The Educators' Royal Treatment

Compare and Contrast: What the World Eats

By Carla Beard,

As we expand the definition of "literacy" to include multimedia, teachers will scramble to find good models for students. The series of pictures, "What the World Eats," might service as a basic source for comparing and contrasting.

Peter Menzel shot these photographs of families around the world and their typical diet for a week as part of the 2007 book Hungry Planet. He and Faith D'Alusio, who wrote the book, visited 30 families in 24 countries and asked them to display what they would typically eat in a week's time. They also calculated their food budget for a week. Amounts are presented in both the local currency and the US equivalent. Each picture in this series shows a portrait of the family, the home, and the food and beverages.

The photographs are carefully planned, with food to the front and the family behind, colors and lighting balanced and professional. More important, though, is the impact of looking at a series and noting similarities and differences. Who eats fresh fruit and vegetables? Who eats a lot of meat? Who eats grains, and who eats processed foods? Are the differences determined entirely by culture? If not, what other factors might be at work?

Careful analysis of still photographs like this series can help students learn to think critically:

• What information is being communicated?
• The photographs are all arranged similarly. What do the similarities emphasize?
• Each photograph is different, too. What do the differences emphasize?
• Who is the intended audience and what purpose might this series serve?
• What questions do these photographs raise? Do the photographs suggest any answers to those questions? 
• Do the photographs taken as a group communicate an idea that an individual photograph alone might not? If so, what is it and what details suggest it?

When students can analyze a series of photographs, they can bring a stronger set of skills to a poem, a play, or a novel. They can also analyze with more confidence a commercial, a blog, or a political speech.

"We teach this civilization into existence." — Junot Díaz

by Carla Beard

Ordinarily a line of teachers buying books wouldn't be newsworthy. But these teachers were at Thursday night's General Session, the opening of the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention in Philadelphia.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz spoke casually to the thousand-plus educators, saying, "I'm with my tribe -- teachers -- and that's always a good feeling." He spoke briefly of his background as an immigrant from Santo Domingo. As a child he adopted his parents' dreams for his life ("doctor, lawyer, maybe an engineer"). In school, though, "I had teachers who stressed passionately the central role that art plays in civilization." He said that it was difficult to give up his parents' dreams when he decided to become an artist, adding, "To cultivate and pursue an authentic dream of your own is a person's most important calling."

Díaz encouraged teachers to remember their role. "We teach this civilization into existence," he said. "We're the people who connect the present with the past, but we also see the future."

Díaz also spoke on the value of reading. He said there is more to reading than just literacy, a statement that caught the audience's attention. "Reading is a way to connect with the human and with art. Reading asks us to practice a deep compassion. In reading we are asked to put ourselves in the hearts and minds of people who are different from ourselves. It lets us see ourselves as flawed, deeply contradictory beings, still beautiful and still deserving of love."

The convention continues until Sunday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

Managing Moodle Forum Posts

by Carla Beard

(Director's Note: Carla Beard is The Web English Teacher)

I was talking to a workshop group about making lessons more interactive using Moodle. The teachers were very enthusiastic, generating lots of possibilities. I showed them how my students interacted using the Forum module in response to an activity involving Benjamin Franklin's project on achieving moral perfection.

On the main Forum screen student discussions are listed by title on the far left. The student who initiates that thread is listed to the right of the title, followed by an indication of his/her group (if the forum is organized with groups), the number of replies, and the date, time, and author of the most recent reply. We discussed how the number of replies can guide the teacher's response. An overabundance of replies on a thread might be good or bad but certainly indicates class interest.

One teacher shared her story about using the Forum module to build a community of readers. Each student posted and responded to at least 2 other posts. Since I was projecting from the main screen on my Moodle, I followed up her comment by showing the other participants how they could click on the student name from the main screen and then on the "Forum Posts" tab. From there they could quickly read the student's posts in chronological order, with the most recent first.

She blinked. "You can do that?"

She had been going through each thread with a list, checking off each student name to make sure they had completed the requirements. It took hours, but she did it because she recognized how valuable that interactive component was to her students' learning. "If I don't get anything else from this workshop," she smiled, "that alone was worth the trip."

