Content and technology

Okay. If your job is like mine, you have to teach content through using technology! Lucky us! Now, lets brainstorm some cool projects we can do that incorporate the latest technololgy while teaching core subject material (math, reading, social studies, science).

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Permalink Reply by Colin Jones on July 28, 2007 at 2:02am

Hi Katie

I am a specialist Technology teacher from Prep to Year 10 (5 to 15/16 years old). I am working one day per week on a project to help integrate technologies in the Middle College classrooms (9-14 year olds).

My first project is to develop activities and resources around an Explorers theme for 9/10 year olds - Historic Australian explorers > Current frontiers (eg: Antarctica) > Futures (eg: space). I am contemplating the use of blogs; journals; interactive games; chat and podcasting.

I have implemented a Moodle server to help support these activities and provide a "safe" environment.

Permalink Reply by Katie Mathews on July 28, 2007 at 8:53pm

Wow that sounds great! I teach 7th & 8th grade. We have to teach basic concepts such as keyboarding (BORING), Microsoft Office programs, internet research & safety, creating their own websites, etc... I am also going to try some digital storytelling this year with my 7th graders.

To be quite honest with you, this will be my first year teaching CONNECT/Technology, so I am sure you have many more great ideas than I. I am also sure you can predict how the suggestions you are contemplating will work out better than I. :) I hope lots of us can join this group so we can share project ideas, get suggestions from one another, etc...

I am not as technology savvy as I should be, but I am very motivated to learn and implement new ideas and projects into my 7th and 8th grade classes. I am hoping that classroom 2.0 will be great support for me along the way.

How difficult was it to implement a Moodle server to help support and provide a safer environment?

Permalink Reply by Colin Jones on July 29, 2007 at 3:50am

Moodle is quite easy to set up. I am writing a "manual" to document our experience (in case something happens to me). I will be happy to share this.
Probably the biggest challenge has been "planning" how to structure the organisation of courses.

I have been working on this project for nearly two years in my spare time and have presented a strong case to school administrators. I started with a Moodle hosted on a commercial server. It cost me $AU10 per month. Most web hosting companies will support Moodle installations through "Control Panel" and "Fantastico". These applications are trivial to use and make Moodle very easy to implement. After trialling such systems you may want to your own school based web hosting, as I have.

The students have loved using the chats, forums, blogs and wikis. Even I have been amazed by the response and the high degree of engagement and task focus displayed using these tools.

On the topic of keyboarding. How do you implement your instruction? Most of our students have only one computer based lesson a week and I feel that they need to practice keyboarding daily to develop skills.

I am just updating my profile contact details. I would be happy to explore further (but please keep in mind i am not a great IM fan).

Permalink Reply by Katie Mathews on July 29, 2007 at 9:26am

Thanks for your reply. Since this will be my first year, I am not sure how I will implement keyboarding instruction. I am going to be meeting with Ginger Lewman....as she says that she has some great implementation ideas that have worked really well for her students. Have you added her as a friend yet? I am not a great IM fan either. :)

Permalink Reply by JoNelle on July 31, 2007 at 1:17am

As for Keyboarding - Our elementary and middle schools use Type to Learn. In elem they get a few minutes at the beginning of each tech class period (not much). In middle school they take a computer class for the semester and keyboarding is part of it. I'd be intersested in Giinger's ideas too.

Permalink Reply by Katie Mathews on July 31, 2007 at 7:36am

This is what our school has too. However, my husband teaches the grade under me and he says that when his students went to the computer lab they always complained because they were going to have to do type to learn and they hated it! In our district at least...it is way overused. I will let you know if I find out some ideas! :)

Permalink Reply by JoNelle on July 31, 2007 at 1:20am

I would like to know more about Moodle. (They were at NECC, but I had a different focus for that conference.) Their site is very comprehensive and a bit overwhelming.
(Right now I am learning how to safely incorporate blogs, wikis and podcasts.) I am an elementary tech teacher/mentor in a lab environment. My district agreed to unblock the choices I have made so far, but is Moodle where I want to look next? I also teach courses in our district and use my website for posting the course activities/syllabus, ect. I planned on using this network. From what I can see Moodle would be very useful- but how necessary?
Our district is trying everyone to switch from FrontPage websites to the district-wide Echalk. Echalk is web based so it frees up our servers and makes school/classrrom sites in our district more uniform- so I don't know if they would even consider Moodle. Is it possible to try it just in my lab?
EChalk has other applications too, so I guess I am trying to make a comparison to see if I have enough tools for now.

