"Moodling" with High School Social Studies

This session looks at some of the ways moodle (and other open source software) was used to initiate a one2one classroom for Social Studies at Michigan City High School. Along with the usual start-up blunders and frustrations, some key successes were seen early in the process. Some of the highlights of this presentation include:

• some of the hardware and software tools that made it possible
• using moodle’s Quiz during finals week (and the first week of moodle use) when all the scantron machines were down
• having history students listen to music of specific periods and respond in terms of moodle’s Questionnaire, with the ability to see the class responses as a whole
• having all social studies students reflect their political preferences during the 2008 presidential race via moodle’s Choices, with the ability to see the class responses as a whole
• how moodle’s new Feedback activity might have have been easier to implement and just as effective as the two above activities!
• using moodle’s Calendar block to clearly show each day’s specific assignment (a help for absentees)
• how to (sometimes) overcome technology problems with temporary work-arounds

The presenter is a newly-retired Michigan City High School teacher with K-12 and university experience.