Moodle's learning curve can be steep, and it's good to meet people who can help us save some time. I want to thank Laura, who showed me that feature. I just passed it along.

Why am I doing this?

by Carla Beard

I was planning a lesson on Benjamin Franklin's project to achieve moral perfection. One discussion question asked students to identify the virtues they thought were most important and least important. I decided to use Moodle's Choice module for this. Partway through preparing the two modules, though, I paused to think it through.

In previous years I have used class discussion at this point, letting those who had something to say lead the way but also calling on quieter students. Sometimes we just raised our hands to vote for most/least important. It worked OK. What did I hope to gain by using technology this time?

This is a good question to ask now and then. Teachers who resist integrating technology do so partly because they see limited value added. In addition -- as they are learning -- they see time and energy lost, and they anticipate frustration when things don't go smoothly. They ask, "Why bother?" It's a valid question.

Let me respond from the point of view of my Benjamin Franklin lesson. After students vote, they will be able to see how others have voted. When everyone is finished, we can refresh screens and see a total, which I will also project to the front of the room.

• Because everyone votes, no one hides behind "Everyone already said what I was thinking" or "I agree with Joe." Each student has a voice.
• This activity generates data so that we can clearly see not just which virtue is most valued, but also which ones come in second and third. I'm envisioning a writing prompt along the lines of "A recent survey indicates that American teens prefer X over Y. What, if anything, does this tell us about them?" 
• When they compare the votes of their peers with their own vote, students connect with the text on a personal level.

In a class of 27 or 28 students, I can't work toward this level of engagement with each student with just class discussion. Too many students zone out; too many say what they think I want to hear. Some of that is still possible, I concede. But simple curiosity about the survey results will engage a few.

That engagement is definitely value added. The extra analysis is value added. Connecting 21st century students with the words of an 18th century scientist, businessman, and statesman on a personal level is definitely value added.

And that's why I integrate technology.

Pulse SmartPen: Education for Right Now

by Carla Beard

I was talking with a group of teachers, trying to show them that technology integration is not the education of the future; it is the education of right now. I reached into my book bag and pulled out a netbook.

"It has a full-sized keyboard," I pointed out, "and it will fit in a student's backpack without any trouble. They cost around $300, but prices keep going down. Pretty soon they'll cost about the same as good pair of sneakers. Kids will be able to bring their own computers to school." The teachers smiled politely and passed it around.

I reached into my book bag and pulled out a Flip camera. "Remember all the TV upgrades we went through for that January deadline now that everything is broadcast in HD? Well, this little camera shoots in HD." I flipped open the USB arm. "This will plug right into your computer, and you can upload to YouTube something you just shot." I reminded them of the power of the pictures from the tsunami that hit Indonesia a few years ago. The earliest images weren't from professionals; ordinary people used readily available technology to fast-track relief efforts. The teachers nodded, but cameras were just not part of their curriculum. They passed it along.

I reached into my book bag and pulled out a Pulse Smartpen that -- full disclosure here -- the people at Livescribe had sent me for review. The Smartpen is a ball-point pen with built-in camera, microphone, playback speakers, and LED screen. It's a little thicker and heavier than, say, a Bic pen; but after a couple of minutes, the user won't notice that.

I showed the teachers how it works. As the user writes, the camera by the pen's tip creates an image, and the microphone records. Later, students just tap the paper at the point they had written something, and they can listen to everything that was being said at the time. If they forget to write something down, it will be there in the audio file. 

Students can also download everything they record onto the computer that has the Livescribe application installed. The computer will store images of their notes and will create backup copies of the audio files.

