Greetings, Fellow Moodlers!
I just want to point out that the next round of ThinkQuest is about to get underway. Elementary, middle school and high school students and teachers all over the world are welcome to take part in TQ. At Aiken HS, we have been doing so for several years now and recommend that you at least take a look at http://www.thinkquest.org/.
It's an especially good project if you are interested in international collaboration.
Best regards,
Art Lader
Thanks for mentioning the competition. I work for ThinkQuest so I have all the details if people are curious. Essentially it is a project-based learning program for students. A teacher (or coach) can enroll in ThinkQuest at http://www.thinkquest.org
Once enrolled, you lead a group of students through the process of building a web site based on one of the official ThinkQuest categories and your curriculum. The categories have not been announced yet - but to give you a sense for them - last round they were things like "myth and folklore" or "natural disasters." Check our web site in the next few weeks to see what they are and to enroll.
The competition lasts around six months, is completely FREE and the students who build the websites that earn the highest scores will be flown to San Francisco with their teachers/families for a multi-day celebration and student-based technology seminar. This includes students from other countries (this is not U.S. only).
Anyhow, I imagine many of you are familiar with the program, but I saw Art's post and wanted to comment. Additionally I think technologies like Moogle allow students to plan and work more effectively with one another and their teachers. Art has built an impressive ThinkQuest model based upon Moogle, and I imagine he would share this with others - but I don't want to speak for him
Matt Reider
ThinkQuest
Thanks, Matt. By the way, I do NOT work for TQ. 
I think that you will find that there are many teachers here who would be GREAT coaches. They like kids, know the technology and they know how to teach.
Moodlers: I hope that many of you will consider TQ. I think you will find it to be a super program for you , your students, and your colleagues. < end of advertisement >
-- Art
I think that you will find that there are many teachers here who would be GREAT coaches. They like kids, know the technology and they know how to teach.
Moodlers: I hope that many of you will consider TQ. I think you will find it to be a super program for you , your students, and your colleagues. < end of advertisement >
-- Art
I understand ThinkQuest does not allow server side technologies to be used. That would leave out using Moodle as a tool.
A couple of years ago my friend's team won NY State and was Honorable Mention for the U.S.. They were allowed to use server side stuff, so they put PostNuke to good use, especially the Polls and Forums. This year they were going to use Moodle, but the rules prevented it. Instead, they entered the Doorways to Diplomacy competition.
That is true. ThinkQuest is now associated with Oracle, and they do not want server-side technologies on their servers.
More info here... http://www.thinkquest.org/oct03may04/rules.shtml and here... http://forums.thinkquest.org/
We are using Moodle for our "ThinkQuest Course", but will be creating and submitting sites that use only HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, etc.
Hope this helps,
Art
More info here... http://www.thinkquest.org/oct03may04/rules.shtml and here... http://forums.thinkquest.org/
We are using Moodle for our "ThinkQuest Course", but will be creating and submitting sites that use only HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, etc.
Hope this helps,
Art
My main reason for mentioning TQ here in the Moodle community is that I know it will be a perfect fit for some (many?) Moodlers. Why? Well, because this is an almost perfect argument for participating in TQ! Especially if you consider both process and product, as do most Moodlers, I am sure.
-- Art Lader
-- Art Lader