April 12, 2005, where I reported that the system was now fully installed and rolled out for user access. Well to be honest, that turned out to be somewhat optimistic, because apart from myself, Clive and couple of other brave souls, not very much has been happening. But now that can all change, because through Clive's efforts this week not only can we offer users a common Windows Network, Moodle, DSpace login; you may like to keep up with his blog on all this. DSpace will now only allow authenticated users to access the actual content, in other words, the Meta Data is visible and will continue to be Harvested by OAIster, but only Bromley College staff and or Students can access the content. This of course overcomes one of the major concerns from staff, that their material will be open to all, regardless of Copyright or IPR. Naturally the next big bonus is that DSpace resource are now available from within Moodle; you just have to login in once at the start of your session. So goodbye to dupliacted Moodle resources, network drives, incomprehensible folder structures and ground fills of orphaned documents, from now on may DSpace and Meta Data rule. Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) August 05, 2007http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/08/thoughts-on-social-nerworking.h Going on as I do these days with regard to the value of social networking tools practices and the implications for collaboration in learning, which you may well have picked this up from a number of posts in this blog. As its summer now and there are no classes, its given me time to start thinking about trying to see if I can extract anything at all meaningful from the exercise that I encouraged my year 1 level 3 students to carry out at the start of their course in September 06. In fact I did a couple of blogs on this which you can still get to from here and to save repeating myself they are:-Tell And Post, Thursday, September 14, 2006 Social Networking So Far, Sunday, September 24, 2006 Essentially the idea was to start them off by using Moodle as a social tool and see if this had any impact of the likely emergence of online groups and ultimately outcomes. Just recently, during the summer, I have been dipping into SNA (Social Network Analysis) this is a methodology for mapping and measuring relationships and flows in a system; this can be human or even data itself. Now being a software person, my first reaction was to go looking for some tools, free ones anyway and I found Agna, a superb little piece of Java freeware. I used Moodle reports to produce a student-by-student activity for the Social forums throughout September 06. Then using their names, though for this exercise I have replaced these with numbers, as the node values in the Sociomatrix; see below.
I carried out the exercise for two groups, who I shall simply refer to as A and B My next stage was to use the Agna Network Viewer to produce charts. I shall let you make up you own mind on the level of social networking taking place here, but just establish for you that the arrows indicate the direction of communication. Well what do you think? Is any of this likely to influence outcomes for later on the course? I will reveal all a week today, on Sunday 12th August, for now I invite you to give it some thought and cast your vote.
Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) August 09, 2007http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=77630&parent=34 by Peter Sereinigg. The first program (draft) for the 4th Internationale Moodle Conferenc in Austria, 13th./14th.9. in Graz hostet by Campus 02 - FH of economics, has been published.
Our goal: international, German/English and different target groups has been fullfilled. Please download the programm (first draft, will be improved). If you are interessted, register at http://mk.campus.at for free. Participation is free. We need this information as soon as possible! You may reach Graz very easy (train, airplane) Best regards from Austria Peter Sereinigg (know at Lake Woerthersee/Carinthiamy, my home country, using WLan, )Keywords: conferences, moodle, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) August 10, 2007http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=77630&parent=34 by Peter Sereinigg.
Keywords: conferences, moodle, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) August 12, 2007http://moodletraining.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-networking-outcomes.html If you had read my previous bog to this where I presented two Social Networking diagrams, produced from the Sociomatrix data processed by Agna, then you will no doubt have been having some thoughts about the likely final outcome for the two groups. If you recall group ‘A’ displayed a very low level of social activity and group ‘B’ a far more impressive set of connections. Well here are the results. Of course it is not possible to draw any firm conclusions form a single trial, more are needed and more will now take place, but certainly the outcome even to a casual observer produces a clear enough impression. The less well-connected group ‘A’, have between them achieved results that are skewed toward Pass and Merit, while the more active network of group ‘B’ displays a skew toward Merit and Distinction. I must say that I was more than pleased with this outcome, as it does at least on the surface appear to support the case for a more socially oriented model of learning.One more small and possibly insignificant point is that group ‘A’ would seem to have double the amount of late assignment submissions. You will no doubt have guessed that I have been keenly showing these results to just about anyone that will listen, and the response I must say has been very positive. Apart that is from one senior manager, who will of course remain nameless. But who pointed out somewhat reasonably, that had the outcomes for the two groups been reversed, then we might have been able to build a case for blocking access all these Social Networking sites! What are the intrinsic suggestions here I wonder, that entertainment wins out against education, perish the though. Keywords: moodle, moodlejournal, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) August 13, 2007http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=77887&parent=34 by Lori Cheezem.There is a tentative plan for an Open Source Conference during the month of June 2008 at Idaho State University in Pocatello, ID. Those of us working with Moodle on the ISU campus thought this might also be a prime time to have a MoodleMoot. I would like to find out if this appeals to the other Moodlers out there or would you prefer one of the other scenarios:
Lori Cheezem Idaho State University Pocatello, ID, USA Keywords: conferences, moodle, news Posted by Moodle News | 1 comment(s) August 14, 2007http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=77927&parent=34 by Sean Keogh.Hi All, Just a reminder that registrations are open for the Fourth Annual UK Moodlemoot - there are still quite a few places left. The conference will take place on the 23rd to 25th October (One of those days is for developers) and will be on the OU Campus at Milton Keynes, UK. The dates chosen are during the UK Schools half-term week, so hopefully a lot of you will be able to attend. Go to http://moodlemoot.org for more information and links to registration. The call for papers is about to close, so if you want to present a paper, run a workshop or similar, then I suggest you register straight away. A reminder - you need to register at http://present.moodlemoot.org in order to get a place at the conference, (and pay for it) and in order to notify the organisers if you wish to present a paper, etc. Keywords: conferences, moodle, news Posted by Moodle News | 0 comment(s) August 21, 2007http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=77630&parent=34 by Peter Sereinigg. This is just a reminder, |