Moodle wow!!!

Moodle is a course management system designed to help educators who want to create quality online courses. The software is used all over the world by universities, schools, companies and independent teachers. Moodle is open source and completely free to use. © Copyright 2004, Moodle

Martin Dougiamas designed Moodle under a social constructivist philosophy. This philosophy allows for a student-centered environment where learners are able to work independently, reflecting on their own work and on the work of other students, while at the same time being connected to a group of learners who can share ideas and reflect on each other’s work (Dougiamas, 1998). Rather than learning through memorization, collaborative learning encourages students to engage themselves in the process of learning.

The Moodle environment includes a platform for several features including: class schedule, assignments, participant profiles, chats, wikis, an interactive glossary, e-mail, lessons that the teacher can create, quizzes, surveys, and workshops. Chats, forums, wikis, and workshops enable students to work collaboratively. Wikis, forums, and chats serve as useful platforms for brainstorming, discussions, and debates.

I belive if I had the opportunity to incorporate Moodle in my classroom I would take full advantage of its features. But realisticlly I don't see Moodle being used in the GPSS classroom as of right now, due to the lack of computers and internet assess available to the students.

Click here for more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle

Click her to view Blackboard vs. Moddle http://www.humboldt.edu/~jdv1/moodle/all.htm

My first experience with blogs!

My first experience with blogs was off course with Dr. Wall's class. His explanation of blogs was similar to Will Richardson. Dr. Wall stated that it was a good way to network with other people across the world, a good way to publish your thoughts/opinions and it also promoted communication and writing skills. After the semester was done I thought of many other ways to use blogs such as; online assignments, keeping track of students/parents, and also posting home works and classroom updates for parents to view. But off course there was one down fall not all households were equipped with computer or Internet assess.

While searching information on the Internet about blogging I came across many articles and a wonderful sight that has resources for students, teachers and administrators.

Click on the links below to view a very interesting articles that talk about the advantages of blogging and using it in the classroom.

http://www.ascd.org/affiliates/articles/eu200502_franklin_2.html

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_6/huffaker/index.html#h1

Support Blogging! This site, which is actually a "wiki," has resources for teachers, students, and administrators to help understand and support educational blogging.

http://supportblogging.com/?token=4d80768dfd3e794598e4288c80c5c97d

Teaching for the Future "Media Literacy"!

Teaching media literacy in the classroom is a very positive asset to teachers and students. But off course when living in small community such as Guam, there are limitations in regards to obtaining media equipment. Recently GPSS has been in the news numerous times for their financial problems. So, I really do not see media literacy as a priority in the classroom. I wish that the government can do research on how positive it is to prepare the students for a very technology centered future. I do believe that the use of media in the classroom has greatly improved since I was attending school. But I also think that our students on Guam are getting cheating in their education because of the lack of support in getting media in the classroom.

The video did show many advantages of media literacy but we also have to take a look at the disadvantages. There are many advantages of mass media. According to “Raising a Media-Savvy Kid” by Dr. Lorraine DeJong, children are better informed about things going on in the world, have increased vocabulary, and are stimulated to have intellectual and creative activity through exposure to the media. The author also cites disadvantages of unstructured exposure to the media. Children have a difficult time sorting through the barrage of information, and can’t form conclusions and evaluate what they are exposed to. There is also the problem of violence and sexuality that children are viewing at a young age without the knowledge to evaluate the consequences of such actions. Media contributes to the problems of adolescent sexuality, substance abuse, and violence. Teaching media literacy at a young age can be a prevention or at least part of the solution to these problems.