Lounge

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

Max,

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

Ulrike