Moodle for elementary students - does it work???

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Permalink Reply by David Kapuler on March 19, 2008 at 2:14pm

My old school district used moodle exclusively w/ 5th Grade w/ lots of success you can view it by going here.

moodle.dist57.org

Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on March 19, 2008 at 4:01pm

Can guests log in?

Permalink Reply by William Cunningham on March 19, 2008 at 2:36pm

I use moodle in third grade. I have been for the past four years. Absolutely love it. My students use it in so many ways. If you would like to check it out: http://www.hallsville.org/elementary/cunningham/moodle/
If you would like to explore it you will have to use the contact form on the front page.

Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on March 19, 2008 at 4:03pm

Very impressive at first (page) glance. Looks like you've got the idea!

Permalink Reply by Matt Hoenshell on March 19, 2008 at 3:44pm

I use MOODLE for 4th grade students and they navigate it very easily. Another teacher at my school is using it for some of his 5th grade students doing a after school class. I like the fact that it is a safe system that parents feel comfortable letting their students use. And since I can track what each student is saying and doing I like that feature the best. I will say that some feature are a little hard to use but I use other programs for wikis and such, while linking it back to my MOODLE site. It all depends on how you set it up. I have made mine very simple so that I don't give my students to many choices so they don't get confused. I will say that their parents have a harder time understanding how to use it than their children do.

Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on March 19, 2008 at 3:57pm

I use Moodle (grades 4-6) right now for two things---online book discussions and Philosopher's Club. It works well for discussions because it's threaded, where you can respond to each poster. (blogs and wikis don't work that way) You can see what we're doing at http://www.smsdonline.org/login/index.php. Use baguest as username and password to log in.

I used Blackboard for 3 years (same type of thing, but expensive) and wrote online curriculum. It is a lot of work but of course once you write the course you'd have it for life! Here is a curriculum I wrote which I have since moved to to my website.

Introduction to Exploring Leonardo da Vinci
Activity #1: Introduction
You will be using this online course to study one of the most brilliant men in all of history. Leonardo da Vinci. He lived over 400 years ago (1452-1519) and was regarded as a genius in his time. His imagination and incredible range of talents continues to be admired to this day. As you journey through this course, you will learn more about da Vinci's discoveries in the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture, astronomy, engineering, geology, mathematics, botany, animal behavior, and even music

For your main research project, you will chose one of the following statements and be able to defend your opinion:

I think Leonardo da Vinci's most important work was as a painter/sculptor.
I think Leonardo da Vinci's most important work was as an engineer.
I think Leonardo da Vinci's most important work was as a scientist.
I think Leonardo da Vinci's most important work was as an inventor.

Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on March 19, 2008 at 4:05pm

Here's another idea I have but haven't implemented it yet. The Moodle Glossary feature allows for each student to add content to be commented on. I think it would be neat for each student to find a piece of art----painting, sculpture, photograph...other students could discuss their feelings about the artwork.

Permalink Reply by Andrew on December 3, 2008 at 1:08am

This link doesn't work.

Permalink Reply by Ben Grundy on December 3, 2008 at 6:56am

Thanks everyone for the advice...

Turns out I have been able to convince the tech guys to make use of google apps for schools and it has been a terrific move on their behalf.

Thanks again.

Ben