Showcasing Ontario Can Moot09

Showcasing Ontario Best Practices

Elementary Sector Chris Fuerth

Moodle Best Practices at Bogart P.S.

Staff Moodle I have set up a staff moodle as an area where staff can experiment with moodle resources before actually trying them out “live” with their class. In addition, it is a spot to share resources. Pictured here are news items, extensive documentation I’ve put together, including videos, and an area with links to open source software for school and/or home.

Accommodated Moodle Here is a moodle with accommodations for Special Education students, run in collaboration with our Intermediate Ed. Assistant. This is a space Special Ed. students can go to for: accommodations with HW accommodated multiple choice and matching column Hot Potato tests These students are often mindful of the stigma of receiving accommodations. This is a space that is visible and accessible only to them and their teachers. It lends itself well to use with SEA-claim (special education funding) laptops that many of them have access to. The moodle itself is an accommodation for students who have trouble hanging on to multiple handouts… It’s all available, any time, online!

Intermediate Homeroom moodles My homeroom moodle is set up as a one-stop moodle for intermediate students, rather than having a different moodle for each subject. Pictured here is an RSS feed for the Toronto Star, the CBC and the Weather Network, as well as documentation for software we use for assignments, class news, and links useful for ongoing activities

Evaluation The first “topic” on my moodle is a spot where students can upload assignments for marking online. I generally give them the choice of handing in a print copy, or handing in an online copy. When marking work online, all feedback for the students is provided using moodle resources. Roughly half of the students prefer submitting work electronically, especially since many seem unable to print at home. Students can also use this area like a network drive, by uploading work to it when wrapping something up at school, and downloading it to work on further at home

English Literacy is a major focus in our school and in our board, so English on the homeroom moodle is divided into reading, writing and media

Resources for English on the moodle include: Rubrics outlining how evaluation will be conducted (PDF/doc format) Exemplars (models of what a good assignment should look like) (PDF/doc format) Links to support sites and exemplars Questions assigned for homework/Assignment criteria (html format) Discussion forums (e.g. students found an advertisement and discussed how it is set up to attract attention and spur the viewer into action. They analyzed the ad, and then replied to each others’ analysis) Choice activities (e.g. under the media topic, students are asked to vote on how much influence they think images in the media have on teenagers’ choices We have worked a little bit on collaborative sites with the wiki function, although intermediate students seem slow to work effectively with this function

Working on the moodle I am part of the school’s ABEL program (Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning), which has made a laptop available for my use in the classroom. This has made it very easy to make quick additions and corrections to the moodles I run I have a class of 21 for English and math and 30 for all other subjects The classroom has two computers available for student use. They have access to computers in a 1:1 ratio in a school computer lab for 50 minutes every Tuesday morning We have a laptop cart with 18 laptops that we can sign out to work on moodle topics, research, etc., 1 – 2 times per week Our school board has set up an internal moodle that any student with a school board computer login can access

Rotary Subjects The rest of the moodle is divided into: Science Math Geography French History Student wikis Health All grade 7 wikis are set up with their topics in the same order, for legacy purposes. This makes it easier to import whole topics into another teachers’ moodle during the school year, or next year when we set up our next batch of moodles. I have given full class quizzes in science and history. They are completed during out computer lab time. I have found having 30 students working on the same quiz is problematic with our Internet connection, so I have them work on quizzes in 2-3 shifts Using an idea from our local high school, I have created forums in rotary subjects that students can use to discuss ideas when studying for tests

Use of Moodle in the Jr. Division Allison Pottie, a gr. 4 teacher in our school, is one of four junior teachers whom have created a moodle in the past two months. In additions to moodle topics for each subject her students learn, she has chosen to create a moodle topic for each reading group, with forums that address pre-arranged discussion topics

Allison uses images and information very effectively within the summary bar of each topic to convey information to students without students having to leave the page

Weekly/monthly strategies for reading independently are made very clear in a moodle topic of their own Comprehensive news items are made available for students and parents

Forums are a big part of what Allison’s students do on their moodle. This particular forum on reactions to cigarette packaging received 21 responses in 6 days, in a class of 20 students.

The Moodle’s Edge… We are able to do a lot of eco-friendly teaching by presenting things like exemplars on our ABEL projector cart, and then posting them to the moodle for student reference, without having to print paper or acetate copies Students have access not only to text, but a variety of media: podcasts; video; hyperlinked definitions in their assignments; collaborative wikis Students can download the framework for an assignment from the moodle, add to it and then upload their changes for assessment and evaluation Students can work on and submit work without the need for a memory stick or a printer Prior to using a moodle I posted a lot of work for students on a wiki, but of course it was not self-contained, and therefore due to FOIPOP, educators were limited in the information we could post to the moodle We have watched a number of streaming videos using Smart Notebook 10, where we write notes on screen grabs, and then post them to the moodle later, to help students review what they learned when watching the film

