Category Archives: Moodle

It’s Not Glamo(u)rous. Just Essential.

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I had the opportunity on Friday to spend some time with our enterprise systems manager thinking about something that certainly isn’t glamo(u)rous, but is nothing shy of essential.  That something?

Storage.

Sure, there’s plenty of “free” storage out there for the taking, but I’m interested in making sure that we can offer students and staff in our district a reliable environment that will be there today and tomorrow, and won’t disappear, or fill up, in the middle of the night.  As we see more and more growth of our district’s Virtual Campus (a Moodle installation), as well as the beginnings of the use of in-district blogging tools, we’ve got to make sure that we’re planning for enough space so that we can meet the needs of teachers and students both today and down the road.

That sounds easy – but it’s certainly not.  Hence our conversation.  I actually find fascinating all the bits and pieces of infrastructure that go into making sure that, when you turn on your computer or launch a browser, the stuff that you want is there for your use.  And I know, too, that the infrastructure that we build ultimately affects what can and cannot be done with students, so there’s a direct impact on education with every technology decision made.  I take opportunities to think and learn about the district’s infrastructure very seriously.

And now, I need your help.  I’m wondering, and have been asked to make a guess (well more like an attempt at making a semi-intelligent shot in the dark) about what the storage needs of a teacher and a student are today here in the dawn of the 21st Century.  How much space does a teacher need to teach and a student to learn and to archive his or her learning over the life of public schooling?  What’s a decent ballpark?  How much space should we have available just for the digital learning and online storage needs of a district of approximately 25,000 students and 1300 teachers?  Can you defend your answer?

We’re going to be making some plans around these numbers, and we’d like to at least get close.   Any ideas you have are much appreciated.

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The Podcast: Why I’m Not a Fan of Free (At School) (Infrastructure, I Mean)

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UPDATE: In the comments below, Mike advocates for free versions of desktop software.  I am completely in favor of those options for students and schools.  I also like free and open source software for digital infrastructure.  (Both the software packages I mention in the podcast are free and open source tools.) The “free” I’m talking about here is quite different.  Forgive the poor title choice.

In today’s podcast, I talk a little bit about my reaction to a Twitter conversation from yesterday about free tools and why I’m not necessarily in favor of them, at least for what I believe are basic educational needs.  We’ve got to support our schools and our classrooms and our educators and our students, but not on the backs and whims of third-party kindness. As always, I’m interested in your thoughts as I continue to develop my own.

Links I Mentioned

Steve‘s “luxury” tweet.

A smattering of some of the Twitter conversation. (These don’t do it justice, but will give you a bit of the flavor of the conversation.)

Vicki Davis’s posts on her Lively project/protest.

Direct Link to Audio

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The Podcast: A Project of Projects

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Tonight’s short offering is a thought or two about an idea I had today.  Aggregating content is nothing new – but makes sense when you need a "new" project.  We could all use a few more connections to the good work we’re up to.  Would love to hear your thoughts, or anything you’re up to in this vein.  Enjoy.

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K12 Online – Post-Session 1

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    I think we had an excellent first session of our K12Online group in St. Vrain.  I had to literally turn folks away, as we ran out of space in the classroom – and it’s a pretty tight classroom.  (Perhaps I need to run a second session?  Why couldn’t I?  The content’s there either way . . .)
    After dealing with course logistics and introductions – there’s a wide range of school district staff there, from classroom teachers (elementary and secondary), to librarians to support staff to school board members — I walked folks (or maybe sprinted – I talk fast when I get excited) through a short history of the conference.  I then shared the first half of David Warlick’s 2006 pre-conference keynote with the group.  I like his direct approach to the audience  ("I am here and I am now – but that’s not important, because you are there and you are then .  .  ." – goosebumps.) as well as his metaphors for education.  I thought it got us off on the right foot.
    For two months, we’ll be communicating mostly via Moodle forum as we begin to take a look at the various course offerings of the conference.  The forum’s just for us right now, as we get comfortable using digital conversation spaces.  I hope to invite some of you to join us, if you’re willing, at some point in the future.  I also hope that some of the participants will choose to punch through the password-protected private space and join the public conversation(s) in some way – but that’s up to them.  It should be a choice.  And, speaking of choice, thanks, K12Online, for the handy schedules for each year of the conference – it’s really easy to look at all the options when they’re all there in one place, just like a big ol’ menu of PD.  Well done. 
    John is attending our class.  He’s also scheduled to be sworn in as a school board member tonight, so I’m pleased to have him with us.  He posted his reflections on the first night of the class over on his blog.  I thought his list of learnings was an excellent summary of the night:

