From YouTube to TeacherTube
July 16, 2008
Previously unable to post either audio or video files to my Moodle pages due to Local Education Authority web filtering, I seem to have found an initial solution via Teacher Tube, which isn’t blocked. I have created an account at Teacher Tube (www.teachertube.com) and can upload both audio and video files which I create using Windows Movie Maker. I can then create links in Moodle to the relevant pages on Teacher Tube. Here’s a link to the first audio file I uploaded: http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=58b27dab4b7c92e7d16d
Moodling Along
July 2, 2008
I’ve continued to use Moodle with my A2 Media Studies group over the past few weeks.
Inivitably, I suppose, on enrolling for this course, two of the boys decided to change their user picture from the default smiley face to something more personal/silly; a rather large girl in one case, and a black gangster figure in the other (see moodle-assignment-responses). As mildly irritating as this was at first, I decided to let it go, recognising that many people, not just teenagers, like to personalise and lighten up their work space.
Deadlines for submission of work have been met more regularly in most cases. Potential for the peer group to see who has and who hasn’t handed in work displayed on the whiteboard at the start of lessons may have played a part in this (see who stands out like a sore thumb in the Goldfinger Assignment Responses: link above).
Although internet filtering prevents me from linking to YouTube videos from school, I’ve been told that material hosted on TeacherTube will be accessible. Of course, there’s only one way to find out…
First Moodle Page!
June 12, 2008
Moodle, WordPress and Blackboard
June 10, 2008
The following results from a Moodle case study by Educause make interesting reading:
-
Students recommend use of Moodle in future classes (74% agree or strongly agree)
- Students recommend use of blogs in future classes (51% agree or strongly agree)
- Ease of interface navigation: Moodle easier to navigate than WordPress.com
- Students responses to Moodle (majority recommend its use in future and feel they benefited from it)
- Students slightly prefer Moodle over Blackboard
- Students find many Moodle features helpful
Maybe I’m not on such a bad track after all.
Moodle Poodle?
June 9, 2008
Much as I’d love to have complete freedom to choose which social software to use with my students, I’ve decided to go with Moodle for the moment, largely because it’s already being used by several colleagues and seems to be the way the wind is blowing in my institution i.e. management fully supports its use, unlike many of the other more exciting looking web tools I’ve come across on my MA course so far.
Actually, having had a closer look at it over the weekend, it doesn’t seem that bad. I found a useful guide for beginners and some course design tips to get me started and now have an account on the school’s server which is accessible from home. So let’s Moodle!
