Cooperative Link: Winter 2007

Teachers Find New Avenue to Develop and Deliver Curriculum

Schools are finding a new means of communicating curriculum and daily assignments to students and parents and the monetary cost is negligible. Moodle is an Internet software that SOCRATES has made available for teachers to use to house their “course” via the Internet. It is open source and increasingly used in K–12 education as well as higher education. The course becomes a listing of worksheets, assignment directions, course calendar, web sites, quizzes, and other electronic resources students can access anytime from any Internet connection.

Similar to a teacher web page, Moodle was developed by an Australian educator to give teachers a presence on the Internet. It helps them to better communicate current information about their curriculum and to give students a quick and easy way of submitting their assignments electronically. First users of Moodle have been some of the Interactive Television (ITV) teachers. Communication with students in distant districts from the host site was difficult. Worksheets previously had to be E-mailed or FAXed to the remote site to be copied for the students. By using Moodle, teachers can create assignments online and students can access them quickly from their computer. A word processed assignment or project can be submitted back to the teacher from within Moodle.

SOCRATES has offered workshops with an introduction to Moodle twice during February. Interest is high with both sessions filled. Additional workshops are scheduled for April and in early summer. Fairmont High School has been a test case for our region, training their site team in the use of Moodle, with some continuing to develop their curriculum in the Moodle format.

You can check out the SOCRATES web site at www.SOC6036.org. Some courses can be viewed if guest access is permitted by the teacher. Further information about Moodle and its use in SOCRATES schools can be obtained by contacting Dave Henning at 507-995-0165 or by email at dhenning@projectsocrates.org.




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