As I passed the pen and its special notebook around the room, we discussed the potential:

• Students with learning disabilities could compensate for poor note-taking skills, because they could re-do notes later. They could either listen to the recording and fill in gaps, or they could import the recording into voice-recognition software and convert an entire lecture into text. They could then manipulate the text, highlighting, underlining, adding text boxes -- whatever helps them learn best.
• Students learning English as a second language could do the same, recording a lesson and playing it back later. The recordings could help them with pronunciation, as well.
• Students with ADHD would have additional support when it's hard for them to concentrate. (I have to admit, I've used it myself at meetings I expected would, um, fail to hold my complete attention. The information was downloadable when I was ready for it.)
• It supports visual learners by storing notes as searchable images. It supports auditory learners by storing what they heard, so they can listen to it again. And it supports kinesthetic learners who like to sketch by saving their sketches in the auditory context that produced them. It also allows users to create "bookmarks" to return them to specific sections of text.

I had the teachers' attention. In fact, I noticed that the pen moved around the room much more slowly as teachers tried it out.

I've used the Smartpen a lot myself. The sound quality is surprisingly good, even when used in a classroom, and the pen reads both my printing and my cursive handwriting well. Once the files have been downloaded onto a computer, my notes are searchable. The pen comes with ear buds, making playback possible even in a noisy environment.

Smartpen users can now focus on listening to the minilesson or participating in the brainstorming, knowing they can jot down a word or two now and then and still have all the information later. Notetaking can now be as simple as writing down keywords and then listening to the audio files later. Students can be more engaged in thinking, less engaged in writing things down. That sounds good to me. 

The Pulse Smartpen costs about the same as the Flip camcorder, $150-200. It comes with a special notebook that works with the built-in camera, microphone, and speakers. The notebook also has a  helpful manual bound into the front to help the user remember which guide controls which function.

Fellow teacher-blogger Tara Seale explained in more detail how to use the pen and even created a clever pencast as an introduction. 

The Smartpen is technology integration that's easy to learn and reasonably priced. It doesn't require extra wiring or filters. It looks like something we know -- a pen -- and acts like something we are learning -- digital media. And it's ready for our classrooms right now. 

Moodle: Making the Most of a Digital Worksheet

by Carla Beard

I'm not a big fan of worksheets, but sometimes they're useful. Moodle makes it easy for students to access worksheets independently: teachers can either link to the file or create one using the Web or text editor. Students can hand them in via the assignment module.

But since we're doing this digitally, we should explore what we can do differently.

My students were finishing a unit on Romeo and Juliet, and I wanted an activity that would have students do several things:

• review causes and effects contributing to the plot,
• examine how Shakespeare compressed the action into just a few days,
• work either independently or with a partner, as they chose,
• produce something I could hold them accountable for. 

I was pleased with the digital worksheet I uploaded to Moodle. Events were listed at the top of the page; students were to cut and paste them into the table at the bottom that indicated the days of the week. I gave the students class time to work this through and was surprised at the number who chose to work independently.

When they were finished, students could delete the directions, leaving them with a 1-page plot  guide. We went over it in class with emphasis on the cause-and-effect relationships. Anyone who had an event out of sequence could correct it on the spot. At the end of class, students could save their files on Moodle for later review. Those who didn't have web access at home were allowed to print theirs.

Grades were based, not on the final product -- everyone's would be perfect -- but on how much effort they put forth. As it turned out, this activity proved to be very engaging. I was surprised at how well students worked to get it right the first time.

I could have handed out paper with a list of events and had kids number them in the correct sequence.  By manipulating the text digitally, however, students created a quick review guide for later. They reduced a 2-page document to a 1-page document, saving some paper in the process. And we made better use of the digital tools at our disposal.

With Moodle, we're not limited to text frozen on paper. What else can we do now that worksheets can be fluid?

RobberBaronBook: Moodle Teaching Idea

by Carla Beard

My colleague Shawn was showing me what he's doing with Moodle in his U. S. History class. They have been studying the industrialists of the late 19th century. As a review, students are creating Facebook-style pages for prominent men from that time period. Shawn calls the project "RobberBaronBook."

To help students focus on content, Shawn provided a framework for the project. He created a word processing document that is formatted with the same information found on a typical Facebook page: age, gender, relationship status, friends, interests, and more:

He uploaded the template to Moodle and created a link. Students can access it with a single click.

