The "New Teacher" Blog
Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment)
Recently I heard about an open-source web site called moodle.org. The website is a platform for e-learning, more precisely a course management system (CMS) or a virtual learning environment (VLE). On the platform teachers can organize courses that can be joined by students free of charge. The system was created by the Australian educator and computer scientist Martin Dougiamas back in 1999.
Moodle enables a teacher to set up an online course where students can enrol solely online or as in addition to a face-to-face course. The instructor can use the server as a depository for his teaching material that can be accessed by the course members at any time. Apart from the course management function other plug-ins like forums, different test types (Multiple Choice) and wikis are available. One other thing that is really useful about moodle is that you can incorporate links in your course material – the students can click on a link to a newspaper article and access the information instantly. Another advantage of the system is that parents have the rights to join the courses as guests. In this function they are allowed to have a glance at written works of their children as well as grading and writing feedback letters at the teachers.
As I stated earlier a lot of educators use moodle as an add-on to their normal physical lessons. Seeing all the benefits of virtual learning environments like moodle I still have to say that an education solely based on virtual interaction is not sufficient. The children would lack important social learning situations that only occur in a real live conversation in a dialogue or a group discussion. I myself have made the experience of a Virtual Learning Environment as I enrolled in courses using the VLC (Virtual Linguistic Campus) at the University of Marburg. It was an interesting experience to work without a teacher and try out a virtual tutor to study for exams or to analyze sound samples. I think that in combination with our in-class meetings it was quite a good method of teaching. The preparatory questions that the students could do online before the test helped a great deal dealing with the final.
Moodle has made its way into german schools with lots of organisations doing seminars about the platform. For further information try out the links below:
