Before: Class discussion
Students would read a nonfiction article and a discussion would follow with several students interacting and participating. Periodically a journal entry would be made in the students' journals and journals would be carried home to grade.
| After: Moodle discussion
Now students respond to forums and journal entries. All students are engaged all students are involved in the discussion and feedback is quite prompt.
Using moodle through the netbooks has increased the students’ ability to work collaboratively with their classmates they assist each other with their writing and their understanding of the technology. They are all becoming experts, so if I am busy assisting a student they quickly offer to help a fellow classmate instead of waiting for my assistance. A day typically begins with a review of the classroom objectives and then the students log onto their netbook and then login to moodle. There is usually a journal prompt to address or feedback that I want them to read so they can edit their work. Through the use of technology students are communicating more frequently with either fellow students or the classroom teacher. They have become more critical thinkers through the process of giving feedback to one another and receiving more immediate feedback related to their work. Their creativity as they developed their writing and responses continues to develop. Students have learned to upload information to moodle, copy and paste information, send emails and add attachments, learn to save to the H: drive, create favorites, post a response, and respond to a post to name a few technology skills. Samples of student responses Moodle interface Journal Topic and response--great soul Journal Topic and response--Gandhi Discussion Forum Topic and response |