eLearning Island

Thinking about teaching and learning

January 28, 2012
by Donal O' Mahony
0 comments

Nearly three…

eLearningIsland is approaching its third birthday and I am in reflective mood!

The question on my mind – what has been the application that has benefited me most as a teacher-blogger over those years? The answer is Twitter.

The people I follow on Twitter and in particular those whom I connect with are now the life blood of this blog.

They keep me up to date, keep me in check and inspire me.

  • Twitter has taught me to filter – to make judgements about the good from the facile
  • Twitter has taught me to judge trends – to see what is concerning teachers and educators right now
  • Twitter is engaging, needs organisational thought and time management!
  • Twitter is not as easy to integrate into class as I thought but I and many other teachers are getting there!
  • Twitter is my Personal Learning Network – I look forward to filling an application form when it comes to the question “outline in-service courses attended, with supporting documentary evidence” – and attaching my Twitter-stream and (infrequent I admit) participation in #edchatie
  • Twitter is best explained by participation – tweeting a meeting is a great way to demonstrate its power
  • Twitter is only at its infancy in its possibilities – #edchatie recently examined pooling teaching and learning resources – a tsunmai of ideas and links
  • Twitter is without boundaries – you can offer social capital to your followers and share ideas from those you follow – whenever and wherver

…and so on…but at the end of the day Twitter is about people – the best that education has to offer – those teachers and educators, formal and informal who realise that they are always learners and that learning never ever stops – just like my Twitter stream!

I do want to mention one person, Fred Boss of #edchatie.

Fred, you have done the teaching community in Ireland and beyond great service. Thank you.

January 22, 2012
by Donal O' Mahony
7 Comments

Teachers technical expertise…

I was one of a number of teachers who made a presentation to some curriculum specialists recently. They are organising content and assessment opportunities for various second level courses here in Ireland.

What I found interesting was the common purpose with other digitally enabled teachers whom I had never met before.

This is affirming about what we do and makes a strong the case supporting the curriculum using technology. We (the presenting teachers) focused on digital video, discussion forums, journal reflections, storyboarding and blogging.

Our concern was not the end product as such but the learning journey of the student on the way.

A number of themes arose that seem to cross over between digitally enhanced teachers and schools.

  • There is a need for a teacher who acts as a digital motivator in a school
  • Management must trust and support that teacher
  • This teacher promotes collaboration with other teachers
  • Not all teachers will get involved but introducing digital applications to school will bring about an important staffroom debate about teaching and learning
  • Many students will become engaged and motivated
  • Start small, keep expectations tight – few teachers will digitally engage with every class – but a good digital experience with one class will lead to more with others
  • Time and technical support are issues that need to be facilitated by management
  • Good input on specific technologies (that you are already familiar with) from an outside expert can move students and teachers along considerably

We were asked many questions. The one I liked most, regarding online learning environments (in my case Moodle) – what is the basic level of technical expertise required by teachers?

I replied with the ability to send an email i.e. log-in, type and format text, insert a hyperlink and attach a file.

What do you think?

January 16, 2012
by Donal O' Mahony
0 comments

Why Moodle?

We recently moved to Moodle 2 in Portmarnock Community School.

The back end was handled by our Moodle Partner Enovation Solutions, we are now dealing with issues at the front end.

The process made me reflect once again on Why Moodle?

Change in teaching is slow and it may be brought about in any number of ways.

I see Moodle as achieving a number of change objectives.

There is nothing new below:  just some ideas from a parctitioner lucky enough to work with a significant number of other teachers leveraging teaching and learning experiences from various aspects of technology, including Moodle.

So why Moodle?

  • Moodle is safe – you can’t break it and it won’t damage your laptop, Mac or PC
  • You can easily link it to your schools Acceptable Usage Policy and manage your students in an online class that you can monitor
  • Moodle introduces teachers and students to embedding, linking, online fora etc. They learn digital skills that are relevant to the twenty-first century
  • You can teach with Moodle – it is more than a repository for knowledge. Knowing four features or so can launch a class, teacher and student into some good eLearning experiences
  • Moodle creates conversations – teachers who Moodle – teachers who don’t – some of these conversations about teaching and learning are more important than Moodle itself
  • Students will work with it – they also understand that experiencing it in secondary-school means one less thing to worry about in their first few weeks in college.
  • Moodle is a record – you can create a course in Year One and use it again or modify it. Changing schools – no problems – just export your course to a memory key
  • There is a quick return on time spent on Moodle – daunting for inexperienced teachers at first – but nevertheless time well spent
  • Moodle is a catalyst – some teachers dislike Moodle. That’s fine, they do something better, on or offline, but they still keep an eye on whats happening
  • Moodle opens possibilities – audio, video, digital photography -  a place for projects

…and so on.

I am pleased to see that the 2012 MoodleMoot will be in Dublin. It is important for Moodle in Ireland that such an event take place here from time to time. It affirms what many of us teachers in the second-level system are doing – it affirms the platform we choose to introduce eLearning into our schools and most importantly the Moot is another opportunity to learn!