Day 9: Utilizing Lesson in Moodle

Today was our second-to-last day and we spent it learning about lesson in Moodle. It is a powerful tool that is highly underused. The shear amount of planning it takes to use lesson effectively makes it too time consuming for teachers to tackle. This did not daunt my group! They diligently created, edited, revised and made lessons. Some had technical difficulties that hindered their progress. How can you create the lesson, try to make the question page, save it and have it not available? Especially when it still appears on the course page! Also, one poor girl had all most of her topics simply disappear and the 'Add a resource' and 'Add an activity' went missing from the topic she did have remaining. The solution was to redo it all. :(

There was continuation of previous work: building questions in the question bank, finishing rubrics in projects and embedding videos in courses. It was grand to listen to them work with each other, helping each other solve the issues that arose. They have been looking in Moodle.org for solutions and finding more information about the things they are trying to do. They are resourceful and helpful and generous. My work with educators in Dominica last year left me unconvinced that teaching practices would change once I left. So it was quite a compliment when one of the IT guys observing my group said, "For a change, I think these teachers will actually use the things they are learning". I agree. I see them making things to use in their classrooms. It is satisfying!

I am not sure if I have mentioned how traditional the school settings are here. Teachers are called 'Miss' and 'Sir' by their students. I hear "Miss! Miss!" every day. On a particularly difficult day, I hear it way too much! To give you an idea of what it is like, here is a set of classroom rules from the school I am working in:

If you cannot read that, it says:

"301 [Room number]

Class Rules

Respect all teachers

Show respect & kindness to each other

Keep the classroom clean

Always sit properly on the chairs

Do not deface school property

Leave your seat ONLY with permission

Speak softly at ALL times

Cell phones, MP3s, laptops should be OFF

Be honest, do not steal or gamble

Eat outside of the classroom

Stand when a teacher comes in

ENJOY LEARNING!!!"

Now I know most of these apply to a typical classroom in Canada, but our students do not stand when a teacher enters the room, rarely wait for permission to leave their seats and speak softly only when they are unsure of the answer they are giving! And many of us are trying to use cell phones and laptops as part of the learning process. 

Tomorrow we say goodbye. I hope all of these teachers will stay in contact with me, but I know I will be lucky if even a few actually do.