Julie Wooton wanted her students to do meaningful peer assessment. In working with some other teachers in her building and the Tech Coaches, she implemented an effective peer assessment activity for her students. I was struck by a couple of her comments (quoted from my memory):
The students really focused on the writing at a much deeper level.
I liked that I could easily control which students were editing the other students. Thus, I could assign the paper from a newer student to a student who is a good writer and very caring.
Don’t take my memory of my visit to her classroom, listen to Ms. Wooton herself. The Tech Coaches interviewed her about using Peer Assessment in her classroom.
*Special thanks to Chris Kenniburg for putting together the video.
This year, Dearborn will be hosting two Dearborn Moodle Moots. The Dearborn Moodle Moots focus on actual implementation for YOUR classroom. The first day is instructional. Lots of choice, models and tools are shared. The second day is all about implementation – YOU will be creating and/or installing resources into YOUR course. There will be experts on hand to assist.
If you are interested in learning more about iLearn, consider signing up. You can find more information at our Moodle Moot site. Watch your email for a discount code.
In the spirit of Holiday gift giving, we are working on a gift for all teachers. However, that gift isn’t quite ready. Still, we are pretty excited about this gift, so we want to make a preview available for those who are interested. This is a gift that we hope all will love and appreciate. Students. Teachers. Staff. Administrators. Everyone. We are currently targeting February for the delivery of the gift, but, again, this being a gift giving season, (combined with our excitement over distributing this gift), we have decided to open up a “sneak peak” at this wonderful gift.
So, here goes. A wonderful gift for all. See, iLearn is an absolutely wonderful resource. However, some consider it a bit “clunky looking”. So we will be updating iLearn with a new, more modern user experience. (I told you it was wonderful). We want you to be able to play around and get acclimated with the new interface. Thus, we’ve set up a “sandbox” iLearn course for you to play with. Please note that students will NOT be able to sign in or use the course.
Note that this site is still being developed. However, it will give you a great feel for what iLearn will look like.
Gone are tons of Blocks on the right hand side.
Gone is the navigation block.
Gone is a look and feel that is dated.
Welcome
To an updated look and feel
To a navigation drawer
To a gear based editing system
To Tours to help guide users
Teachers can open a preview of a great present starting immediately. Simply head over to the iLearn Sandbox and log in using your district user name and password (soon to be passphrase).
This past Wednesday and Thursday, the Dearborn Moodle Moot was in full swing. There was a terrific amount of learning going on. The teachers did some fantastic work. The training really provides a useful introduction to getting started with iLearn.
Kudos to all the teachers who worked hard, learned and grew during the conference.
All Dearborn staff members are required to complete a variety of training. Currently there are three courses that need to be completed: Response to Bullying Behavior, OCR, and Bloodborne Pathogens. We have made this training available via on-line resources. This means that the training is self-paced and available at times that are convenient for each person. There are three courses that need to be completed. We will also issue a badge for each course for visual confirmation of completing the requirements. The badges look like this:
You can find your badges by signing into iLearn then clicking on My Dashboard and choosing Badges.
*Please note that it may take up to an hour after you complete a course for your badge to be issued.
Response to Bullying
In order to complete the Response to Bullying course, each person must complete three steps:
Watch the video
Pass the Quiz (note that you must receive a passing score).
Complete the Survey
In order to help you track your progress, we have added a completion block into the course.
The Completion block will be on the right hand side. This example shows that only 1 of the 2 required Activities has been completed.
This course completion block should help inform all users as to activities that need to be completed (*Please note that “watching the video” is not included as an activity this year, thus, there will be a total of two things listed under “Activity completion”)
(*Please note that it may take up to 5 minutes for the Activity completion block to update.)
OCR
The OCR Staff Training Course has three components. There is a video, some reference material and a quiz. You must pass the quiz with a perfect score in order to receive your badge.
Bloodborne Pathogen
The Bloodborne Pathogen course also has three components: a video, fact sheets and a quiz. You must score 100% on the quiz to receive your badge.
RESA is offering one last opportunity for educators to be involved in developing Blended Learning Skills. The course is free (unless you want SCECH’s- which is $10).
The course starts 1/12/2015 with a mandatory face-to-face session on 1/28/15 (after school). The course duration is approximately 15 weeks.
Do you want your students to bloom? Join us for BLUME (Blended Learning Using Moodle Expertly). This will be a Blended Learning opportunity the helps teachers learn how to use iLearn. SCECH’s are available.
BLUME Schedule
Day 1: 04/12/2014 – 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Mandatory (Face to Face)
Day 2: 05/3/2014 – 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Optional Face to Face & Video Conference
Day 3: 05/10/2014 – 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Optional Face to Face & Video Conference
Day 4: 05/31/2014 – 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Mandatory (Face to Face) – Sharing
All meetings will be held in the Board Room at ASC.
Who doesn’t like getting a sticker or stamp of approval? Now you can award students digital “Badges” in iLearn. This new feature is great at motivating students as they appear in their profile and can be seen by others.
Teacher Robert Harrison at Edsel Ford High School has been using Badges with his students. Badges can automatically be awarded to students based on completion of an assignment or grade on a test. They can also be given out by the teacher to individual students as needed.
Here is what a student profile looks like after being awarded badges. Click to enlarge photo.
We just updated iLearn to Moodle 2.6.1 last week and some teachers were complaining about slow load times when trying to use Quickgrading when looking at Assignments. The issue stems from the way Moodle wants to build the table with all the student data.
