Posting Assignments Online: Questions and Answers

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What are the benefits of posting Assignments online?

The Benefits For Teachers

  1. Organizes their class materials
  2. Allows for easy sharing of class materials among teachers
  3. Decreases the need for photocopying
  4. Promotes collaboration among teachers and transparent partnerships

The Benefits For Students / Parents / Tutors

  1. Having all materials available, especially if hand outs are lost
  2. Assures that students won't get lost

The Benefits For Administrative Purposes

  1. No need to print out Assignments to hand in to Dept. Heads
  2. Curriculum Coordination is easy when curriculum is readily visible

The Dalton Plan

  1. In mimicking the Dalton Bulletin Board we make Assignments available to each other
  2. Assignments can be alive, multimedia and hyper-linked

Do I have to use Moodle for managing my classroom materials?

  1. Since Moodle is tied directly into Senior Systems (school wide database) The Dalton School has settled on Moodle as a common starting point
  2. If you are using another type of organizer such as a Blog, Wiki, or Forum Web Page to organize your class materials then you only need to make a link to these sites from Moodle. This can be accomplished very quickly. By having a common point of entry it makes it easy for students to have access to all of their class links, materials and needs only one password
  3. If you are beginning from scratch then I would recommend Moodle as an easy to use system that will satisfy your classroom management needs. The New Lab will be happy to show you many alternatives that may suit your needs

Shouldn't this be an organic movement rather than top down?

  1. It HAS been a bottom up movement for years! Many teachers have been posting Assignments online using Forum, or Blogs and some email. Settling on Moodle as a Class Management System gives continuity to the process

Why has this become a mandate?

  1. It makes sense for us to move ahead together to maximize the benefit of this project

What about Copyright Issues?

  1. Moodle is password protected so the outside world cannot get in to see your Assignments
  2. If you would like to copyright your Assignments please see Adele Bildersee in the Library
  3. By being behind a password this also protects us when we use copyrighted material for educational purposes
  4. Please also remember that you cannot copyright other peoples work

By posting Assignments online we're facilitating student responsibility in keeping both Assignments and themselves organized

  1. By providing assignments in digital form we enable the student to use the organizational methodologies of her choosing, leaving it up to the student to determine what schemes compliment her own personal work flow. Such methodologies may or may not include printed versions of Assignments.
  2. Teachers do not need to hand out Assignments - students take responsibility to download Assignments from your site. They may print out the Assignment if they wish, or they may keep it in digital form.
  3. Having Assignments available online is more both efficient and more accessible then providing paper copies alone. Should a student lose an Assignment, he may still ask you for a copy when he next sees you, or he may download it whenever he happens to need it. Accessing an Assignment online can and will occur far outside of Dalton's physical premises during our open hours.

I've never heard of Moodle - What is the process for helping teachers learn to post Assignments?

  1. Moodle allows educators to create online courses, which students can access as a virtual classroom. A typically Moodle home page will include a list of participants (including the teacher and students) and a calendar with a course schedule and list of assignments. Other Moodle features include online quizzes, forums, where students can post comments and ask questions, glossaries of terms, and links to other Web resources
  2. The New Lab started training teacher on Moodle during this summer's Laptop Program. Approximately 40 teachers were exposed to Moodle and roughly 20 teachers began moving Assignments into Moodle
  3. One successful method has been introduced by Deena Amiry of the Foreign Language Dept. She organized a day with the New Lab. Deena outlined a day of training her Dept. worked with the New Lab to crate a plan of action and then found coverage for classes. We then spent a day together training the FL Dept. on Moodle as well as SmartBoards, Blogs, Wikis, and other relevant topics. This day allowed for teachers to share best practices and to learn from each other the benefits of putting Assignments online. Follow up meetings were scheduled for Dept meetings where the New Lab went over the topic items
  4. If you would like help getting started, or have a question about moving your Assignments online you can contact Arlo who is a point person for this project
  5. The New Lab is also working with Gordon Campbell to enlist student helpers to work with teachers to create their Classroom Management Systems. This will provide more access for teachers and should aid in the learning process for everyone


How will this project be evaluated

Is there a larger vision of this plan?

  1. Yes. Moving Assignments online is the first step - and a large step at that - but the larger idea is to move from thinking through the medium of paper based Assignments to creating Digital Assignments. Digital Assignments include technology such as hyperlinks, multimedia, online collaboration and are visible to faculty and students alike. Digital Assignments ask students to express themselves through multiple venues, such as voice recording , and may include static paper writing, but is not limited to it. In working with teachers to create Digital Assignments we attempt to create new modes of learning through technology rather than simply copy our Assignments onto a computer. This may not be applicable for every Assignment but has made a drastic difference in Foreign Language and Mathematics. As an example Foreign Language students use First Class to record their voices speaking in their target language an email their work to their teachers. This simple, yet modern approach to homework, allows students to expand their thinking beyond paper and pencil expression. In mathematics the use of a Wiki and Blog has benefited the Department by offering a platform of collaboration between faculty and faculty, faculty and student, as well as student and student. By sharing editable, online documents resources have become available to all rather than isolated pieces of information. Best practices are being shared as well as collaborative ideas to teaching.
  2. By posting Assignments online we are also allowing for deeper curricular discussions within the Assignment Committee. Having Assignments available online can act as the starting point for curricular discussions and a hub for curricular initiatives. Allows for focused concrete conversation.

Student Feedback - None yet

Department Size: For New Lab Training Purposes

  1. Math = 12
  2. English = 10
  3. Science = 14
  4. Art = 11
  5. Theater = 5
  6. Music = 6
  7. Dance = 4
  8. History = 8
  9. Computer Science = 1
  10. Preceptorial = ?

Tasks:

  1. When can the New Lab offer Departmental Training - and when are our "blackout periods"

After conversation we see no Black out periods.

Ideas

  1. Use Moodle Wikis instead of web pages so teacher can see edits and changes
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