Moodle Meet

We have a very powerful tool right here in our district, its called Moodle. Several of you use it and some of you have tried in the past then tabled it. I used it for my College American History class several years ago. But being a person who loves to design with DreamWeaver I tabled Moodle this school year for my College History class. Then Highland Community College switch their online courses over to Moodle in January which required me to again use Moodle. Over the last few months I’ve realized how much Moodle has to offer and again … IT’S a free resource!

No Paper Theme!

I strongly suggest everyone take a look at Moodle again. You can create homework assignments and then grade them right online (no paper). You can upload handouts of all kinds to be housed for the student to download when needed (no paper). Students can upload assignments (no paper). You can create discussion threads which allow students to discuss whatever topic you wish in cyber world (no paper). If you don’t use Quia you can create your own test which Moodle will grade for you (no paper). You can create a virtual chat with your students in class or in the evenings similar to ichat but with your students (no paper). You can create own surveys for students (no paper). You can create your own wiki and much, much more! All of this without using paper  - think of the cost savings!

My favorite

Things that I’ve really like about using Moodle for my online Sociology course has been:

1) Latest Activity section. This section shows me when I log on what my students have been doing most recent. It helps me track the work. I can organize this several ways my favorite is “since the last time I logged into Moodle.” This way I don’t have to go through all the assignments I’ve already graded – just the assignments that are new (no matter where they are located in the course). By the way you can also organize 1 day, 7 days, 14 days ago as well.

2) Grading submitted work. This section allows me to organize the graded work in a way so I can find which assignments I haven’t graded.

3) You can leave comments right there so only the student can see the comments for that one assignment.

Moodle Meet (Social network site)

This summer the district will be hosting some training on “The Paperless Classroom”. One of those training’s will focus just on Moodle. I highly recommend you consider attending. But for now check out Moodle Meet.

“Moodle Meet” is a social network of educators who use Moodle. Like Facebook and MySpace this site brings together others who have an interest in using Moodle in the classroom. You can see how others use Moodle in their classroom. Tips that are both basic for the beginner and advance for those of you who’ve been doing Moodle for awhile. The site includes discussions on Moodle, videos providing demonstrations and more.

The site uses Ning as it’s host. You maybe familiar with Ning if you joined Classroom 2.0.

I would recommend you join this group if you’re interested in expanding the use of Moodle in the months ahead. When you apply for membership it will take a little bit before your approved. Make sure to complete all the information. After filling out the form and submitting it I had to wait 24 hours before getting an e-mail with my approval. Once I was approved I could get into the site and search around. You will find discussions/questions about Moodle. There are tips you can read or you can choose to watch videos on the how – to.

Simplybox (Social Networking)

The other day I was listening to a college professor who stated that high schools really AREN’T training students in technology. He stated we do a great job teaching word processing, powerpoint, google searching and some excel. But there are so many tools out there that high school teachers are simply missing.

One of those areas is “Social Bookmarking”. Similar to social networking (places like facebook and myspace) but a place to organize your bookmarks (websites) in such a way that you have access to them no matter whose computer you’re on and can share bookmarks with others with similar interest. For example the Language Arts department could have a set of bookmarks that all English teachers had access to. They could add or delete as a team.

Few weeks ago I introduced Diigolet. I really like it because it allows you not only to bookmark your sites but  highlight/place stickies on that site as well. This week I want to introduce you to http://simplybox.

NOTE: You must use FireFox with simplybox at this time. They are currently working on it for Safari.

On the intro page of simplybox you will find the following descriptions. 1) Visual Research … it allows you to bookmark a site by choosing a section of the site (photo for example.) and placing it into a “box” that you create (create as many boxes as you want). 2) You can share your box with others with same interest. This way they can place links in that same box for you to see. 3) You can create a box for photos, videos, etc that you may want to use in class. Whether it be on a powerpoint or simply a click and it appears in your browser. 4) You can setup a whole class where you share bookmarks, photos, videos, etc.

The best way to get a feel for this is watch a very short video click at http://simplybox.com Before you write this off please watch the video.