Because the document is digital, students have 2 options for completing the task. First, they can access it during class, during study hall, or from home and work with it, saving drafts via Moodle's assignment module. When they are ready, they can turn it in via the same module. Shawn will be able to grade it online, adding comments that only the other student will see.

The second option is for students who don't have web access from home. They can print the template out and add to it by hand with pictures from magazines and other comments. They will still provide the content that will help Shawn assess their understanding. They'll just do it a different way.

Shawn has created an engaging activity using 2 of Moodle's modules. He has enabled students to incorporate the results of their research and learning and to share, via classroom projector, their final results. The fact that they'll have a lot of fun with it is icing on the cake.

Moodle Icons Tell a Story

by Carla Beard

(Please read all of Carla Beard's Moodle Posts.)

I was helping a new colleague with a student's account. I looked over her shoulder as she opened her class Moodle, and I was glad she couldn't see my face.

Her page was nicely organized, and each link was well described. But I was startled -- almost all of the icons running down the left were the same. She was using the assignment module almost exclusively.

It is entirely understandable that her baby steps in Moodle replicate digitally something she knows well, assignments. When we are learning something, we start by comparing it with something we already know.

The danger is that she and other Moodle users might stop there. They create assignments, a digital version of the handouts they used to give in class. They link to useful Web resources, where before they might have marked chapters in reference books. They might learn to upload and link to Powerpoint presentations, a digital version of chalk-and-talk. And then they stop.

The Moodle page looks good, but it doesn't harness any of the interactivity that Moodle makes possible. How about a choice question as a pre-reading activity? How about a student-created glossary with a sticky block on the home page for reinforcement of concepts? How about a forum to respond to a post-reading question? How about some digital flash cards as review? Databases, wikis, lessons for differentiation:  among the standard modules alone, there are lots of possibilities.

If all we do with our computers is the same thing we did without them, then we do a disservice to our students. They understand that a handout on paper and a handout on Moodle represent the same pedagogy, even if they can't put it in those terms. Schools will have wasted a lot of money going digital unless we find ways to improve our classroom practice using these powerful tools in innovative ways. 

Moodle's Assignment Module

by Carla Beard

"Necessity is the mother of invention," the saying goes, and we stumbled onto this use of Moodle when our backs were to the wall.

A few students had started bringing games, music, and viruses to school on their flash drives, all of which made it difficult to use our computers as they were intended. Our Network Coordinator spent many extra (unpaid) hours cleaning viruses out of the network. As a precaution against future problems, he disabled the USB ports. I pleaded, but he was adamant, and I couldn't really blame him.

Students were no longer able to begin an assignment at school and take it home on a flash drive as homework. We needed another way to save documents at school and make them available at home.

Moodle's assignment module allows users to upload multiple documents. Once uploaded, the documents are available to the students when they log in to Moodle from home. Together we figured out that students could use a generic assignment slot as a kind of e-locker for text documents. 

There was one sticky point. Students who edit a document from home must remember to save it to their home computer and upload it like a new document when they're finished. Those who open the document, edit it, and click "save" will save it not to Moodle but to the temporary folder on their home computer. (There was quite a bit of muttering about "the stupid computer" until we figured that one out.)

When I establish the assignment, I set it to allow 20 uploads and to allow deleting. I set the due date for a year later. I also place the assignment near the very top of the Moodle page, so it will be available to students all year, regardless of the units that I turn on and off. When there is something students must hand in, we use a separate assignment.

This arrangement has worked well for us. Students have access to their work after school; they don't have to remember to bring a flash drive to school; and our Network Coordinator gets home in time for dinner with his family.

Free Disinfecting Wipes to U. S. Classroom Teachers

by Carla Beard

NEA Health Information Network and Clorox Offer Free Disinfecting Wipes To Teachers Nationwide

To help teachers welcome students back to school, as concerns grow about this flu season and the H1N1 2009 flu virus spreads, The National Education Association Health Information Network (NEA HIN) and The Clorox Company are offering a free coupon for Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes to teachers nationwide.

