sonoma moodle moot 2011

Sonoma Moodle Moot 2011

Rev. Renee Ford, Instructor: [email protected] Morrison, PhD, Assistant Professor:

[email protected] Renee Ford, [email protected]; Marybeth Morrison,

[email protected] - July 2011

Renee Ford, [email protected]; Marybeth Morrison, [email protected] - July 2011

Thank You For Coming to:

Moving Beyond Fear: Implementing Teacher Education Training via

Moodle

Introduction and Background One piece of Penn State’s Workforce Education and

Development Program is teacher certification for Career and Technical (Vocational) teachers in PA.

We had to find an affordable, simple way to deliver course material to a variety of students and instructors in a variety of schools with the full-range of internet services, including dial-up (yes, in 2011 – some rural areas in PA where our students live still only have dial-up)!

None of us has the sole responsibility of taking care of online learning. Though Penn State is big, our program is relatively small and we are all responsible for many tasks in our center.

Renee Ford, [email protected]; Marybeth Morrison,


Introduction and Background continued…

We have students from the MD to NY border across the center third of PA.

Most students work as full-time teachers during the day. Most of our faculty have been trained and have become

accustomed to teaching in a traditional classroom. Our Instructors range in creativity and ability with Moodle,

but those who want to make the most of Moodle have excellent experiences that will only improve as technology improves. Using Moodle actually enhances their teaching and their ability to connect with their students.Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them. (Albert

Einstein)Renee Ford, [email protected];

Marybeth Morrison, [email protected] - July 2011

Presentation ObjectivesIn this session, we will begin to: -Analyze important features of designing teacher education for

students from a variety of technology comfort levels; -Recognize challenges from working with a cross-disciplinary staff to

integrate curriculum; -Evaluate the benefits of using Moodle to boost computer literacy

among teachers who are not digital natives; -Demonstrate Penn State Workforce Education and Development’s

uses of Moodle and the presenters’ uses of Moodle; -Improve teachers' creativity and ability to use computer

technology in their own classrooms with students who are digital natives.



Question Bank – Before We Go On

In order to best serve your needs during this session, we’d like to know…

What are you personally struggling with in the areas of:

Working with individuals from a variety of technological skill levels?

Working with a cross-disciplinary staff?

Ways to use Moodle with technologically diverse participants?

Ways to improve teacher creativity for the benefit of students who are all digital natives?



Getting Moodle Up & Running The Fairytale: One person who is not from a

computer technology background could take care of hosting Moodle on the server. Well, we did for about 6 months…

Then, the server crashed. The Reality: Moodlerooms to the rescue!LESSON LEARNED: Focus on what you are good at

and enlist help when needed.



Our Courses



What Our Courses Include Our courses designs are somewhat basic. (remember

the dial-up factor) We have 335 users (and growing) We have 8 (10 beginning Fall 2011) courses that are very

basic. In addition to file uploads and links, we primarily use: Glossary Quiz Asssignment Drop Box Forums




In addition to our courses…. We also use Moodle for:

A social forum for teachers A discussion and planning forum for instructors A repository for The National Council for Accreditation of

Teacher Education (NCATE) We currently have a DimDim plug-in (that will be

replaced by Jan 2012) for virtual, synchronous meetings Housing student e-portfolios.

Other Current and Potential Uses for Moodle

Penn State Athletics – Current; Leadership University for the United Methodist

Church in PA - current; Small Group Courses(From Ancient Prayer

Practices to Conflict Management) with a Prayer Forum for a Church – Current;

Teacher Training in Singapore – Future.




What was/is necessary for Success Training for instructors; Step-by-Step instructions for almost everything

from logging in to navigating Moodle, to uploading files and making sure to click “Save.”

Time to communicate and solicit feedback for improvement;

LESSON LEARNED: MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS THAT ANYTHING IS CLEAR OR MAKES SENSE!! LEAVE NO GREY AREAS.


Every Course Includes How-To Guides


WFED… a Different Kind of Teacher Training

On Friday a welder on Monday a teacher! Take first 12 credits with a field resource

person (FRP) Have a local resource person (LRP) who

mentors on site at their school Take the remainder of their coursework by

doing night courses either at their career and tech school or at main campus


Changes in PA Teacher Certification

In 2007 PA re-opened teacher certification and added: All teachers, regardless of their area of

expertise, must complete the equivalent of: 9 credits in special education 3 credits in English Language Learners

(ELL)


Curriculum Design Decided to do individual stand alone modules Attach them to courses that students were

already taking Had our field resource people look at

prototype Took them to our annual Local Resource

Person meeting Overwhelmingly felt that modules should be

integrated


Back to the Drawing Board Redesigned the courses so that the SPLED

content and ELL content was embedded Had an interdisciplinary team work on curriculum Piloted a few courses at a time Meet monthly with the FRP’s to update on student

progress and get feedback 8 courses with content embedded Now doing same thing for Agricultural Education


What We Learned Would have been much easier to do stand

alone courses Would not have been as effective Helped us revamp our entire curriculum Helped make ‘inclusion’ of students with special

needs more of a reality because the curriculum was infused

Realized that technology could create community

Helped teachers not feel so isolated.


Questions/Discussion What else would you like to talk about in our

remaining time together?


THANK YOU!Rev. Renee Ford, Instructor: [email protected]

Marybeth Morrison, PhD, Assistant Professor: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

sonoma moodle moot 2011

Documents

marybeth morrison

variety of students

sonoma moodle moot

care of hosting moodle

benefit of students

moodlerenee ford

teacher creativity

teachers creativity