William Cunningham, who runs an extremely elaborate and developed Moodle with his third grade students, gave me the pleasure of an interview via email.  This “Moodle in Real-life” story will be told in several parts, the 3nd is below.  All posts refer to William’s Moodle install at this link: http://www.hallsville.org/elementary/cunningham/moodle/

William is a third grade certified eMINTS Teacher located in Hallsville, Mo.

Related:

• 1st post: http://www.moodlemonthly.com/2010/moodle-in-real-life-part-1-west4me/
• 2nd post: http://www.moodlemonthly.com/2010/moodle-in-real-life-part-2-west4me/
• 3rd post: http://www.moodlemonthly.com/2010/moodle-in-real-life-part-3-west4me/
• William’s Twitter: @west4me
• Blog: http://moodleiselementary.blogspot.com/
• New classroom project: http://www.hallsville.org/elementary/cunningham/moodle/wordpress/

Part 4 – Student reactions and tips for teachers

What’s last to learn from William?  Well first, let’s find out what his students feel about his site.

MoodleMonthly:  How do your students like Moodle?

William:  ”I asked a couple of students to write what they thought. (un-edited)”

I like Mr. C’s website because it is appropriate for all of the children. I also like the way that he designed it: with the icons that move with the pandas that move with them. It is VERY cool. I like the way that as you go down it has categories in bold print and then has the other things under them. And it is cool that we are not allowed to use the Google on the Internet, so Mr. C made a Google on his website that we are allowed to use. Another thing that is close to that is I like the Wikipedia on his Website because I use it a LOT. I think it is cool how he put Notice Board on it too. That is when you want to save something on his website you can go to Notice Board and you can save it there. It is also awesome that when it is a holiday Mr. C decorates the website, and I just think it’s cool.

Here’s another,

I like Mr.C’s website because everybody gets a person on the website and he has morning work on it it’s called writing prompts, and writing prompts is a journal activity, and at the top he has these pandas and there saying something but it’s like for school stuff that the pandas are saying like how you pick you lunch choice, and there’s this game up there called whammy it’s a multiplication game, and our classroom jobs you get a different job every day, and he has this Google and Wikipedia search so we can search for stuff for writing, and he has how do you feel like you pick the face you feel like today like confused, happy, sad, hungry, tired, sick, angry, he has this thing called the notice board you click on where it says notice board it takes you to the notice, then you can post stuff and other people can see what you have said and it tells you when you put it and you paste pictures and say this is my favorite picture it’s pretty cool, and then there is another way you can say stuff to people he made this emailing thing now you can send everybody in the class the same thing at one time just type in one person’s name then there name shows up click on it.

MM: Awesome.  So in closing, what advice would you give new teachers starting out with Moodle?

William:

Dig in! It looks daunting but just play around.

Do not limit your Moodle to a list of links. I see that too often. The Moodle Forums are amazing for solving any problems you may have.  Seek out other Moodle installs and see what they have done.  The label resource can be used for anything, just need an Iframe.  If you need help just ask, most people are willing to help.  Learn the Database module, it can become your best friend.

MM:  And if you’re looking for Moodle help?

William:

Moodle.org, there isn’t a better place. The people on the forums are very helpful and your question has probably already been asked.

I can’t thank William Cunningham enough for answering these questions and for providing such a great Moodle (to us and to his students.  Visit it at: http://www.hallsville.org/elementary/cunningham/moodle/ and contact him through Twitter (http://twitter.com/west4me).

William is a third grade certified eMINTS Teacher located in Hallsville, Mo.

Related:

• 1st post: http://www.moodlemonthly.com/2010/moodle-in-real-life-part-1-west4me/
• 2nd post: http://www.moodlemonthly.com/2010/moodle-in-real-life-part-2-west4me/
• William’s Twitter: @west4me
• Blog: http://moodleiselementary.blogspot.com/
• New classroom project: http://www.hallsville.org/elementary/cunningham/moodle/wordpress/

Part 3 – Add-ons and Mods

William’s Moodle (http://www.hallsville.org/elementary/cunningham/moodle/) is both attractive and useful.  The integration of web 2.0 apps and 3rd party site information extends his site far beyond the traditional role that Moodle plays in the classroom.  His class uses it to schedule tasks and chores, designate seating, provide additional support for the content and topics students are learning and more.

