Internet Resources (CED0520 - Wk 1)

OK, so I know this blog should be about what we’re covering in class, but I have to talk about Moodle. It’s an internet tool on its own anyways. Many of my classmates were telling me how much I’d like using it in my classroom and now that I’ve finally gotten “trained” within our district I’m already in love with how flexible an application it is.
I mentioned something to the same effect in my response to internet resources in the wiki, but I think the point is a very important one. I have always struggled with how to organize and keep track of the great internet resources - favorites and bookmarking are some of the current tools to hold onto those great sites, but there is still the lack of a method of incorporating them right into the curriculum. Enter Moodle…
I think that one of the advantages of Moodle is that even though it is usually intentioned as an online course management tool, it has many other functions. One teacher is using it as her study guide as students read a novel - each chapter is broken into topics with related activities, another teaches week to week like we have been doing in MEIT, a third uses it to keep the student FACT group informed. And as far as I’m concerned, I’ve finally found a place to actually incorporate some of those great resources that are available online, instead of bookmarking them and then never remembering to go back to them later. In my classroom, I like to offer a lot of choice assignments where students have the ability to pick a topic or project from a number options and the internet is a potentially limitless source of those options. Now, I can put links to all of those options in a text piece within Moodle and let the students choose and work right on-line. Up to this point, I’ve taken those resources, cut-and-pasted them into word documents with all of the options and then printed them off, then hauled the class into the computer lab to research/work and lo and behold a student would find the site that I pulled the assignment/idea from in the first place…etc. etc. etc. What a waste of my time and energy when there is a method to pull it all together. Now I know that wikis are an option for this online organization as well, but with internet filters and limitations as to where the students can go, having a “district approved” alternative is really helpful. As far as class this week is concerned, I’m looking forward to finding and learning about new resources because I’m encouraged to think that not only will I have them, but I’ll know how to implement some of them in a very immediate and concrete way for my students.