Premiere in Germany

Premiere in Germany

by Ulrike Montgomery -
Number of replies: 12

Hi everybody out there in the world, especially Martin,

I  just want the community to know that things are moving right along  in Germany. Moodle has been adopted by our state as a VLE - that's  great. Unfortunately, the first teachers to receive official training are the ones with a master's in computer science - quite intimidating for language teachers. I didn't agree with that - so I went ahead and trained the language teachers. This was a premiere over here.

At first, the teachers were apprehensive about the use of computers in language teaching. When they saw  Moodle, they went wild. They couldn't believe that something so user-friendly exists. Since we worked with the English version, everybody understood it right away. I also introduced them to moodle.org., telling them that there are a lot of language teachers out there using Moodle.

I would like to thank the community for the support. I used a lot of ideas I found in the forums. Martin, my colleagues want you to know that we all love you.

Attachment staff2.jpg
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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Re: Premiere in Germany

by Art Lader -
Hey nice shirts! Sorry I could not chat with you this morning. I will check my e-mail for the enrollment key and try again tomorrow if you'd like. smile

-- Art
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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Re: Premiere in Germany

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Cool, Ulrike, thanks for the wonderful news!

When you say "adopted by our state as a VLE" what does that mean, exactly? Is there a page somewhere I can read about this?
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Premiere in Germany

by Ulrike Montgomery -

Martin,

here are two links:

http://www.lehrerfortbildung-bw.de/werkstatt/netz/moodle/index.html

http://www.moodle-bw.de/

Our state's plan is to use Moodle for staff development courses first. The first teachers to be trained are the ones with a degree in computer science, then the teachers with a strong background in data processing and the language teachers come last (3 years from now, if ever).

At the same time, about 60 schools have applied to be a VLE testing school (we are one, too) trying  Moodle at the school level (We're already beyond the try-out stage, we just joined for the fun). A few schools will test Ilias http://www.ilias.de/ios/index.html  (much too complicated for the average teacher in my opinion) 

Anyway, my own language teacher colleagues didn't want to wait that long - so I trained them using a totally different approach. Most of them have never worked with a PC in class and were quite apprehensive. Instead of telling them how Moodle is programmed  we talked about Australia first, how you found the name etc. Then I introduced them to moodle.org - showing them the T-shirt contest. They loved the slogans. And then we 'moodled' - they all got their own sandboxes - and couldn't believe how easy it is. (Some of my colleagues asked me when you would get the Nobel Prize - finally someone who invented something that the average teacher can use). The highlight was when Art joined us for a live chat (Art, thanks again for getting up that early and also for letting me use your 'teach the teacher course'.)

Now they are hooked and can't wait for the next training course. So things are moving right along - nice side effect: our school board will pay some of my expenses to attend the Oxford MoodleMoot.

Ulrike

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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Re: Premiere in Germany

by Art Lader -
It was a pleasure, Ulrike. smile

And it is inspiring and humbling to me that you all have accomplished at the state level what I have not been able to achieve at the school district level.

-- Art
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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Premiere in Germany

by Ulrike Montgomery -

Art,

I have to be honest - the fact that Baden-Württemberg decided on Moodle had nothing to do with my activities. In fact - when the decision was made they didn't even know that I was already moodling . You as a German teacher probably know that the tribe living in our state is said to be extremely thrifty (die sparsamen Schwaben)- so they picked Moodle because it's free. A commercial VLE wasn't even up for discussion. 

So don't feel bad about not being able to convince your school district. There is a limit about what an individual teacher can do. It was just a lucky coincidence for me -

Ulrike

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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Second german states adopts moodle as VLE

by Ralf Hilgenstock -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators

Today I got the message that a second german state adopts moodle as VLE for schools and in the training for teacher: Brandenburg (a state in the region around Berlin). http://www.cyberscape.de/moodle/

"Mit dem Neustart des Brandenburgischen Bildungsserver (BBS) wurde auch der neue Bereich E-Learning eröffnet. Die E-Learning-Plattform moodle ist als "virtuelle" Lernplattform in den BBS integriert und wird in einer ersten Ausbaustufe am LISUM Bbg für Fortbildungskurse und zur Betreuung von Fachberatergruppen eingesetzt. Das moodle-System wurde vom LISUM Bbg als geeignete E-Learning-Plattform für den Schulbereich ausgewählt. Durch den flexiblen Aufbau und die Konfiguationsmöglichkeiten ist eine einfache Anpassung der Benutzeroberfläche mit unterschiedlichen E-Learning-Tools gegeben, damit ist das System für verschiedene Nutzergruppen wie Fachberater, Lehrkräfte, Schülerinnen und Schüler sehr gut geeignet."

 

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In reply to Ralf Hilgenstock

Re: Second german states adopts moodle as VLE

by Art Lader -
Wow! That's great news. Thanks for posting. smile

-- Art
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In reply to Art Lader

Art,please let me use your 'teach the teacher course'.)

by Max Zúñiga -
Yes,Art,hello
a little off topic but,
I did not know you had this course
let me know the link is you aprove to
max at maxzuniga.com
thanks Art,
max
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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Re: Premiere in Germany

by Max Zúñiga -
Confratulations !  Ulrike,and all teachers
I can see you are beautiful people.
I love you
Max.
Toronto,Canada
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In reply to Max Zúñiga

Re: Premiere in Germany

by Ulrike Montgomery -

Max,

Thanks for the kind words. By the way, Spanish is the next subject my school plans to use Moodle for.

Ulrike

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