Plans for the future: As students become more comfortable with forums, I would like to have them work on more multimedia-based tasks (e.g. advertisements or radio-plays using an audio editor like Audacity; creating presentations using MS Photo Story or Movie Maker), such that they can post their work to the moodle and assess each other’s work Our division is currently in the early stages of a collaboration with Newmarket H.S. to get grade 7 and 9 students involved in discussions surrounding the environment using Adobe Connect Pro and moodle forums and/or chats

Secondary Sector Anita Drossis, Nathalie Rudner

Anita Drossis Nathalie Rudner York Region District School Board Moodle in Ontario Secondary Schools

Address Different Learning Styles Improve Literacy Skills Create Collaborative Workspaces Provide Feedback to Students Moodle is used to

In Moodle, we meet the needs of different students by: providing a variety of resources that appeal to different types of learners providing video and sound clips explaining concepts for visual and auditory learners providing copies of class notes for students who have difficulty with note-taking or who miss class providing interactive activities for students who learn by doing Address Different Learning Styles

Resources in the Moodle: Smartboard lessons, notes, handouts, lab sheets, videos, applets, solved problems

Using Moodle, we provide opportunities for students to improve their literacy skills by: providing different opportunities for students to communicate (projects, question and answer, definitions) having practice questions for students to post answers a get feedback from other students and the teacher having students write opinion pieces on an article, website or text providing a database to students to present research information providing a space for a glossary of terms as students learn new material Improve Literacy Skills

A database can be used for student projects A glossary can be used to create an electronic word wall

Using Moodle, we provide opportunities for students to improve their digital literacy skills by: teaching students how to interact in an online environment providing different media for students to communicate in (chat, messaging, discussion forums, wikis) guiding students as they collect and analyze data from internet resources (students post their projects online as they work for teachers to give continuous feedback) providing opportunities for them to use technology they will encounter in the workforce Improve Digital Literacy Skills

- to practice application questions - to post digital projects (proposal and draft of project were done using assignment tool Q & A discussion forums

Create Collaborative Workspaces In Moodle, we create collaborative workspaces to encourage and allow students and educators to work as a team: to plan events to share resources to offer professional development to research a topic to create presentations to draft documents to develop a lab procedure to edit each others work Educators Students

Example 1: Approved Example 2: With comments A group design lab done in a Wiki allows for student collaboration and feedback from teacher

Teachers collaborate in a Moodle to plan and register for 2009 YRDSB Science Olympics

In Moodle, we create opportunities for students to obtain ongoing diagnostic and formative feedback through: practice quizzes online games peer/ teacher editing of written work discussion forums assignments with in-line comments Provide Feedback to Students

Hot Potato quizzes with Moodle provides students with a variety of assessment opportunities Online quizzes in Moodle gives students feedback on their knowledge and understanding

Not for Profit Sector Nancy Friday

Promising Practices Adult Literacy Students Not-for-profit Open Spaces – Open Minds Nancy Friday from the AlphaPlus Centre, Toronto, Ontario www.alphaplus.ca

Audience adult literacy students and educators Ontario primarily but not exclusively basic to GED prep level Moodle incorporated into AlphaRoute used by AlphaPlus since 2007

AlphaRoute password protected Moodle integrated into Take Courses & Share Ideas

Messaging independent leadership community development welcoming function promotional tool for chats reduces isolation practice writing, spelling, reading

Chat Parties - Promo messaging direct link to chat graphics coloured text bolding

Chat Parties - Active idea for parties from students idea for games from students built into learning plans door prizes smaller numbers help paced to work for all When asked most educators haven’t been in a chat room

Forum Moderation modeling by educators student moderation upon request freedom online community-building from the roots learn to manage setbacks

Rubert’s Word of the Day! images are so helpful in literacy videos are too

Overall Comments Moodle has opened the door for adult learner online leadership development the fact that AlphaRoute learners are free within Moodle to play supports this basic level adult literacy students are innovative and creative adult literacy students often lead their educators in terms of web-saviness adult literacy students and their instructors can learn together in Moodle we don’t talk about Moodle much, even though we use Moodle tools this type of learning environment, integrating social networking tools, supports and fosters community and leadership development there isn’t a curriculum for this

Post Secondary Sector Kevin Pitts, Bob Boyczuk, Mike Martin

Framework David Merrill Show don’t tell Have learner “Do” In the context of a relevant problem

Framework Interaction Student-Student Student-Content Student-Teacher

Framework Terry Anderson Equivalency Theorem Deep and meaningful formal learning is supported as long as one of the three forms of interaction (student–teacher; student-student; student-content) is at a high level. The other two may be offered at minimal levels, or even eliminated, without degrading the educational experience.

Q & A Thanks for having us! 

Showcasing Ontario Can Moot09

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Showcasing Ontario Can Moot09