Progress Report main project and “Sticky Moodle”
Posting has been delayed recently due to efforts to complete and put aside activity for part 1 assessment.
I have been working on the literature review for the main project and now have a draft that I can put aside while I focus on completing the work for the course.
Out of this review came two main themes which have influenced the planning of the course I am developing. Firstly the importance of situating the learning within the learners experience, and secondly the value that teachers place on collaborative learning.
It should be possible to ensure both these aspects are well focused in the CPD course I have planned.
I found the CompendiumLD planning tool very helpful for thinking through the course structure and the order and content of learning activities. I find myself constantly referring to this map now as I start to build the course for real.
I have now built the skeleton course structure, most of the instructional linking materials, and now am working on the learning objects, video, quiz modules etc.
After a very hectic time up to submission of part 1 assessment which went on over the school Christmas holidays, and an even more hectic start to the school term. Things are finally settling down enough to allow for a little personal reflection.
I am glad to have stopped juggling three different threads of course activity, weekly activity, and two assessments running simultaneously. Though there is less interaction with my course colleagues now there is so much work to do I am not feeling the loss as much as I feared.
My motivation levels have been fluctuating due to stress and distraction and the holiday season. I feel my focus beginning to return now a number of these have been put aside.
One enthusiasm which is growing is for Moodle on several levels. I see the developing awareness of the staff I am working with to the potential of Moodle. It is slow but sure and like a rolling stone I feel is gathering momentum. Apart from impact of training for the staff, my colleague and I have both started to develop courses in areas of interest to ourselves eg, using animation for social stories and a celebration of the school Eco Schools week. The ICT Co-ordinator is now getting her classess to log in and out of moodle each lesson and as more material is developed and they get to see courses which are fully functioning their enthusiam rises. The number of log ins by the pupils from home is increasing slowly as this process develops.
I have been researching how we might bridge the digital divide for our pupils as previous posts describe. Just in the last few days I have realised that Moodle might have an answer for us there. It will be fairly easy to provide a laptop for pupils to loan, what would be much more difficult is to provide internet access to a home. Now I have begun to investigate Moodle installations on USB sticks. Such a sticky Moodle and a laptop could provide a complete learing package which replicates the on line version.
I am very excited about the potential of this idea, but still grappling with the installation in a steep DIY learning curve. However I am learning a lot and hope to have a demo implemented shortly. Watch this space for the report.
