[IAEP] Moodle Integration Status - Was Where should we put Lesson Plans? Currwiki?

[Caroline Meeks]

Hi David,
Thank you for this email.

To the extent Moodle/Sugar integration works I want to use it! GPA has its
own private XS system, auto login is working fine. I am testing the file
backup today.

One of the things
we need to solve is getting Teacher templates out to all the students
and student work in to teacher
efficiently.

Is there documentation? Can you make me a screen cast?

This may well be valuable enough that its worth helping the teachers and
students climb the UIs learning curve.



On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 3:08 AM, David Van Assche <dvanassche at gmail.com>wrote:

> Actually, points 4.1 and 4.2 have been integrated into moodle for quite a
> while now. Perhaps its the flexibility which is making these possibilities
> hidden, that and their particular use of wording. Unfortunately, people tend
> to not use the full capaccity of its uses until they completly understand
> what they are doing, as moodle gives an almost infinte amount of ways to
> manipulate data. As Martin Langhoff has pointed out on numerous accassions,
> we need to drop funcinality until the User interface is easily understnadble
> by all, something he has gracefully offered to do over the next couple of
> moths,
>
> So, with a customised, simplifie versin of moodle and what it does (course
> management, which to me is very much linked with creating and presenting
> lesson plans is perfect for the job.
>
> I am of course interesting in what the lesson plan/ course will loook like
> if it is not based on the moodle infraastricture.
>
> What is absolutely needed is some extra volunteering ti totally simplify
> the UI, something that might take a while but was already started by Martin
> and co.
>
> n
> On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 4:58 PM, Caroline Meeks <
> caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Chris,
>> I think the right answer is to put our materials on both your system and
>> Curriki for now and hopefully an automated interoperable system will emerge.
>>
>> I am very interested in collaborating with OLE and in making materials
>> accessible to schools without internet access. Please talk more about how
>> your system supports these environments.  I have not yet reached out to the
>> Curriki people to try to create a partnership.  Are you in communication
>> with them?
>>
>
> From what I understand of the OLE system, is that they will be doing
> something similar to both schools.s.o, and li-f-e.org, which is creating
> a library of moodle courses, the biggest challenge of which becomees, how to
> do this is in an easily undertandable format annd categoristaion of the so
> colled  ' library of courses' This if of course the tip of the iceberg, and
> would be using about 5% of what moodle can do, but the transportability is
> key here. As ,mentioned, its easy enough to export a scorm elemnt, and then
> upload to something like curriki. Doing it the other way round looses all
> the funtinoality of Moodle itself to tailor and customise courses, as they
> are important as objects rather than real Moodle courses.
>
>  Moodle advocates. I am a big Moodle fan. But I don't think its our right
> now solution for the work we are talking about doing.
>
>>
>>
>>    1. Our target, elementary school teachers are not currently using
>>    either Moodle or Sugar, adding both at once makes the learning curve even
>>    harder.
>>
>> Remember that if u intend to use the XS server, moodle is actually
> integrated into Sugar, ie... its a part of the Sugar experience.
>
>
>>
>>    1. We are focusing on lesson plans in the 1 hour and even 20-minute
>>    groupwork time frames.  Moodle is more focused on longer time frames.
>>
>> You can make a moodle course last 5 mintues - 50 hours if u like, its al
> about how u set it up.
>
>
>>
>>    1. We are focusing on what the teacher will do and what the class will
>>    do both online and offline during the lesson as well as learning goals,
>>    standards, help for the teacher in differentiating the lesson etc.  Think
>>    the teachers guide for the text book. Moodle is more focused on what the
>>    student is doing online. Its not a very natural fit.
>>
>> Quite the opposite... Moodle is focued on making it easier to contol and
> offer in an easy leeson plan format what the students can do/ wth the added
> benefit of being able to grade all the courses.
>
>
>>
>>    1. Moodle has tremendous promise in terms of reducing teacher
>>    workload.  Here is an example of what I hope that in the future Moodle will
>>    be able to:
>>       1. Provide a link that students click and they open a Write
>>       document that is a template/scaffolding for a specific assignment, say
