blended learning – JAMES MICHIE

Study Group Teachers’ Conference

Today, I am delivering a presentation at the Study Group Teachers’ Conference in Brighton.

The title of my session is: Getting interactive: Moodle in the Secondary classroom

Abstract: What is Moodle for? And how can it enrich your students’ learning experiences? This workshop will aim to set out a practical and pedagogically sound consideration of the role that Moodle can play in helping to support learning inside and outside the classroom. The belief? That Moodle should be a tool to garner interaction and not simply host resources.

Here are the slides that accompany the presentation:

Since I submitted the abstract, the presentation has evolved. As such, it begins with an explanation of how I use Moodle, building up to a consideration of when to use a VLE and when a VLE is not the best tool for the job. It culminates with a reflections on the work I have been doing with Google Docs & AFL.

You can find out more information about the conference on their Moodle Site. Enter as ‘Guest’.

Please Feel Free To Use My Stuff!

Several people have blogged recently on Creative Commons licenses and what to do when people steal your work, presenting it as their own.

I’m jumping on the bandwagon a little and offering my perspective on the re-use of material from my blog. I use a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 U.K. license which allows you to copy, distribute, display, perform and make derivative works from my blog content. I picked this license because I wish to share. I am in the habit of “giving gifts”! (Godin, 2009) This is a philosophy that I deeply believe in. On my blog itself I have tried to stay true to that same ethos when using found material. If I have used others work, I have given them credit, added links and contacted them to let them know that I’m using their stuff. I simply ask that anyone who uses material that I have made and published here do the same. So here is a statement that I plan to feature permanently on my blog.

If you wish to use any of the material published on this blog, then please:

Give me credit. Acknowledge the work is not your own.
Provide people with a link. This could be my blog address included at the end of a PowerPoint presentation or a hyperlink on your blog. Whatever it is, it will allow any interested parties to visit the source of the original content and perhaps find other material that they might find interesting.
Contact me. Let me know what you have used, why, and what the results were. Perhaps I can help? I may have ideas to share or more information which may be of use. I may even offer to feature a post about you/your work on my blog.

Considering this issue has made me reflect on why I blog.

My blog is my “cave” (Thornburg, 2007) where I internalise, reflect and evaluate. It is why I moved beyond writing a class blog to writing this, a personal blog that is unashamedly for me, about me. This is not ego tripping but a feature of my journey as a life-long learner. My “cave”, however, is made of glass so that anyone can look in on my learning journey. And I have provided a convenient in-tray where people can leave comments, questions, ideas. My blog therefore, is also the “watering hole” (Thornburg, 2007) or at least a conduit to it, much of the discussion generated on the blog being transferred to Twitter where it continues and evolves. This is why I blog, for me, and for you. This blog is my “gift”!

If the “cave” and “watering hole” metaphors have left you either intrigued or confused, then please read: Campfires in Cyberspace by David D. Thornburg Ph.D.

You may also like to read more about “giving gifts”, if so try: Linchpin by Seth Godin

CC Logo courtesy of Drew Baldwin on Flickr.

TeachMeet Moodle

Today I gave a presentation to fellow Moodlers at the first ever TeachMeet Moodle which was organised by Dan Humpherson (@MoodleDan) and was hosted at Heythrop College in Kensington, London. The Meet kicked off at 11:00 with speed “dating” networking followed by a series of excellent and varied presentations.

The Twitter hash tag for the event is: #TMMoodle.and you can see a complete archive of the tweets here. All the details about the Meet can be found here, including a list of attendees, presentation titles and discussion topics.

Below is the recording of my presentation: Blended Learning: How Moodle changes the learning inside and outside of my classroom. Thanks to Leon Cych (@eyebeams) for recording all of the presentations.

[Update]: The video of the presentation is no longer available.

And here are the slides I used in the presentation. I did overrun a little but I don’t think anyone was too upset by that! 🙂

During my presentation I briefly discussed my belief that Moodle brings the ‘learning spaces’ of the campfire, watering hole and cave into one place, blending them together. My understanding of these concepts represent my response to reading David D. Thornburg Ph.D.‘s ‘Campfires in Cyberspace’. You can read it here and see an extensive mind map that I created exploring the ideas put forward by Thornburg here.

Presentations of note:

After dealing with a few technical issues, Gideon Williams (@gideonwilliams) used Prezi to show a wide variety of plugins that help improve the functionality and interactivity of Moodle. This really hit home as I am always looking to improve the way that I use Moodle. (See the video here.)

The other presentation that struck a chord was delivered by Dai Barnes (@daibarnes) who showed off some fab moodling at St Benedict’s School. Their VLE looks great and is used really well by a member of their Music department. Great results from a teacher being encouraged to experiment with Moodle. (See the video here.)

Honourable mentions also go to Miles Berry (@mberry) for his presentation about using Moodle to teach teachers about e-learning (and for being a really nice guy); Daniel Needlestone (@nstone) who kept it light-hearted with his ‘Mallards and Moodle’ presentation; and Helen Morgan (@nellmog) who made a strong case for form being as important as functionallity within a Moodle course. You can see their presentations (and the rest) here.

I would like to say thanks to everyone involved. It was my first TeachMeet and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Anticipating and looking forward to the next one.