Permalink Reply by Colin Jones on August 4, 2007 at 7:51pm

Hi JoNelle.

Moodle is an extremely powerful and popular learning management system. Open University has adopted it. It is not necessary but is a good choice if you want to explore off campus access, organisation of learning resources and constructivist learning using modern technologies.
I like it because it is scalable, supports open standards, and allows me to use all the technology tools I want in a "closed" and safe environment. There is a sandpit that only requires you to create a user account [HERE].

You can set up Moodle on a classroom computer networked to other computers in the room or on a school network. It needs a web server (usually Apache), a PHP parser and a database (usually MySQL). It can be set up on Windows, MacOS and NIX operating systems.
If you want to use it in a small network, you will probably need IT to help you set up DNS (how the other computers will recognise the web server).
You can set up Moodle on a USB drive (512MB is plenty) if you want to try it out.

Here are some links (www.moodle.org is great).
Instal on Windows platform using pre-packaged install (very simple)
Install on a USB stick Look for the download text on the page and be sure to use the latest versions of PHP, MySQL, Apache and Moodle when you build the package

Permalink Reply by Colleen on September 3, 2007 at 9:29pm

I use a free online program for keyboarding http://www.sense-lang.org/typing/. You can use it online but I download it onto the desktop just in case our server goes down. There are other free online typing tests that I use to calculate speed.

Students only have computer skills class one day a week for 30, 45 or 1hr. depending on their grade level.
Grade four students also come into the lab daily after lunch for 10 min. I walk around encouraging students to type properly. Students know they need to type with 100% accuracy before they can record their speed. Sometimes I play music (relaxing in the beginning and faster as students get faster). I post a large sign in the lab with a range of speeds so students know what I expect before the end of the year. Last year many students finished the year with 40 WPM and 100% accuracy. Some achieved even higher than I ever expected. I suggested they practice over the summer to keep their hard earned skills sharp. I will test them the first week of school and hope they do well.

This year I will teach them how to track their own progress using Microsoft Excel. We will start recording their accuracy, speed (WPM) and errors. After a few weeks of recording their progress I will show them how to create charts.

Sometimes on rainy days I close the blinds and turn the lights off and students seem to enjoy the change. Good luck and enjoy your students.

Permalink Reply by Anne Mirtschin on August 1, 2007 at 8:18pm

Hello, I have just joined classroom20 and am a dedicated ICT teacher and teach accounting in Australia. I have grade 3 through to 12 ICT. I have taught digital storytelling using MS Photostory and this has now been used in other subject areas. I am really keen to work on podcasting leading up to vidcasting. Have started to use web2.0 for planning, calendars, brainstorming social bookmarking and these have flow on effects into other subject areas in our school. Students love to learn new stuff and web 2.0 really gets them in and once they are started other teachers learn from them as well.

Permalink Reply by Stacy Strickland on August 4, 2007 at 3:59pm

Hi Colin,
I am new to the idea of using Moodle in the classroom, but would like to learn more about its integration. Can you give me some information on how you've chosen to use this?

Permalink Reply by Colin Jones on August 4, 2007 at 8:28pm

Wow. Where do I begin?

I suppose there are a number of elements to the plan. Now that I have tacit administration approval and have investigated organisational aspects that work for our situation (about 1500 students over three colleges).
1) Put some content online and get students excited about sharing information using chats and forums.
2) Put up resources that encourage teachers to interact with the Moodle and become comfortable with it. This includes a lot of user documentation and procedures but also "fun" stuff to generate interest.
3) Create a culture of "expert users" to evangelise the benefits and start to develop content and ideas.
4) Work on one or two small courses that integrate across the curriculum and leverage the power of social networking, targeted feedback and student choice. This relies on building strong strategic relationships with critical teaching partners.
5) Expand slowly!

I am currently working on a Year 5 project for Term1 next year. I intend to follow up with similar projects in other year levels for other terms in 2008.
I am also building a personal Moodle where I hope to explore some ideas, concepts and tools with interested teachers. This is almost ready to fly.

This has probably only just created more questions in your mind, feel free to discuss further, either here or via email/AIM listed in profile. I also have IM accounts with google and msn.