>>       writing a scientific argument.
>>       2. When the document is saved it is automatically turned in as
>>       Homework in Moodle allowing the teacher to review and comment on the
>>       document from anywhere, even on days when the class does not see the science
>>       teacher
>>
>> The reason I pointed out the comment  above
>
>
>>
>>    1. .
>>
>> however, these features aren't there yet. Once they are there will be a
>> large payoff for teachers to learn Moodle.  However, I still see Moodle as
>> just one format teachers will use. Other lessons and other teachers and
>> other contexts may still want to print out a pdf.  Other times a teacher may
>> just be browsing for a sample lesson to be used as inspiration to create a
>> quite different lesson.
>>
>
> Actully, these features are there, as I have used them extensively in my
> own moodle coruses driven by student input.
>
> Sorry for attacking, if it seemed that way, but it really does seem like
> people haven't studied themultitude of options that Moodle offers.
>
> kind Regard,
> David Van Assche
>
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Caroline
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 12:57 PM, Chris Rowe <chris at ole.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Caroline,
>>>
>>> We at Open Learning Exchange (OLE) have been working towards a solution
>>> for this over the past 2 years and have a working prototype with the most
>>> basic functionality we think is needed. You are welcome to try it out at
>>> library.ole.org
>>>
>>> There are several sites on the web that are trying to create a place for
>>> curriculum to be shared but none of them that I know of are addressing the
>>> needs of developing countries. We have done a lot of work to address the
>>> diverse needs of countries with limited internet access and feel we have a
>>> solution that will be very powerful in the near future.
>>>
>>> We are working with our centers around the world to identify the key
>>> success factors in making a Global Learning Library as well as several
>>> partners like the Siyavula project in South Africa and Connexions at Rice
>>> University to leverage existing work done in this area.
>>>
>>> In addition, we have begun talks with Sugarlabs to use our library as a
>>> repository of educational materials that incorporate sugar activities. It
>>> would be very helpful for us to get your feedback on what we have and to
>>> work with you on integrating it with your work and the work of the Sugarlabs
>>> community.
>>>
>>> Some of my thoughts on other solutions.
>>>
>>> Sugarlabs wiki: There is too much other content on the sugarlabs wiki
>>> that is not relevant to teachers. Just like activities.sugarlabs.org is
>>> a place to find and download activities I think we need a place designed
>>> specifically for curriculum materials.
>>>
>>> Moodle: Moodle is a great tool for creating structured, interactive
>>> lesson plans and for deploying them in classrooms but it is not designed as
>>> a library or repository of materials. Our plan is to start by allowing
>>> people to create Moodle courses and share them on our library for others to
>>> download and use on their own Moodle servers. We are also working with a
>>> developer to integrate work he has done on Moodle import/export into our
>>> library in the future.
>>>
>>> Curriki: Curriki is the closest thing to what we think is needed but it
>>> lacks the ability to be deployed on a country by country basis. We feel
>>> strongly that a learning library needs to be customizable for each country,
>>> each school and even each student.
>>>
>>> Curriculum alignment: There are many features that we we feel are an
>>> integral part of making a library of curriculum materials successful that we
>>> have not implemented in our library yet. Curriculum alignment is at the top
>>> of that list. Because of the complexity of many of the worlds curriculum
>>> standards we want to make sure we do not overload teachers with too much
>>> information.
>>>
>>> Chris
>>>
>>> Chris Rowe, CTO
>>> Open Learning Exchange
>>> +1 (512) 553-0852 | skype: eworsirhc
>>> http://ole.org
>>> Sent from Austin, TX, United States
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Caroline Meeks
>> Solution Grove
>> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>>
>> 617-500-3488 - Office
>> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Samuel Goldwyn<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/samuel_goldwyn.html> - "I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never
> wrong."




-- 
Caroline Meeks
Solution Grove
Caroline at SolutionGrove.com

617-500-3488 - Office
505-213-3268 - Fax
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