My take aways from last night (including ideas reaffirmed), in no particular order…

- We have barely scratched the surface of what’s possible when it comes to tapping technology to enhance learning.

- There are good and bad online protocol, "good ethical practices,"
as Bud described them.  I’m still learning which of these practices I
might be violating – and doing well.

- Geography means a lot less than it used to.  The very notion of
school "buildings" is going to be challenged far sooner than many of us
imagine.

- Students will choose their own pace and hours for learning no matter what schedules we try to impose.

- The role of teacher will be far different in just a few years.
Teachers will shift from instructors to guides helping students direct
their own learning.

- We still need face-to-face time to strengthen relationships.

- We still need quiet time, uninterrupted by technology, to reflect on what we’re learning and imagine what we might learn next.

  I particularly like the last one – we all need time for reflection and imagining.  That was well said.  The trick is finding that time, as well as continuing to flex the brain so that imagination continues to be a possibility.  Now begins the hard part of courses such as these – trying to create and maintain community.  All of the right people are in that room – lots of really bright and passionate folks.  I’m excited to be learning with them.  Should be good. 

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Technological Literacy? It’s Still Just Learning

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   Dana nails the issue of "excused" technological illiteracy:

Teachers have to realize at some point that exhibiting ignorance with this sort of pride is not OK. It is OK not to know something and to try to fix that, and I would hope that most teachers would do so. I don’t know everything. That’s true. At the end of my life, I still won’t know everything. I would hope, however, that when I reach the end of my life, I will never have exhibited pride about being ignorant of anything.

Dana nails it because she’s not necessarily focusing on a particular skill or skills, but more on the desire of those involved to be in a constant state of learning.

Karl’s post, which inspired Dana’s (and was inspired itself by Terry’s) gets really, really interesting in the comments, particularly as the discussion gets going into literature, and literacy, and technological literacy.  You’ve got to read it for yourself, but let me contribute that I love both the words and the ideas of great literature.  Particularly poetry, which is, to me, the near-perfect (or completely impossible) marriage of both.   

  As for technological literacy, the US federal government, via NCLB, now requires that all 8th graders be technologically literate.  Well, actually, that’s not true – the federal government has required that all states test 8th graders to measure their technological literacy.  Each state gets to define technological literacy, though, as well as the standards that they will use to measure it, which might explain some of the confusion in Karl’s conversation.  Neat, huh?

   It’s sure hard to teach something that you don’t know yourself.  Of course, the question that I’m not going to attempt to answer at the moment is whether or not technology is a content area or something, like reading and writing, that transcends content.  That’s a blog post for a different day.   

** If you know the definition of technological literacy that your state is using , jot it down in the comments – I’d be curious to see the range of definitions.  My fingers are crossed that there’s not much variance from state.  I know that Colorado is going with the refreshed ISTE NETS as the state technology standards, with some minor revisions.    

 

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Moodle Advice for New Users

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    Today is the second day of my three day Moodle course.  Thanks to those of you who left suggestions and tips in the comments already. 

   Day one was a time to explore and go through Moodle as a student.  At the end of the day, I set up all course participants as course creators and we’re going to spend much of today building our own Moodle courses for use in the Fall.  I thought it might make sense for those of you with Moodle experience to offer tips that you have for new course creators.  What should we avoid?  What should we definitely make sure to do?  How do we deal with limited access to technology and still create resources that students will use?  How are elementary teachers using Moodle?  (Some of these are questions the course participants have, others are my own.)