I RECOMMEND YOU WATCH THIS CLIP OFF YOUTUBE … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKbmETeuN68 How to use simplybox in the classroom (8 minutes long)

If you decide you want to give this a try the first step will be to create a “FREE” account. Locate where it says “Simplybox for Educators” and click. Then click on “Sign Up Now”. I would suggest you place the username and password somewhere you won’t forget (again, I recommend “Pastor“). Once you create this account you will need to visit your e-mail and locate the e-mail from simplybox (check your junk box if its not in your normal e-mail box). Click “Verify and Confirm” in your e-mail.

Now you have an account … log into http://simplybox.com. Remember you need to use FireFox for this. The first thing you will be asked is to install an update for the browser. Do as instructed. Once the download and update is complete. You will need to quick FireFox and reopen it before the changes will take place.

Once you reopen FireFox notice the NEW buttons near the top of your browser. 1) Simplybox (when you click this it will take you to your simplybox website). 2) Box and Save (this is how you choose a part of the site, photo, video, etc. to place in the box. 3) Box and Send (this is how you choose part of a site and then e-mail to a friend.

To get started I would recommend you try it first. Locate a website you like a photo from.

Step 1 .. Click Box and Save (Notice the screen is darken and you now have control of clicking with the mouse and highlighting what you want within a box. Click highlight.

Step 2 .. Once the object is highlighted drag it to the box(s) that appear at the bottom of the screen. If you like to create new boxes simply visit your site and create the boxes. Or click “New box” to create a new one.

Ok .. thats enough to get you started good luck.

MACE Websites Part 1 of ?

This week I thought I would share just a couple of websites I learned about during the MACE conference. In the weeks ahead I will provide even more from this conference with details on how to use them. But to get started I’m trying to provide a few easy one’s you can explore.

#1. Twitter your Congressmen … Many of you are familiar with Plurk. The social network site Kevin Honeycutt showed us back in January. Twitter is a much larger social networking site. http://www.twitter.com. But my post is not for Twitter but instead a way you can follow the Congressmen of your choice as they use twitter. Please note not all Congressmen have moved into the 21st century yet but the number is growing daily. Simply visit http://tweetcongress.org/ Then enter the zip code of your area (this gives you our two senators and Lynn Jenkins) or enter the Congressmen by name. At the time of my posting only Lynn Jenkins is twittering. But you can expect our Senators will be doing so soon. Oh yes, you can find a couple of links to polls and/or survey’s which Congressmen collect the opinion of the voters.

#2 Classtools.net allows you to create free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge!  http://www.classtools.net. This includes templates which you can use. The following list are the most popular templates on the site as I write this blog post.

• Arcade Game Generator!
• Flashcard Generator [new]
• Countdown Timer
• Random Name Picker
• Dustbin Game
• Post It
• Diamond 9
• Fishbone (Ishikawa)
• Venn Diagram [updated]
• Animated Book [new]
• Timeline
• Lights Out
• Target
• Hamburger
• Living Graph
• Learning Cycle
• Jigsaw Diagram
• Priority Chart
• Source Analyser

#3 iEARN.com … It was difficult for me to figure out what the third post should be here. I wanted to keep this post simple but so many good sites were shared at MACE. For this one I decided to introduce you to a site that allows teachers and students to partner up with teachers and students from around the world. Before you run away think of the different perspectives your students could have talking with others around the world. Whether it is a historical event, science project, piece of literature or application of math. Whether it was singing together, or sharing different cultural foods. The list here can go on and on! Once you visit this site you do have to create a free account. Doing this will place your name out there for teachers to find you as well as you being able to search the world for others. You go on to create a class account and setup students with their own log – ins. It’s difficult for me to show you more because it depends on what you decide to do that will lead to the next step. You can find samples of projects on the site, news related to the site, and professional development you can do online. Take a peak what do you have to loose short of opening the world to your students.

“Thought” … ask your students how many people they talk to now outside Holton, Ks. With online gaming I bet there are number of students who now communicate with friends in different parts of the country. How do they communicate? Text, phone, online systems, Skye, virtual chat, etc. etc. etc.