Moodlefreak

    I can’t say enough good things about Moodle.  (For now at least — but I know that technology folks are somewhat fickle — there’ll be another development or two down the road that will be the next big thing.  Maybe I’ll eventually start to like Manilla or something.  Will sure does.)
    We’ve been using Moodle at our school to help teach a course on literature and composition.  I found a way around our recent computer woes (basically, we’re using every spare machine that we find.), and so Moodle is becoming a routine for my students.  We’ve worked through the first round of password problems and tutorials and the students are beginning to get some work done.
    Some time soon, I’ll tell you about how we’re using the journal module to facilitate the writing, collection, and assessment of papers in the class.  The short version is that, if students save often, they never lose a paper, we get regular check ins with every kid, and they have their work available to them anywhere and anytime.  And so do I.
    But right now I want to mention two other uses for Moodle that are percolating in my head at the moment.  I know what you might be thinking — when you give a guy a hammer, all of his problems begin to look like nails.  But I think Moodle is different — there’re so many options that I think it can work in lots of situations.  I’m sure there are other content management systems that are just as versatile and just as user friendly — but I don’t know about them.  Yet.  (Although Drupal might be one.  Tell me if I’m wrong.)
    One use I’m thinking about is one that I think Will has mentioned before (yup — here’s his post) — using Moodle as a kind of e-portfolio system.  My school’s language arts team met to day to discuss several issues — one that came up is that we need a good way to both show and document student growth in writing over time.  We keep portfolios, but they’re paper and not as user-friendly as I would like.  Plus, when the kid leaves, the portfolio stays behind.  Moodle seems like one possible solution for solving some of our struggles.
    The second use that I’ve been thinking about is for professional development.  I’m facilitating a year long professional development opportunity on writing with two colleagues.  Over the course of a year, our group will only meet five times face to face — but a Moodle will increase our interaction time, because it will be a place to share ideas and to store the content that we create together. 
    These uses aren’t revolutionary.  But the ease with which I can create resources, share them, and maintain them  is.  I built the skeleton of an online course in about an hour tonight.  Without writing a single line of code.  Four hours before that I was sitting in the meeting where we decided to try it out. 
    That’s astounding to me.  Is this one of the areas I should be focusing my master’s thesis on?  Or should I look at my attempt to create a hyperlocal journalism site for our community?
    How cool is it that these are my potential questions?