Moodle Usage for the Bismarck Student Moodle
While getting statistics of Moodle Usage for the upcoming tech talk for the district, I found some really nice results from the use of Moodle in the last three years. In 2010-11, Moodle started out with only 77 students in Medical Related Careers, which was around 3% of the enrollment of the students in grades 10-12. Currently we have 1479 students enrolled this school year which is over 50% of the students accessing Moodle for course work.
Of course the use of netbooks and ELA Digital Classroom has increased the access and enrollment. On October 25th, there will be a work session with FACS and PE to start building their collaborative curriculums in Student Moodle. So please welcome the new Moodlers in the development of their Master Courses. Your experience with using Moodle with the students is very beneficial to share with the group. We all get better together.
Backchannel
An example is Lynette Johnson's use of the Chat Module during a video for the students to have a discussion while watching. This is an excellent example of "BackChanneling" maintaining an online real-time converstion during an activity. The use of the Chat during the video allowed the students to post questions and respond to what they were watching. This type of activity, which is only possible with the use of technology, turns a passive activity like viewing into a more engaging activity with students reflecting in real-time about what they were watching.
It was nice to see an increase of usage of the Chat Module by other teachers in their courses. Think of the potential of using the chat module with a live Presidential Debates for Government Class. You could simply create a chat room for your students to watch the debates live and the teacher could monitor the discussion. Of course, the students would need computer access from home and the teacher would have to be online during the real-time Presidential Debate. This could not be a necessary a scored assignment since all students would not have the same opportunity, but could be a bonus activity. Becuase the Chat can be saved for other students to view later during the class the next day to extend the discussions.
Aloha...
...DBS