September 2 through September 5, 2009, teachers can visit www.CloroxClassrooms.com to redeem the offer while supplies last.

Healthy habits, like hand washing and disinfecting germ hot spots are critical steps to help prevent the spread of germs that can cause illnesses, like flu.

At the Web site, teachers can also download a free “Clean Up the Classroom” kit, including lesson plans, games and other tools to help reduce the spread of germs at school.
Additional resources available at www.CloroxClassrooms.com and www.neahin.org.

Learning Vocabulary with Moodle's Forum Module

by Carla Beard

I knew I was making headway with vocabulary instruction the day I used the word nuance in class. Jason didn't even raise his hand -- he reached over to the shelf, grabbed a dictionary, and started looking it up. I was startled; I didn't think it would be an unfamiliar word. "Jason," I asked, "don't you know that word?" "I will in a minute," he answered.

Despite Jason's good intentions, students need to work with a new vocabulary word multiple times before making it their own. Unfortunately, the trifecta of most vocabulary units (look up the definition, fill in the blank with the correct word, use the word in a sentence of your own creation) just isn't enough. For one thing, it's too easy to find a word in a sentence of someone else's creation. (Have you discovered Wordnik? Click on the "example" tab, and it provides multiple sentences drawn from the Web.)

That's why Moodle's forum module has become a mainstay of my vocabulary instruction.

My expectations are based on Gretchen Lee's model using a wiki. She asks her students to interact with each word using a variety of strategies. Her strategies are appropriate for her middle school students; I have tweaked them for my high schoolers.

When I set up the Moodle forum, I put the list of strategies in the forum introduction box. The day the class is introduced to the words, which have been drawn from their upcoming reading, I assign several students each one word and ask them to start a discussion by posting the word and its definition. Once that is done, we have a list of assigned words down the left side of the screen. From that point students can interact with the words at their own pace and following their own choice. I ask students to contribute something to each thread, but to use a different strategy for each word.

Here's a sample of student work using beleaguered:

Predictably, students start with the easy tasks: part of speech, synonyms and antonyms. The next student, though, can't use those because they've already been done. She chooses to connect the word to real-world events and writes about the security team at a Jonas Brothers concert. The next student will have to find a graphic to illustrate the word or write a paragraph connecting the word to something s/he has read. We are moving up Bloom's Taxonomy. And when it's time to study for the test, students will be able to log into Moodle and study from a rich resource.

Everyone contributes something. Students with special needs can participate at their own pace and from their own understanding. A quick look through the forum posts tells the teacher where reteaching needs to happen. Students have collaborated on a resource they can return to whenever they want.

Looks like a win/win to me!

Prereading with the Moodle Choice Module

by Carla Beard

In my school district, students return Monday. On the first day, like every other teacher at my high school, I'll be going over the room rules with each of my classes. They are the same rules I've been using for several years, and students assure me they're consistent with the rest of the teachers' rules. By the end of the day, the rules must be as dull to the students as they are to me.

This year I'm using Moodle's Choice module to do some prereading engagement. The directions are simple:

Ten possible rules are listed below. Seven of them are real rules in this classroom, but 3 of them are completely bogus. Which 3? Talk it over with the person sitting next to you, then vote.

When everyone has voted, we will find out how right you are.

This activity will activate prior knowledge, especially later in the day, after students have gone through room rules with other teachers. It will also call for some critical thinking. All of the rules listed look like they could be real rules, although I was tempted to throw in an easy one like "Failure to report an invasion of Martians will result in a one-day suspension."

To set up the module, select "Add an Activity," then select "Choice." The directions for the activity go in the field labeled "Choice text." I entered one rule into each of the fields (I added additional fields to the form in order to have 10).

At the bottom of the page, there are a few decisions to make about making the module available to students. The first is "restrict answering to this time period." Since I'm using this activity only on the first day, I didn't bother with settings here. Instead, at the end of the day I will hide the activity using the eyeball icon.

Under Miscellaneous settings I chose a vertical display so students could read the rule choices easily. I selected "Show results to a student after they answer," mostly as an incentive to answer promptly. I selected anonymous results and did not to allow students to update their choices. I left the column for unanswered choices visible, so students could see the process at work (sort of).