Here’s a short list of only some of the sites and services that are integrated into William’s Moodle:

• Wordle (http://wordle.net)
• Twiddla (http://www.twiddla.com)
• Wall Wisher (http://www.wallwisher.com/)
• Wikipedia Search (http://wikipedia.com)

This is not to mention the long list of Moodle integrations and modules that have been added to the site.

MoodleMonthly:  What are your favorite add-ons (write board, wordle, twiddla, etc)?

William:

I think my favorite add-ons at the moment are Notice Board and Wordle.

Notice Board is nice because I can have my students put up notes rather quickly. All I need to do is put up a note asking a question or directing them in some way and let them at it. My students have been really interested in Wordle lately. My students writing time is mostly free writing- they get to choose the topic, and there had been amazing interest in the natural world do to a project  were are conducting.

Greening Up My Room, stop by, it is in development as my students create the content.
http://www.hallsville.org/elementary/cunningham/moodle/wordpress/

With the interest in the natural world they are doing a lot of research. The use Wordle to help them decide the most important information to include in their writing. They go to Wikipedia or some other site to find information, copy it and past it into Wordle to see what is emphasized. This really helps them stay organized on such broad topics.

Stay tuned for the final installment…

William is a third grade certified eMINTS Teacher located in Hallsville, Mo.

Related:

• 1st post: http://www.moodlemonthly.com/2010/moodle-in-real-life-part-1-west4me/
• William’s Twitter: @west4me
• Blog: http://moodleiselementary.blogspot.com/
• New classroom project: http://www.hallsville.org/elementary/cunningham/moodle/wordpress/

Part 2: Uses of Moodle in the Classroom

MoodleMonthly: What level and subjects to you use Moodle for?

William:

I teach students who are in the third grade. These students are age 7-9 years old.

I teach all the major subject areas, reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. I also teach my students about technology and emerging trends in education.

MM: What classroom tasks do you use it for? (I see that you assign jobs, seating assignments, etc., any other novel uses?)

William:

I have enhanced my site in some ways to help me stay organized. The jobs, making lunch choice, daily information, and seating assignments are all created outside of Moodle and are automated. I got tired of changing the information daily and sought outside help. I got some help from a student in New Jersey who was doing some freelance work.  He helped me so much and we are friends to this day. He also made a site to track my student’s progress in multiplication and division.

MM:  How much time you spend on it (to get it ready to use, to build the courses, to maintain it weekly/daily basis)?

William:

I am always working on Moodle. I never stop. I subscribe to many RSS feeds to keep me up to date. I also use Google alerts to keep me informed.

My courses are in constant development. I want to keep them as current as possible. I also try to think of ways I can incorporate emerging technology to promote social collaboration.

More coming tomorrow!

William is a third grade certified eMINTS Teacher located in Hallsville, Mo.

Related:

• William’s Twitter: @west4me
• Blog: http://moodleiselementary.blogspot.com/
• New classroom project: http://www.hallsville.org/elementary/cunningham/moodle/wordpress/

Part 1: The Start

MoodleMonthly:  So William, how did you get started using tech in the classroom?

William:

I began developing web pages for my class and I was writing them by hand in a simple text editor. I quickly realized that all I was doing was creating lists of links to other peoples sites. I wanted a way to interact with my students and a way to quickly deploy changes.

MoodleMonthly:  When did you begin using Moodle?

I started looking and learned about content management systems, which led me to Moodle. It was perfect, I could create interaction between my students and I. It also allowed me to quickly make changes without the need to edit html and then FTP to the server. I was sold.

This is just the first part of an email interview series which will be released this week.  Tune in for another installment tomorrow.