Be Smart On Air #2

This was a great hangout I did with Educators from around the world talking about Information Communication Technology (or something like that).

Paperless workflow: Google (gClassFolders) and Moodle

In the digital world it is very important to organize your communications with your students.   At WNWSU we have set up 2 tools communicating digitally and organizing your classroom digitally.   Google Apps For Education commonly referred to as GAFE, and Moodle which is a Learning Management System.

These two systems are not either-or, but rather provide different types of digital collaboration and often used together.

Google Apps For Education

GAFE is basically a web-based version of Microsoft Office.  It takes the most used features of Word, Excel and PowerPoint and makes them online and collaborative.    Students, teachers, administrators, and even parents can work on a single document at once from multiple locations.       I highly suggest using Google docs instead of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint as it provides easy access both at school and at home.   

With GAFE you can collaborate on a single document from multiple locations.   This eliminates the need to email attachment revisions when working in a group.   There are also many other uses both in the classroom and administratively.   Meeting minutes, policies, homework, presentations are some examples.

Many of you have already started using http://www.gclassfolders.com which is a folder structure/workflow for your classroom using Google docs.   

Learning Management System: Moodle

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a place where you can organize your classroom assignments  quizzes and collaboration for the year in one place.  Think of it as a digital textbook that students will refer to every day.

Historically LMS's were created for online-classes but have found a home in what is called "Blended Learning", which is a combination online and in-class learning.

There are many LMS programs out there and at WNWSU we have chosen Moodle.   Moodle has found popularity because of it's economic cost (Free) and its scalability (ability to do simple to complicated tasks). 

Moodle plan and simple:

(I will do a more specific blog post at a later time)

1.  Information is organized by Topics or Weeks.  Think of this as chapters in a textbook or the units/weeks in your curriculum maps.

2. Each topic allows you to add Resources or Activities.

Other info:  Some people have used their website through Google Sites as a lightweight LMS, this is fine and encouraged as a starting point, but if you want the ability to provide online quizzes and forum like collaboration you should consider moving to Moodle.

In Summary

Google Apps = Web-based version of Word, Excel & Powerpoint
LMS (Moodle) = Digital Textbook