Because this will be the first day of school, the first activity will actually be students enrolling in this Moodle class. I won't have them in their groups yet, but for this activity we'll be OK.

I'll display the collective votes on the front screen, and we'll assess their accuracy as we read the actual rules which I must give them the old fashioned way: on a piece of paper.

Categories: Organize Your Quiz Questions

by Carla Beard

Much is written about Best Practices these days, and so I'd like to recommend a Best Practice for Moodle quiz questions: organize them into categories.

It is possible to add a quiz by Adding an Activity> Select Quiz > establish settings > start writing quiz questions > add them to the quiz > Save. A little advance planning, however, will make it easier to move those questions to another class, should you ever need to, or to share them with colleagues.

First, decide how you want to organize your quiz questions. (That may be the hardest part.) For this illustration, I'm going to organize questions for the quizzes from our vocabulary book.

From the administration box in the left column of your Moodle home page, click on the "Questions" link. The new screen will have 4 tabs at the top. Click on "Categories."

At the bottom of the new screen, you will see the "Add Category" datafields. Make sure the Parent field is the class you are in. You are ready to make your first new category. In the "Name" field, type the name of your topic, for example, "Vocabulary." Add any category information you think will be useful, then click "Add category" at the bottom.

My vocabulary program has multiple units, so I need to create subfolders, or categories within that category. Now that I've created a "Vocabulary" category, I can return to the "Parent" datafield, click on the down arrow, and select "Vocabulary." Now I can create "Unit 1," followed by "Unit 2" and "Unit 3," making sure that "Vocabulary" is the parent for each new folder.

Now I have 3 empty folders waiting for questions, a "Vocabulary" parent folder, and a Default folder for the class.

Here's the beauty: when I'm ready for "Review Unit 1," I can create the quiz and pull questions from the first three units into the review unit quiz simply by clicking on each category, selecting the questions I want, and moving them into the review quiz. 

If categories aren't created in advance, Moodle creates them automatically when a teacher creates a quiz. The category name will be the same name the teacher gives to the quiz, and all the questions will be filed in the "default" category. This is functional, but it can become problematic after you've written a year's worth of quizzes.

Teachers who are importing questions from an application like Exam View will find categories essential. You won't want to sort through the complete list every time you want to create a quiz.

A little planning at the beginning can pay off later in the year. Good luck!

Moodle Rewards Organization

by Carla Beard

When I started using Moodle a few years ago, I did everything on the fly. I uploaded handouts, graphics, and slide presentations as I needed them, usually just in time for the next day's lesson. Now my Moodle files are an alphabetized tangle that I'm afraid to organize into folders -- the minute I move a file, I'll break a link to something: a label, an assignment, a quiz question.

Gentle reader, learn from my mistake. As you begin working with a new Moodle class, take a minute to think through how you are likely to organize it. Create folders for your units before you start uploading resources. At the first of the year, it may seem a needless extra step, but by the end of the year, you will be pleased that you had such foresight!

To create folders in advance, start at your Moodle home page. In the administration box on the left, find the "Files" link. At the new screen, you may see a folder or two already in place, "backupdata" and/or "moddata." Click the "Make a folder" button at the bottom of the screen to get started.

You can name the new folders "Unit 1," "Unit 2," or "First Grading Period," "Second Grading Period," and so on. You might prefer to label them by topic. If I had mine to do over, I would have "Benjamin Franklin," "Thoreau," "The Crucible," and so on. For my ongoing vocabulary work, I'd have "Vocabulary."

Throughout the year, as you upload files to your Moodle, take a moment to make sure you upload to the correct folder. That organization will pay off later, when you're looking a graphic labeled "blackdog.jpg" and wondering, "Why do I have this?"

The same folder can hold multiple file types, so you can put an audio file in the same folder with a graphic and a handout. It is possible to create subfolders (a folder within a folder), but for most classes, it is probably not necessary. 

In my next blog we'll talk about organizing quizzes and their questions using Categories. A place for everything and everything in its place.

