Integrating Moodle into your School Please go to http://bit.ly/n1YEjY and take a pre-class survey while we wait to start. Brian Pool Technology Coordinator National Trail LSD

My Background Systems Analysis Degree from Miami University Programmed for NCR Corporation and Dayton Power and Light USAF T-37 Instructor MH-53 Special Ops Pilot C-141 Aircraft Commander IT Director NTLS Tech Coordinator & Teacher Since 2003

Our Moodle Path Original Installation in 2006 with version 1.6 Teachers were included simply by word of mouth in the High School (Tech Saavy Teachers) Upgrade to 1.7 in 2007 Upgrade to 1.8 in 2008 5-12 Gradewide adoption in 2008 Started after schoolyear with Board Directive Upgrade to 1.9 in 2010 Inclusion of K-4 With indicator gradecards

Our Moodle Path Smooth until Board Directed 5-12 implementation Then came the directive…2 weeks into the school year. Moodle seemed daunting to our less tech saavy teachers We could not manually enroll every student in every class…so they had to. “Small things” like adding students to a class totally turned new teachers off to Moodle The vocabulary was also very new and different.

Hurdles! Teachers with limited technology experience may “shut down” on you completely. Parents will come to expect a level of online class material that not all teachers will commit to. It is always Moodles fault when something doesn’t work. Accept it!

Modifications to Overcome… I learned PHP as fast as I could Made a “automatic enrollment” of courses Automatic to teachers…not me! I manually downloaded enrollments, created a CSV, and uploaded to Moodle daily Eventually (months later) got extract going from A Site that was truly automatic

Modifications to Overcome… Language file Changes Make vocabulary more familiar by changing Moodle Assign Roles vs Add/Remove Students Groups vs Course Sections Anything you can “normalize” for non-techie teachers. Gradebook vocabulary is especially confusing to some staff. Consider limiting choices of calculations.

Modifications to Overcome… Limit Available Modules Moodle may provide enormous opportunity and diversity, but too much can shutdown some staff members. Don’t even allow modules that you deem unnecessary to be seen. Teacher team anyone? Install best mods by testing beforehand but don’t go crazy! (There are 700+) These things made training infinitely easier!

Train beforehand! Although this seems fairly obvious… Training Going completely online before actually training was a bit crazy (even though the first semester was optional.) Training Use subs to relieve teachers for ½ day Use after school sessions (Tech Tuesdays) Use in-services Use Moodle! - online lessons Subject of another class entirely

Ways to Smoothen Out Upgrades Upgrade for features, not just to upgrade. (2.x may look cooler, but what does it add?) Keep upgrades looking similar to previous installs. Vocab! Make sure you can justify the upgrade to your staff. Don’t just do it without talking to anyone! Let a teacher team decide on “optional” upgrades.

Usage 5-12 Traditional Moodle Middle and High School Teachers all use Moodle in similar fashion. Same myriad of resources and activities are used throughout these grade levels. Traditional Gradebook (which uploads to DASL for reportcards) eDays will be “old hat” for all of these students when we implement this year.

Resources Links to other websites Internal Moodle webpages Documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoints, pdf…) Pictures Videos Online File Directories RSS Feeds

Activities Assignments Audio Recorder Blogs* Podcasts* Chat* Surveys Choice Database Forum* Hot Potatoes* Journals Quizzes (Tests) Wiki* Audio Recorder Podcasts* Surveys VodCasts* Webquest*

Usage K-4 Limited Moodle Elementary Teachers only Post Limited Resources Activity (Assignments) are put in to track Indicators (Moodle Outcomes) Limited Training required for 2 items! Report Cards are all Moodle Generated Indicator Reportcards eDays will require training for all of these students when we implement this year.

Ongoing/Future Projects eDay Calamity Day Makeup Program 100% Moodle Continuing to Train new and progressing teachers. Save 3 days of transportation costs for the district as a minumum!

Ongoing/Future Projects Testing to Go Paperless and ALL Moodle Social Studies Teacher agreed to not buy textbooks and instead got an android tablet lab to try online textbooks in class. Looking to go 100% in the HS 2012-2013 school year. Projected to cost most students $0 and save the district $10000 annually.

Paperless Numbers Students District All buy TI-83 for $80 All pay $5 yearly for student handbook. = $100 total We would add $25 yearly to fees = $100 District We spend $25000 annually on textbook replacements Supplementing tablets would be $7000 annually after initial year (which would be ~ $40000) We would collect $8000 annually on fees and “sell” them to students that did not pay 4 years of fees.

Paperless Advantages Students District/Class All books on 1 device, downloaded from Moodle eBooks Dictionary Usage Calculator, Notes, voice recorder, Kindle App… District/Class $20/year per class for online ResponseWare (Turning Point Clicker Software) Cost Savings Interactive lesson and research possibilities in ANY classroom

Paperless Disadvantages Students Off Task District/Class Teacher involvement and management a MUST!

Questions??

Useful links National Trail Home Moodle page Moodle home page http://moodle.nationaltrail.k12.oh.us www.edtechteach.com Moodle home page Moodle.org

Thanks for coming! Brian Pool National Trail LSD 6940 Oxford Gettysburg Road New Paris, OH 45320 937 437-3333 x 1235 brian_pool@nationaltrail.us