Lounge

I don't know all that your drama department is doing... I helped with several things at our high school when my children were in high school.  Here are some things I might brainstorm if I was talking to that teacher:

Flexible:

• Because it's free and don't have to pay for class memberships, they can have as many "course" sites as they want... perhaps one for each different kind of class and one for each group/play that is going on.
• They can also build specific "units of study" if they would like that could be used by all teachers in the department:  Sets, costumes, history of drama... they could either be used individually as a course or the resources imported into a class site.
• They can be a communication tool as well as content delivery
• Video tapes of scenes can be posted and students can discuss in a forum. These could be scenes in their productions, classroom work or links to videos online for discussion of different aspects of drama. 
• Pictures of period costumes and historical sites could be posted for reference

Communication/Planning

• Messages/Announcements can be delivered through News Forum or Messaging quickly and easily for teachers... When forums have required subscription and participants have valid email addresses, they get emailed each message.
• When a production is begun, students can use a forum or a chat to brainstorm ideas for how different parts of the play could be done.  If needed the different committees can be grouped and the discussions grouped so that the appropriate people are in each discussion without others getting side tracked.
• WIKI could be used by committees working on sets, costumes, advertising, etc. for a production. Teacher/Director can watch the process and give feedback easily.
• Notes from the director could be posted for the crew and actors of a production
• Calendar can have rehersal schedules and deadlines for all participants in many areas
• Advertising Committee (depending on policy in your organization) can ask site Administrator to post announcement on the Front Page and in the Site News and the global calendar.

These are a few ideas that might be helpful in talking to your people.  I hope someone out there using it in a drama department that can add some more ideas.

Paula Clough

Hi Dominic,

A different way of answering your question: here's a link to a google books version of A chapter entitled "Describing ICT-based learning designs that promote quality learning outcomes" in Beetham and Sharpe's "Rethinking Pedagogy for a digital age" (My breakfast read this morning).

Oliver et al take Jonassen's learning design focus typology of

• rule based
• incident based
• strategy based and add a fourth
• role based

They present some interesting ways of thinking about pedagogy, and representing sequences and 'workflows'. I am sure that you could put this in front of Drama colleagues, and they would be stimulated to think about their existing pedagogical preferences/structures and how these might be achieved in systems such as Moodle.

Ask not what Moodle can do for your Drama Department, but what your Drama Department can do for Moodle.....

Best
Paul

Hi Dominic,

Our Drama department make really good use of Moodle.

One of our most active courses is the Drama Clubs and Activities course. They have set up forums to discuss direction and development of their plays; share tips for learning lines and just general chat too.

The curriculum courses are very active too. The teachers have set up glossaries of interesting quotes, which students add to and display on the course page as a "quote of the week"; they have utilised live chats to discuss performances after school hours; they have also set up databases of useful websites for students to participate in and databases of photos of performances and studio work too.

The possibilities really are endless;

Jon

Dominic,

Some casual comments on your topic.

Moodle's Glossary module can be used to index and store video or audio clips (even YouTube links etc.), it's not just for text entries. Acting methods that may be videotaped by the drama dept., or even short legal movie clips, can be added as Glossary entries and referenced say from within Forum discussions that are set up for various topics.

Choice module in Moodle is a great way to poll students on what they may have thought about a certain play or movie, which might provoke discussion in Forums.

Moodle's Database module can be used to create templates that will allow students to actually write scripts or short stories from within their course.

Moodle's Wiki can be used to allow students to collaborate on many different types of projects, including writing plays or rehearsing ideas.

Moodle has a Blog feature which can be used in different ways including keeping a personal journal.

Moodle facilitates social learning experiences. This is what the developer of Moodle had in mind when he created it. Moodle can help.