Not only is registration for the Ireland/UK Moodle Moot, but they also have a limited number of Blogger passes available.  Blogger passes, when awarded, provide the blogger free registration, parking, lunch and more…just for publicizing and covering the event.

Go for free! If you’re a blogger and could make the trip check out http://moodlemoot.ie/blogger-passes/ for more information.  Certain expectations apply.

Register today: While you may not be a blogger the Moot will still have loads of good Moodle training and presentation sessions to learn from.  Registration is €195 for the two-day event (more if you opt for the pre-conference workshop or conference dinner).  To register or for more information visit http://moodlemoot.ie/.

Planning on presenting?  don’t delay, presentation proposals are due 2/3/2012.

This year’s Moot is presented in partnership with Dublin City University.

Watch this site for more information: http://2012.imoot.org/

And if you’re interested in many more events in Moodledom visit our newly updated calendar: http://www.moodlenews.com/events/

The event is hosting several high-profile keynoting Moodlers, including Martin Dougiamas, Julian Ridden, Stephan Schmidt and Joyce Seitzinger.  It sounds like an awesome event if you’re in the area (specifically, Australian Capital Territory, Australia).

Event page: http://moodleposium2011.moodlesites.com/

The event also features some cool tie ins like a Moodle course award (the Moodleys) and a great line-up of presentations and workshops.

It’s only $250 to attend both days and $50 to attend virtually.  Click here for registration information.

• WHEN: October 27th and 28th
• WHERE: Canberra Institute of Technology, Canberra ACT, Australia.
• COST: physical attendance $250; virtual attendance $50

There are Moodle-related events around the country and world on a regular basis.  Moodle meetups are generally called “Moots” and invite local (and not so local) users, developers, and vendors to come and learn about the next and best in Moodle over the course of a few days.  I was able to attend the US Moot in Austin/Round Rock about a year ago and had a great time learning about large-scale Moodle migrations, the real costs of Moodle, what to expect from Moodle 2.0, how Moodlerooms is building its analytics and how Dell is providing virtual computer labs that are full of pre-loaded software (that students could access from any other computer).

These events are also a great opportunity to chat and mix-it-up with other Moodlers (and even Blackboard users) who share their experiences from the trenches of education technology.

There are a few Moots in the US regularly, locations change frequently but you can rest assured that there’ll be more and you probably can find one within a day’s drive of your location.  Here are a few upcoming Moots to keep an eye on:

• Louisiana Moot (Baton Rouge, Louisiana): TBD Spring 2012, http://www.lctcs.edu/index.cfm?md=pagebuilder&tmp=home&pid=312
• iMoot (global, online): TBD Spring 2012, http://imoot.org
• Moodle Moot Oklahoma (Oklahoma City): TBD June 2012, http://moodle.metrotech.edu/
• Midwest Moot (Goshen, Indiana): TBD July 2012, http://www.learningcontexts.com/midwestmoot/
• US Moot (various locations): TBD July/August 2012, http://www.moot-us.com/
• Ohio Moot (Mansfield, Ohio): TBD Summer 2012, http://www.ohiomoot.org/

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg (check out http://www.moodlenews.com/?s=events for updates on new Moots and virtual conferences).  Inquire around your district and state to see if there are smaller, one day events that you can attend to learn about Moodle as well.  Note that major conferences like ISTE, CUE, PETE&C and other statewide/regional educational technology events also offer open source strands and sessions on Moodle.

A little research can go a long way in improving your Moodle-ability.

If you’re international, the best resource for finding the next Moot near you is at Moodle.org: http://moodle.org/calendar/view.php

Lots of great speakers and resources are available via the WizIQ platform (which also has Moodle integration); and best of all, the event is entirely free!

Check the schedule for lots of cool events: http://tinyurl.com/438r9cm

Lots of great sessions and the whole schedule can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/438r9cm.

For more information visit http://moodlemoot.integrating-technology.org/.  According to the site,

The MoodleMoot will take place from August 17-21 online via WiZiQ Virtual Classroom. The presentations will be conducted in both English and Spanish. The topic tracks for MMVC11 are: Moodle for instruction and learning for blended and fully online courses, teaching with Moodle in unique ways, online facilitation using Moodle, Moodle tips, Moodle communities of learning, research studies and case studies on teaching with Moodle, Moodle innovations and developments, best practices with Moodle, case studies, innovations with Moodle, Mahara, Blended & Blended Online Learning, Mobile Learning, Action Research Projects, Reflective Practice, E-portfolios, New and Innovative Software, and integration of technology into the curriculum. Each presentation will be 40 – 60 minutes long with 15 min for questions and answers.

PDFs of the Presentations slides include many of the daily sessions (no keynotes) for your perusal.  Here’s a nice presentation titled “Making your Moodle course Student Friendly” which features some practical design tips by Hala Esmail: http://goo.gl/shkwC.  Find this presentation and more at http://www.moot-us.com/home/presentations/.

What have I learned that I can use right away?

One day 1 I went to a panel session where Jennifer Klein from the Open School of Utah presented on “Twitter Time in the Classroom: Integrating Social Media into Education”. She embeds a Twitter widget into an HTML block in her Moodle course. Using Twitter she can make announcements, remind student of upcoming dates and assignments, and give shout-outs to students. Her Twitter widget is setup to search for a specific #hashtag so students can even ask questions that she or other students can answer. This is a useful and fun way to communicate with students and relatively easy to setup in Moodle.

What have I learned that I can apply over the next few months?

My second take-away was from the panel session, Integrating Library Resources into Moodle. The three panelists showed various examples of Moodle/Library integration. Some of the examples were using a sticky block to showcase library resources, selecting Bookshelves of resources, creating video tutorials for Moodle help, and designing a Moodle course to teach students how to use Moodle and/or library resources. In the upcoming months, I want to explore how to integrate my district’s library resources into our Moodle courses.

What do I want to reflect and learn more about?

Finally, David Wiley’s keynote, ”Openness, Analytics & the LMS” was the highlight of the moot! His keynote was engaging and inspiring. He challenged my thinking on openness and how Moodle can best be used. He promoted the use of Moodle to track behavioral data (When did a student login? How long where they logged in? What resources were viewed? Etc.) This valuable data can be analyzed to show time-on-task and to assist students who need help. Teaches can use the data to inform and modify their instruction and ultimately help students achieve. What a powerful combination!

Martin Dougiamas opened the moot with a keynote. Besides being knowledgeable he was very relaxed, easygoing and approachable – plus I love his accent. A few things I took away from his keynote were:

• Roadmap for Moodle – the development process has been mapped out and major releases will come out every 6 months. The roadmap includes features which are being worked on. Moodle 2.2 is expected to come out by the end of the year.
• Mooch – is a community hub or place where courses can be downloaded and shared. No longer will instructors have to recreate the wheel. Also a great way to see how Moodle is being used.
• MoodleMobile – an official mobile app will be released soon for the iPhone and later for Android. I am excited to try this one out! The interface looked very clean and simple to use.

Looking forward to the rest of the sessions to come.