Getting around in Moodle

by Carla Beard

Moodle offers so many options to students and teachers that it's not hard to get lost. Let's look at some of the ways we can navigate in Moodle.

Students can move among multiple Moodle sites using their "Courses" links in the upper right corner of their home page, underneath the bread crumb trail.

The bread crumb trail appears immediately underneath the full name of the class in the upper left corner. Each name in the trail is a link that can help students find their way to specific pages and files. Usually the trail is easier to use than the browser's "back" arrow. It's the best way to navigate within a specific Moodle class.

From the home page we can link to files, to web sites, and to text and web pages composed on Moodle. In each case, when a student clicks on the link, a completely new screen opens up. It's not hard for students to lose the Moodle home page.

When I'm establishing the settings for the link, I always set "Windows" to "New Window." That way, when a student clicks on a link, they don't lose track of where they are. The file is available, and the Moodle desktop is also there, usually behind the file. Someone who accidentally clicks out of the linked site will see the Moodle home page and will be able to click back in.

There you have it -- three ways to get around in Moodle. Students can navigate among classes, within a class, or between Moodle and a file.

Moving Items in Moodle

by Carla Beard

I had just set up resources for my students to use as we studied vocabulary. I realized, though, that I had mixed the thesaurus resources and the online dictionaries together, and I wanted them separate. Fortunately, Moodle makes it easy to move items to the right, to the left, and vertically.

When editing is turned on, each item in Moodle has a row of icons to the right.

The first icon, the arrow pointing to the right, allows the user to indent an item about 5 spaces. Doing do will cause another arrow to appear, this one pointing to the left. The user can click on the right arrow to indent another 5 spaces to the right or can click on the left arrow to move everything back to the left margin.

The next icon looks like half an arrow pointing up and half an arrow pointing down. This controls vertical movement. When the user clicks on that icon, the item is cut and disappears. Moodle inserts a number blank boxes vertically. When the user clicks on one of those boxes, the item is pasted in that location. (The first time I clicked on that icon, I didn't know that Moodle would cut the item. I thought it had been deleted, and there was a moment of panic before I clicked and it reappeared.) 

The remaining icons offer other options. Click on the hand holding a pencil to edit or update an item. Clicking on the X will delete. The "eye" icon indicates that students can see this item. Click on it to hide the item from students. (This is useful when you're planning a pop quiz.) The last icon, which looks like a PlaySkool person, indicates that users who click on this item will not be separated into groups. When users are separated into groups, the icon looks like 2 PlaySkool people.

When I had things the way I wanted them, the block looked like this, organized and ready for students to use:

 

Graphics and Moodle: Size Matters

by Carla Beard

Graphics add pizzaz to documents and web pages. The right graphic can capture the attention of an adolescent learner and make a concept clearer. And certainly a well chosen graphic makes a big difference in  a tool like Moodle.

Because Moodle is so flexible, it's possible to use graphics in a variety of sizes. It might be a good idea to consider how a graphic will be used before importing it. Bigger isn't always better.

A typical Moodle screen can handle a graphic that is 600 pixels wide. That width fills the entire screen, like this:

(Hmmm ... it appears the blog won't let me publish a graphic that big. Imagine that is stretches from side to side in this blog and is about 1/3 taller than it is. Big. Distractingly big.)

This would make a striking graphics for the opening of a Walden unit. As time went on, however, the graphic would just be something students have to scroll past in order to get to other resources. Graphics this size should be used sparingly and judiciously.

A good compromise might be to use a graphic that's 300 pixels wide and center it, like this:

 

It still captures a student's attention without becoming an obstruction.

The most flexible size, though, is about 125 px wide:

 

(This size is also best for vertical graphics.) A graphic that is about 125 px wide can be used in a glossary entry that will appear in a sticky block on your home page. It can be inserted into a quiz question, forum post, or label without becoming too distracting.

Use the right graphic for your situation. Bear in mind that bigger isn't always better.

