Now that my workshop Moodle for Teachers - Advanced is about to end, I feel very sad. I had the chance to meet marvellous people and follow a path that has given me a lot of personal satisfaction. I have learnt and learnt and learnt, or better learnt, unlearnt and relearnt all through the course. This has been an extremely positive experiece. Thank you Nellie, Ludmila and Glen for opening a brand new world to my eyes and thank you Carol, Katrina, Sam, Magda, Richard, Jeanine and Roger for being there with me. In 4 days we will have our last live session, we'll say goodbye to each other and all this will be over...brings back memories....
So, let's go through those memories now and make the point of what happened!
Just before the beginning of the workshop (workshop preparation), we have been invited to set up our own blogs and start sharing our thoughts there. I had set up my own blog some time before but never had the chance to use it, so I immediatly loved the idea! The first thing we had to do was to put down our own SoP (Statement of Purpose). It was great reflecting and looking for information and finally seeing a personal post appear in the blog!
Week 1 was about reflecting and writing about 21st Century Education and VLE (Virtual Language Environments) and creating our Team Business Card with our partner! Carol, my partner, is a marvellous person, full of ideas and creativity! She has a lot of experience and is very nice and outgoing! We had good laughs together and I have learnt a lot from her!!
I have to say that all my mates have been very helpful throughout the course. I had skipped the Intermediate Course and I got a lot of suggestions on what I should have had a look at on my own while taking the course!
Week 2 was rather intensive, me, Carol and Magda having to prepare to facilitate that Sunday's live session! Magda, Carol and I enjoyed collaborating syncronously and asyncronously using a thread in Google Doc, live conversations with skype and WiZiQ and loads of Web 2.0 tools. And thank you Ludmila for all your help! During the second week, we also had to set up a WebQuest in our personal sandboxes.
“Beyond Moodle” we went, as Week 3 arrived: connecting Moodle to mobile or virtual learning environments! And we discovered some of the great potentials Second Life has. Glen was guiding us throughout the week, and it was thanks to him that I discovered some of its tools! One of the assignments of the week, was to write a book review. Carol and I reviewed Using Moodle, 2nd edition, by Jason Cole and Helen Foster, and we thought it would have been a great idea to present it in SL! With Telmea Story (Glen)'s help, Couky Clary (Carol) and me (Sunflower Lionheart), built two prims, made 2 whiteboards out of them, and embedded the google doc presentation in one and an xtranormal video in the other one. Then we prepared 3 notecards to distribute and got ready to present on that Sunday's live session. Great fun! On that Sunday, Sam showed us how he was able to connect his Moodle course with SL by Sloodle. It was extraordinary, Sam is really talented and he was invited to share his experience at the IT4ALL talk the following week. Well done Sam!
We're in week 4 now, and we have to finish our Professional Development Project course design. My PDP is about Moodle and Web 2.0 Tools for Foreign Language Teachers. I made an example with an hypothetical lesson 5 (content: modal verbs) of an Intermediate English Course. I am looking forward to seeing my mates' projects as I am sure I will have a lot to learn from them, again!
M4T-Advanced has been rather intensive and it has given me unique learning opportunities. I could develop skills on Web 2.0 tools, instructional design, SL and I could broaden my views on a lot of subjects!
Here's a thank you to all my facilitators and mates. Enjoy the video!
So, let's go through those memories now and make the point of what happened!
Just before the beginning of the workshop (workshop preparation), we have been invited to set up our own blogs and start sharing our thoughts there. I had set up my own blog some time before but never had the chance to use it, so I immediatly loved the idea! The first thing we had to do was to put down our own SoP (Statement of Purpose). It was great reflecting and looking for information and finally seeing a personal post appear in the blog!
Week 1 was about reflecting and writing about 21st Century Education and VLE (Virtual Language Environments) and creating our Team Business Card with our partner! Carol, my partner, is a marvellous person, full of ideas and creativity! She has a lot of experience and is very nice and outgoing! We had good laughs together and I have learnt a lot from her!!
I have to say that all my mates have been very helpful throughout the course. I had skipped the Intermediate Course and I got a lot of suggestions on what I should have had a look at on my own while taking the course!
Week 2 was rather intensive, me, Carol and Magda having to prepare to facilitate that Sunday's live session! Magda, Carol and I enjoyed collaborating syncronously and asyncronously using a thread in Google Doc, live conversations with skype and WiZiQ and loads of Web 2.0 tools. And thank you Ludmila for all your help! During the second week, we also had to set up a WebQuest in our personal sandboxes.
“Beyond Moodle” we went, as Week 3 arrived: connecting Moodle to mobile or virtual learning environments! And we discovered some of the great potentials Second Life has. Glen was guiding us throughout the week, and it was thanks to him that I discovered some of its tools! One of the assignments of the week, was to write a book review. Carol and I reviewed Using Moodle, 2nd edition, by Jason Cole and Helen Foster, and we thought it would have been a great idea to present it in SL! With Telmea Story (Glen)'s help, Couky Clary (Carol) and me (Sunflower Lionheart), built two prims, made 2 whiteboards out of them, and embedded the google doc presentation in one and an xtranormal video in the other one. Then we prepared 3 notecards to distribute and got ready to present on that Sunday's live session. Great fun! On that Sunday, Sam showed us how he was able to connect his Moodle course with SL by Sloodle. It was extraordinary, Sam is really talented and he was invited to share his experience at the IT4ALL talk the following week. Well done Sam!
We're in week 4 now, and we have to finish our Professional Development Project course design. My PDP is about Moodle and Web 2.0 Tools for Foreign Language Teachers. I made an example with an hypothetical lesson 5 (content: modal verbs) of an Intermediate English Course. I am looking forward to seeing my mates' projects as I am sure I will have a lot to learn from them, again!
M4T-Advanced has been rather intensive and it has given me unique learning opportunities. I could develop skills on Web 2.0 tools, instructional design, SL and I could broaden my views on a lot of subjects!
Here's a thank you to all my facilitators and mates. Enjoy the video!
Fantastic summary reflective piece, Sil. If this was a class that assigned Grades ( and I assigned them) your work would be A+.
ReplyDeleteI hope that just because the arbitrarily set period for the course M4T-A is complete we don't loose touch and that we can continue to learn together.
Regards, Glen
Thank you Sylvia, for your sincere and very insightful feedback on the M4T-A workshop. It was a pleasure having you in this learning-teaching adventure and observing your creative participation in all the projects and tasks. Your contribution to the "collective intelligence" of this community is noticeable!
ReplyDeleteAll the best in your professional endeavors!
Ludmilla
Hi Sylvia
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed reading about your Moodle experience on your lovely blog. It's a great video for all teachers.
Take care
janet