Job Discussion Forums

[MKR]

How does one learn to Moodle or use any of the other virtual learning system (Blackboard, etc.)? Do we need to attend classes, can we easily self teach? Does anyone have experience in this area for their ESL classes? How to get the knowledge? Is it useful? How about for online teaching purposes?

[Mr_Monkey]

In my experience (I've set up MOODLE on a home server accessible from the internet on both Linux and Windows platforms), MOODLE is great, but it is fiddly and not friendly for a new user to administer.

eFront is much simpler to use - the web admin interface is very intuitive. It's icon-based, so it's practically idiot-proof once you've set it up. If you know how to use an online forum, eFront is a very small step up from that. I'll happily help you with a test install on your desktop machine if you like - it really is that simple to test (running it from a web server is easier, IMO)

There's an E-learning course (online, naturally) available from The Consultants-E - the CertICT. I haven't done it, so I can't comment on the quality of the course, but it's a reputable provider validated by a reputable awarding body.

I think you've hit upon a real problem in EFL today - there are very few decent, committed teachers who really have a grasp of how computers and software can aid learning, and there are possibly even fewer people with the necessary background in programming who understand how teaching and learning works with regards to languages.

[MKR]

Thanks so much MR_Monkey!!! I am so glad to see someone responding and disappointed to not see more (although it is in an isolated corner of discussions).
It seems true what you say about this being a problem for ESL teachers. In my two years studies of my Masters we had one class of computer course...but I still had never heard of Moodle and most everything else!!! I have also searched online for such courses and they are either hard to find or non-existent...
Teachers today need this learning, both for the amateur and the professional... more and more so..
Thanks so much for the info of eFront. I will look into it and if I have questions will get back!

[mimi_intheworld]

I've never used MOODLE or eFront, but Blackboard is super common in the US and isn't too challenging to use or set up...but it's quite fiddly too. If eFront is NOT fiddly, I think I'll start learning it, just in case my classroom has internet.

[Mr_Monkey]

You can set up eFront in an afternoon on a home computer - and make it accessible remotely. Hardening a home computer against intrusion is another matter entirely, though!

Making courses on it is simple, and although I find textbook exercises to be of questionable value on occasion, you can quite easily make cloze and gapfill texts, reading/listening comprehension exercises and other assessment tools (and that's all textbook reading activities really are, by and large). There are even options to have your learners submit writing for assessment online.

On a LAN, VLEs open up listening and other activities - you no longer need to bugger about with CDs - if you have it as an mp3, it can stay there until the hard drive dies. With cloud servers, any recorded material is effectively available forever.

Why do we still use textbooks?

[Glenski]

My university has been using Moodle for almost 2 years now. Mostly, 2 out of 4 English teachers have set up their courses on it, and we have convinced 2 non-English-course teachers to do the same.

How to learn it? Lots of hard work plus workshops. Where are you, MKR? You can contact lots of users and get their advice on how to import modules and set up courses and write quizzes, but I think doing a couple of workshops is best. There are also quite a few textbooks on the subject.

My coworker is the webmaster for our Moodle system, but if you have questions, feel free to PM me, and together we'll try to help out. As Mr. Monkey wrote, it is not something one can learn to set up easily, and you WILL have to have someone with IT smarts to help out. If you set this up at your school, you will need to work with their IT people because of the usual headaches with registration of students and passwords and such initially.

I can say that Moodle has made many aspect of teaching at our uni much easier. Being able to provide students with a homepage for their course accessible off-campus from any computer with internet is great. Paperless homework and quizzes are also terrific. Being able to send students to a teacher's blog, or their own wiki, or a course discussion forum opens lots of doors for boosting their communication skills. Giving links to online dictionaries, YouTube videos as pre-viewing activities, etc. are also indispensable to getting students to learn outside of the classroom. And, with an internet-accessible homepage, they can't complain about not knowing what the homework is! Their only complaint can be that the timed quizzes you might choose to implement or the deadline enforced homework is too harsh.

[MKR]

Thanks a lot Glenski...and others...I think the discussion is valuable more than just to me! I think teachers are not well informed on this subject..

[mimi_intheworld]

Agreed! This conversation is actually firing up my brain for how I'll use technology in my classroom (I hope) next year. I teach secondary school, though. I still think in order to be relevant we need more technology in classrooms, perhaps especially EFL classrooms?

[johnslat]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but while one can use Moodle with Apple, I don't think eFront is "Apple-friendly."

Regards,
John

[Mr_Monkey]

Well, eFront is designed to run from an Apache-MySQL-PHP stack on webservers, which generally run Windows Server (a WAMP server) or a variety of Linux (a LAMP server). This is the same for MOODLE. The user experiences the VLE through a browser. I've tested eFront on Chrome, IE8 and Firefox 3.6, and experienced no issues with it. I can't vouch for how "Apple-friendly" it is in terms of users of Safari, but I suspect that any browser that even attempts compliance with W3C protocols should display it properly.

MacOS is a derivative of BSD, a UNIX distribution which is very similar to Linux under the hood (Linux is a derivative of UNIX too) so if you can set up Apache, MySQL and PHP your Apple server, it should run just fine.

As I said, though, it's intended to run on a webserver, not an area Apple are traditionally strong in. Check out MAMP (Mac-Apache-MySQL-PHP). It meets the eFront system requirements, which aren't significantly different from MOODLE anyway.

[Glenski]

[Mr_Monkey]

I just thought I'd add a bit more to this conversation.

There's an Android app I've been using on my phone recently to practise sight-recognition of kanji. It's called Anki.

It really is en axcellent little tool - it's practically perfect for reviewing vocabulary, although I think it's somewhat weaker for introducing it as the limited space on the flashcard precludes embedding it in discourse. It's open source, and there are loads of extensions for it.

You can build custom decks of vocabulary and upload them to the Anki website so that you can share them with others (your students, for example). decks can be synchronised across machines using the website. You can add audio files and images as well to allow for a broader approach to vocabulary.

It's available on Android and iPhone, and also has a web interface for users of older, less powerful phones.

[baki]

HI guys,

I thought I might share my experiences of using technology in my classes, basically I've had great success at elementary schools where I used the local lab to create and run network games (educational of course!).

Adding technology to the classroom at any level however is a totally different ballgame:

- Not all teachers want to learn how to use Windows, Android or your website
- Not all students want to learn more than they have to
- Not all students, parents and schools can afford the upkeep of technology
- Even if technology becomes a successful tool in the classroom it'll open up another can of worms that will take years to implement and sort out, parents and admins would rather avoid all of it
- Developing IT applications is timely and costly

I'm a part time software developer and it is a struggle to keep up with every software and language changes. A 6 month development project may become outdated in 3. Developing for Android 1.6 may work for most mobile phones but as their screen resolution increases you'll have to update your software once again to fit the new aspect ratios.

[Glenski]