Moodle Settings

by Carla Beard

If you're just setting up your Moodle, you may be wondering about how to arrange it the way you want it. In the Administration box to the left, find the link for "Settings." These options allow you to organize your Moodle's appearance.

The "Format" setting refers to how your Moodle will be organized. When I was beginning with Moodle, I used the "weekly" format, because that's how I did my lesson plans. As I have used it more, though, I have moved to the "topics" format, so I can organize the Moodle by units. The "weekly" format includes a date, and if a unit lasts longer than one week, the incorrect date became confusing. Other formats are also available, but those two are probably the most common ones for U.S. schools.

Another setting to check is "Force Theme." This controls the color scheme and font for your Moodle. A few IT people do not make this theme available to their teachers. One told me she thought teachers would produce really ugly Moodles if this option were available to them, so she gave them only one choice. This was an unfortunate call on her part. If we want teachers to integrate technology, we must respect the importance of letting teachers personalize their space. Personalizing is taking ownership, and that sense of ownership is essential. Teachers should have access to themes.

If you have more than one section of the same class, you don't need to create separate Moodles for each one. Instead of "English 9, period 2" and "English 9, period 5," just create one Moodle for English 9. After students have enrolled (your IT person will tell you how to do it at your school), scroll down to "Groups" in settings. Create 2 groups and sort students manually into the correct one. This will simplify other activities later, such as keeping track of test scores or forum posts. 

These settings will help your Moodle work the way you want. Don't be afraid to experiment with them. You can always change them back -- just remember to click "Save" at the bottom!

See also Teaching with Moodle

Teaching with Moodle

by Carla Beard

I started to integrate technology into my classroom when our school got its first computer lab and we all began to learn word processing. Later we added Internet access, and students could create Web pages and do WebQuests. Because we had to leave the classroom to go to the lab, however, I still thought of technology as an "add on." The year my classes had more students than the lab had stations, I just left technology out. I missed it, but it wasn't integral to what I was doing.

I started to learn Moodle 4 years ago, when my school adopted 1:1 desktops in the English department. Moodle has powered changes in my thinking as I have integrated technology into my daily classroom practice. Now I can't imagine teaching without technology, or without Moodle.

• Moodle empowers kids. Instead of waiting passively to be told what the class is doing that day, students can log in and find out for themselves. Students who have been absent can log in to get make-up work. They can even log in from home, if they're feeling up to it, so they won't be quite so far behind when they return to school.


• Moodle empowers parents. Parents who want to know what the class is doing can log in and see for themselves.


• Moodle keeps student work secure. Because everything is password-protected, students can publish to an audience of peers only, or to the teacher only, depending on how the task is set up.


• Moodle makes powerful digital tools available. Moodle offers a wide variety of modules (kind of like iPhone apps). Standard modules include forums, glossaries, wikis, blogs, assignments, and quizzes.


• Moodle grades its own quizzes. It can't grade essay questions, but it grades objective questions and analyzes the data for each question. (This alone is worth the investment of time that Moodle requires.)


• Moodle encourages collaboration. Students can work together, and teachers can share ideas and resources easily. 


• Moodle fosters creativity. Use the quiz module for a review activity? You can do that. Use the forum module to study vocabulary? You can do that. Use the wiki for book reports? Why not? Once you understand the basics of a module, it is yours to use.


• Moodle is free. In terms of the budget, Moodle doesn't cost schools a penny. In fairness, though, your IT person will invest time in setting it up on the school server and making sure the security is tight. Teachers will invest time in learning the modules. The investment of time on the front end, however, pays for itself on the back end. The quiz module alone can serve as an example. It takes time to type in all the quiz questions and answers at the beginning. When you're ready to give the quiz, however, you don't need to stand in line at the copy machine and hope that it doesn't break down in the middle of your run. You don't have to staple papers together or decipher bad handwriting. If you want to tweak a question or two, you don't have to run off the whole quiz again. And Moodle can, if you want, scramble the questions so that two students sitting next to each other see different questions at the same time.

What's not to love?

Moodle can be overwhelming at first. I hope you'll join me as we explore its potential. There's always something new to learn.