Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

When I think about Bloom's Digital Taxonomy and my Moodle site three things come to mind: Analyze, Create and Apply. I think about how the content is presented to the audience. They will not be allowed to be a passive audience, other than to read the content presented initially. They will be led to do different things at different parts of the program.
They must analyze the summer reading program in their children's school, and decide how to approach the task at hand. Parents will have to choose books for their children. I will also lead them to activites to do with their families.
They can create projects and have book discussions. They can also apply some of the reading strategies that need to be practiced to help sharpen skills for the following school year.
I think that my Moodle will be helpful to families, and  provied support with games and extra resources such as a glossary of reading terms.

Just an Idea

As I was making a survey for my Moodle Site I thought about how I could use surveys in the classroom. I decided that in the beginning of the year when I do reading interest surveys with my students, to transfer them to an online survey. This way I can graph the results right away. Also, I will give the surveys three time a year and compare the results. This will be a useful tool to bring to data meetings as well as student achievement meetings. Not to mention they will be completed and scored quickly. I am so excited. I know this may not sound like a big thing, but I get excited about the little things!

Moodle

I think that Moodle is an excellent tool for educators. At this point I can say that I understand how to use it, and it allows me to reach learners in a new way that I have never used before. The first thing that I love about Moodle is that it is free. Yes I said free! Not only is it free, but it is useful. Sometimes free stuff has limited capability, but not Moodle. You can do so much. It is pretty easy as well. At first it was not easy, I mean I figured it out, but overall, it is not hard to use once you know what you are doing.

It is so nice being able to have things organized for your learners. It was easy to post videos, quizzes, surveys, feedback pages as well as word documents. That is really important because it saves time and energy for everyone.

I cannot think of anthing that I do not like about Moodle. The only negative thing that I can think of has nothing to do with Moodle, it has to do with the fact that some schools are not up to par with their technology. That will limit some of the teachers with what they are able to do with the students and how they can use Moodle. Not having connectivity and not having access, would limit the useage. Other than that, I think the possibilites are endless.

I enjoyed using Moodle. I can't wait to use it in my school in the upcoming school year. I have so many ideas!!!!!

Article: Faculty Perspectives

This article just made me think about how I was in a meeting recently about moving from Performance Pathways to another data management program. We sat at the table talking about the advantages and disadvantages of one program over another. Both programs did pretty much the same thing, just as Blackboard and Moodle, but the differences were about the details. I think that the issues can be debated over and over again, but when it comes down to it Moodle is free. That can give the smaller institutions a way to stay on the cutting edge of technology. As a classroom teacher, I can see using this with no problem. I can understand both perspectives, but as far as I am concerned Moodle can do what you need it to do.

e-learning

E-Learning Chapter 2 made me reflect on the designs of my moodle site because sometimes I think I get too wrapped up with the "cuteness" of my design. I know the content is important, but there is a thin line between too many things going on and what is important. I like things to look nice, but that can be too distracting. I will take these things into consideration.

I always thought that the websites with all of the animations and the cool stuff going on were nice. I think that I will ask some of my students how they feel about some of the sites that they visit. I want to find out how they feel. My thoughts have changed.

Creativity

I don't believe that creativity is truly misunderstood. I think people say be creative, but no one wants to stand out. People say think outside of the box, but teach to the test. In school, uniform policies are adopted. I do understand the purpose, don't get me wrong, but there are many misconceptions going around.

Lots of magnet schools are opening to address the needs of students. Teachers are welcomed to use creativity to teach. Then these same schools follow a model. If you follow a model and do things in a set way are you being creative? Is there a way to show creativity in public schools? I as the questions because I have been around. I feel that I have seen many things come and go. Many of the programs are the same, with differnt names the next time the come around. Phonics, whole language, guided reading, just to name a few.

We need to grow and change and evolve. We need to be creative. Are we being creative?