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The Communicator

The Communicator

Moodle Offers A Unique Learning Experience

AAPS+currently+offers+480+Moodle+sites.
AAPS currently offers 480 Moodle sites.

 

 

Moodle has expanded greatly since it's release in 1999.

Working diligently is something all high school students strive for. In 1999, Martin Dougiamas created an online tool called Moodle to make this easier. Moodle is used for cooperative writing, turning in and downloading assignments, and signing up for CRs.

Students and teachers in the AAPS use the Moodle in a variety of ways. This can be to supplement classroom learning as well as facilitate online courses.

Born in the western desert of Australia in a very isolated and rural settlement, a traditional education was not available to Dougiamas. He enrolled in a school called Kalgoorie school of Air about one thousand kilometers from his home.

He communicated though short wave radio every couple of weeks and paper work that was needed was dropped of by air. Involved in a method of learning called “distance learning”, he rarely ever saw his classmates.

In 1986, Dougiamas worked on Internet based tools and applications. While he attended Curtin University in Australia, he devoted time to helping people with computer and technology problems. He noticed the struggles and difficulties of accessing teaching and learning technology on the web. He then started creating Moodle.

AAPS currently offers 480 Moodle sites.

Moodle has become a successful course management tool. The Moodle population has grown since the release in 1999. Now the site has 49,952 verified sites that serve 37 million people in 3.7 million courses. 480 of these courses are currently being used by the Ann Arbor Public Schools and their 16,458 students currently enrolled throughout the district.

The majority of Moodle classes are taken by high school students.

With so much Moodle traffic, management of the site is a demanding job. Susette Jaquette manages the majority of the Moodle usage at Community High School. “We call this a content management system,” said Jaquette.

There are many other content management systems and online classrooms that would be possible for the district to use. What makes Moodle standout is it is a free program to run. The AAPS does not run its own Moodle. It is run by the Washtenaw Intermediate School District. “We are just a link in the bigger picture,” Jaquette said. This larger district includes other places such as Chelsea, Dexter, Lincoln, and Saline districts.

Jason Mcknight is a Latin and Civics at Community High School as well as a regular Moodle user. “Mostly my Moodle is a spot

Moodle offers many tools to help increase the learning experience for students.

for students to download resources and assignments however I do use it for electronic journals and a few discussion boards,” said McKnight. For McKnight, the pros outweigh the cons.

“Well, it is what it is. [Moodle] is a lot like all of the other online classrooms that are out there. It’s functional. It’s not beautiful. It needs more pictures and I think linking to other sites should be a little easier and a little more dynamic. I don’t feel like it really unleashes the power of the Internet,” said McKnight.

Isabel Sandweiss is a freshman at Community High School. She uses Moodle for both of her classes taught by McKnight. “I think it is a good idea but, it is kind of complicated and I don’t really like the layout of it. It’s OK but I think it could be better,” Sandweiss said. Many of the feelings toward Moodle are the same among students and teachers.

Moodle has become a useful tool for many people. For Tod Tharp, it has never been a necessity. Tharp is a science teacher at Community High School, and has never used Moodle. Tharp runs his own website for the school that takes the role of Moodle in his class. He claims that he likes to use technology to improve his class, and may look into using Moodle in the future.

Moodle has also reached the the Community Resources (CR) office at Community High School. They have recently transferred all of the documentation for CRs on to Moodle.

For the people that use Moodle, the view of the site is mostly the same: in theory, the site is good. How the site works, looks, and feels is in need of improvement. An update for Moodle is set to come out this summer. All users of the site are awaiting the changes to come to this revolutionary program.

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Moodle Offers A Unique Learning Experience