In Aiken, South Carolina, the school year begins in mid-August and ends the last week in May. For me, that means two things happen in June.
The first has nothing to do with Moodle. It is my wedding anniversary. I will have been married wenty-six years on June 21st and all I have to say about that is that life is very, very good and I am a lucky, happy man.
The second has more to do with Moodle each year. For the first time in months, I have a little time for reflection, for thinking about what worked and what didn't work, what I want to do better next year, what I won't be doing at all next year, and so on.
The truth is that I did not use Moodle to its full potential this past year. My students did not really get the benefit of Moodle's almost magical powers. The software was up to it, the teacher was too intent on doing too many things and not focused enough on doing a few things very well. I have a few ideas about how to do a better job next year, of course. And I am already looking forward to it.
Oddly, though, I still feel very good about my Moodling. And I think I know why: Students are not the only ones who benefit from Moodle. Teachers get just as much out of it as do pupils.
A great example of this was Help Us Get to Bett (blog, video).
This wonderful grass-roots effort to promote Moodle was a shining example of how Moodle brings teachers together, how Moodle can foster community among dedicated educators. The goal was worthy and the effort was quite successful (kudos to the organizers!), but more importantly, the process was amazing. I have spoken with teachers who took part and it is clear that they found new colleagues and made new friends in doing so. I believe that these kinds of professional connections are very important to most educators and have a lot to do with job satisfaction (or the lack of it, of course).
And is it too much of a stretch to assume that students benefit from teachers' happiness and well-being? I don't think so. I'll bet some good researcher could prove it, but it is simply an article of faith to me.
And right now, I am preparing to chaperone a group of sixteen Aiken High School German students on a three week visit our new partner school in Mannheim. Via Moodle, my wife and I became friends and colleagues with Ulrike Montgomery who teaches at the Max Hachenburg school there. One thing lead to another and an international student exchange ensued. We will spend three weeks in Mannheim this July and Ulrike and her students will spend three weeks in Aiken this October/November.
And I will only mention all the feedback and the wonderful collaboration that continues to surround the writing of The Tale of the Pretty Good Teacher. That has been a rewarding experience precisely because several of us worked together on it. At least, that was the great part of it for me.
And the great Moodle-enhanced collaborations at CABweb and Peter Sereinigg's exciting work are bringing teachers from all over the world together right now.
I guess those examples are actually enough. This is getting kind of long and wordy, isn't it?
I WOULD BE VERY INTETRESTED IN YOUR STORIES, though. In a couple of weeks, Lesli Smith (another new Moodle friend!) and I will be talking about this very topic in Byfield. If your Moodling has led to the development of new professional relationships and/or friendships, please post something about it here.
The bottom line, I guess, is that Moodle is as much about the people who use it as anything else and it is worth talking about, it is worth sharing.
Thanks,
Art
School, unfortunately, is not yet out in Salford so this will be a 'short story'.
First thanks for sharing the Tale of the Pretty Good Teacher, and for being kind enough to give CABWEB a mention
Stumbling across Moodle was the best thing that happened to us on the CAB project. We were able to do a lot more collaborating across borders than we would have without Moodle. We are also feeling much more confident about being sustainable past the end of our project funding (that ran out in November 2005).
I did wonder if our HELP network would keep going but we are currently running our fourth discussion event (on LAMS) since January this year, when we only had three discussion events during 2005. The events have sparked deep and interesting discussion covering topics like feral learning, the need for schools, student peer review, and inter-cultural dialogue and collaboration - thanks to Art Lader, Lesli Smith and many others).
On a personal note, my involvement with Moodle has helped me to:
In England, when someone announces such a fact, they are usually greeted by the ironic response "Ehhh you get less than that for murder!"" (just joking )
First thanks for sharing the Tale of the Pretty Good Teacher, and for being kind enough to give CABWEB a mention
Stumbling across Moodle was the best thing that happened to us on the CAB project. We were able to do a lot more collaborating across borders than we would have without Moodle. We are also feeling much more confident about being sustainable past the end of our project funding (that ran out in November 2005).
I did wonder if our HELP network would keep going but we are currently running our fourth discussion event (on LAMS) since January this year, when we only had three discussion events during 2005. The events have sparked deep and interesting discussion covering topics like feral learning, the need for schools, student peer review, and inter-cultural dialogue and collaboration - thanks to Art Lader, Lesli Smith and many others).
On a personal note, my involvement with Moodle has helped me to:
- re-develop a Masters module at Salford (with a colleague) called Open Source System Integration, where students will work in groups on practical and strategic aspects of 'choosing and using' (+ maybe a little development) OSS, including Moodle
- think and write about bricolage and its role in community and system development, along with implications for strategy
- learn the benefits of 'networks of networks' in community building and knowledge sharing, in our case Moodle.org, facultyroom.org, ALT, lamscommunity.org all linking to CABWEB, specifically HELP and JILID communities
- contribute to a research project on health promotion for older people in a deprived area (and we just got our first journal paper from the project accepted today
)
- meet lots of interesting people online, some of whom I have also met face to face at Moodle Moot UK and elsewhere
- etc., etc.
In England, when someone announces such a fact, they are usually greeted by the ironic response "Ehhh you get less than that for murder!"" (just joking
Thanks for that reponse, Frances. Very interesting and very helpful. Yours is really an impressive Moodle story!
> "Ehhh you get less than that for murder!"
OMG! Now that's funny.
-- Art