  I’ll be sharing your comments with the class today, in real time as we work, as well as providing the link to this post for later perusal.  Our class runs from 8am to noon MST today and tomorrow.  Please offer your tips and advice!

  Thanks in advance.

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Moodle Magic

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    Next week, I’ll be teaching a three session course on Moodle to teachers and other professionals in my district.  I’m excited to have so much time (about 12 hours total) to teach the software and how and why to use it.  I’m most excited because so much time means that I can do the most effective thing I know to do — provide time for folks to fiddle around and to build resources for their buildings and courses with some help available in the room.  I don’t think teachers get enough time to simply explore and discover and play.
    I plan to have folks sample the different resources and activities available using activities that I am creating.  I plan to give folks time to build.  Then I want for everyone to spend time in each others’ courses, basically as "students" for each other as a workshop of sorts for folks building online course components.  With that said, what would you do with Moodle if you had 12 hours and a receptive audience?  How would you measure "effective online course components?"  Is there an essential demonstration that you would show or do with folks?  Anything you’d avoid like the plague?  What questions should we consider during the workshopping?
    I’ll share this post and all your comments with the group in some fashion.  Thanks in advance.

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The Podcast: Telling Stories with Technology

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    This podcast, a follow up from the other day, is about further thoughts on how we plan to teach digital storytelling at my school in the next several weeks.  If you want to listen to my thinking on how and why to teach digital stories, this is the podcast for you.  For links to resources, I’ll refer you back to the notes from the last podcast.

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A Post in Which The Author Self-Indulgently Wallows in His Frustrations for a Moment

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    You ever make a mistake that gets in the way of the learning that you want to have happening in your classroom?
    Boy, I sure did.  And it’s been bugging me for the last week and a half.  Consider this post a confessional of my error, as well as a bit of free writing about how in the world I’m going to get out of the pedagogical hole that I’ve placed myself in.  (Okay, it’s not a hole, but it’s a danged ol’ pothole, and that’s frustrating enough.)
    See, after my first writing assignment in my 10th grade course, I found myself with several really good pieces of student writing.  Really interesting essays, the kind that demand to be read.
    I had originally planned for my students to publish these to our school Elgg.  But at the last minute, in a moment where I could see that my students, pushed to the edges of their patience by new classroom computers that almost worked perfectly and a Moodle that took them a little while to learn to navigate,  I made a decision that I thought was going to save time and create a neat way for my students to publish from right inside the Moodle.
    Instead of directing students to the Elgg, with an entirely new login and password and profile creation process (hurry up, OpenAcademic gang!), I sent them to the blogging feature of Moodle, hoping they could taste the sweet success of instant publishing.  I covered all the safety basics, making sure identities were appropriately protected, and it was easy to push their writing into a public place.
    Kind of.  See, while anyone can come along and read what my students wrote, and chose to publish, no one can comment on their work, because Moodle blogs don’t allow for that.  I’m sure I could (or someone already has) create a way to do commenting, but I need a simple solution.  Yesterday.  Comments are an essential piece of the feedback and publishing model that I see in my classroom.  I forgot that for about five minutes when I called an audible in the heat of a classroom moment.  Does that ever happen to you?
    The frustrating piece here is that when I created the Elgg, I created a simple solution.
    I just didn’t use the simple solution, because I was afraid that one more setup process would kill the writing community that I’d created.  Turns out the teacher can do a good job of that, too.      Just needed to vent.  I’ve discussed the issue briefly with my students.  They’re a little burned when it comes to publishing online right now, and I don’t blame them.  My bad.  Big bad, too, if I’ve turned them off to one of the best motivators for their future success as thinkers and writers. 
    The question is — what do we do now?  (My hunch is that we move forward anyway, especially when their next assignment comes due at the end of this week, trying to ease hurt feelings as I go.  It’s just so frustrating to slam smack into this wall when I saw it coming and had a plan.)  Any suggestions?

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