Monday, February 25, 2008

A Vision of Students Today

The truth is that I would love to post more tutorials but guys, I am developing my Major Project and my time is limited. Recently, I saw the video "A Vision of Students Today" and I would like to share with you some thoughts.

I was very impressed with this video because it shows the student's perspective of the education today. It seems that many educators began to realize that we should focus on the students; in their interests, skills, their preferred way of learning. When I see a classroom with 100 or more students, it seems to me like a massive production of "knowledge". It seems, that some people care about $$$ and not about the process of education.

I encourage you to watch the video, and share if you want your thoughts with me.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Building Online Learning Communities

Recently I read Building Online Learning Communities. It was one of the best books that I had ever read about effective online course development. I believe that you should read this book while you develop your Moodle skills.

Knowing how to use Moodle does not mean that you will be a good online instructors. The fact that you are a good face-to-face instructors does not mean that you will be a good online instructors. I believe that this book is unique and I encourage you to read it.

Furthermore, this book explores the development of virtual classroom environments that foster a sense of community and empower students to take charge of their learning to successfully achieve learning outcomes. This is the second edition of the groundbreaking book by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt and has been completely updated and expanded to include the most current information on effective online course development and delivery. A practical, hands-on guide, this resource is filled with illustrative case studies, vignettes, and examples from a wide variety of successful online courses. The authors offer proven strategies for handling challenges that include:

  • Engaging students in the formation of an online learning community.
  • Establishing a sense of presence online.
  • Maximizing participation.
  • Developing effective courses that include collaboration and reflection.
  • Assessing student performance.

Written for faculty in any distance learning environment, this revised edition is based on the authors' many years of work in faculty development for online teaching as well as their extensive personal experience as faculty in online distance education. Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt share insights designed to guide readers through the steps of online course design and delivery.

Read Excerpt: Chapter (PDF)
Read Excerpt: Table of Contents (PDF)
Read Excerpt: Index (PDF)

About the Authors:
Rena M. Palloff, Ph.D., and Keith Pratt, Ph.D. are the managing partners of Crossroads Consulting Group. They are the authors of Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace, Collaborating Online, Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom, and The Virtual Student, all from Jossey-Bass.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Add a Game in your Moodle Course!

Do you want to add an educational Game in your Moodle Course?
Mr. Daloukas Vasilis, developed an amazing Moodle Module which called GAME!!!
You can choose between 7 kind of games like hangman, crossword, cryptex, millionaire, etc.

These are the steps in order to add a GAME on your Course!
Follow the instructions of the PowerPoint Presentation...
or download a pdf file with the instructions!

Add a GAME in your course for Moodlers
DOWNLOAD FILE


Share the Knowledge. Join our Online Community for Moodlers

Moodlerooms!

In this post I have decided to write from where I have gained the knowledge that I have about Moodle. As you can understand you gain experience through the process of creating a course.

But how do you gain knowledge?


My previous experience showed me that the best way is to attend in an online training program especially designed for Moodle and Moodlers. So I did a research, as I always do and I found Moodlerooms.

Moodlerooms provides wrap-around technical support services for the hugely popular, free Moodle open source software. As an official Moodle Partner , Moodlerooms provides the support, hosting, customization, instruction, training and other services you need to tap Moodle’s full potential – whether for a single class, a school or a 50,000 student university.

Furthermore, Moodlerooms offers online and onsite training for Moodle instructors.
A blend of instruction will give your instructors the skills and deliverables to run their own Moodle courses.

Lets see the 3 online courses that Moodlerooms offers:
  1. Moodle 100 for Individuals: Introduction to Moodle,
  2. Moodle 101 for Individuals: Course Creating, and
  3. Moodle 200 for Individuals: Site Administration

Personally, I have attended in Moodle 100 and 101. The instructors are very friendly and helpful. They can answer at any question related to Moodle. Also, they seem not to care about $$$ but about how they will make the educational process interactive and fun! I can definitely say that the cost is low if you consider how many things you can learn. I encourage you to attend in these online courses!

Based on the knowledge that I have gain from Moodle 100 and 101, I decided to convert a face-to-face music course into an online format, which is my major project for the Master of Education in Career and Technology Education. My committee is very satisfied with what I have done so far and I am proud with what I have achieved!