Ning v Moodle

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gregory Louie on September 4, 2008 at 12:05am

Hi All,

I'm still trying to sort all the new Web technologies into their proper places in my curriculum in progress. I can see that no one technology fits all of my needs, so my goal is to craft a solution that allows each to synergistically complement each other.

It seems to me that Moodle is feature-rich and designed to house all the tools that a teacher would want to deliver. However, the lack of attention to interface design is a deal breaker for me. In my opinion, interface design is vitally important to the success of integrating a web technology into the curriculum.

Clean design, a good menu system and proximity of services draw students into the course and help them use these tools efficiently and effectively.

For one way delivery of content and simple quizzes, I use a paid service. I recommend myteacherpages.com as it is very teacher-friendly with a professional looking interface. Moodle can deliver canned content, but in a text-base interface that is soo... 20th century.

Since myteacherpages.com doesn't have a rich set of blogging and commenting features, I create a lesson in myteacherpages with a link to Class Blogmeister. This allows me to create a easy-to-manage class blog, where students can journal and comment on other students' articles. I control both the username and passwords for each class so there is no need for students to register themselves with their own email addresses. Since all articles are moderated, I approve everything that goes up on the site and make sure there is no inappropriate use.

I am now exploring Wetpaint as for my class wikis. Wetpaint has a nicer interface than the typical wiki derived from the original wikipedia design. It provides templates for both classroom wikis and group projects.

My goal is to integrate several technologies by using a web 1.0 website (myteacherpages) to deliver the syllabus with weekly agendas and daily activity guides. These activity guides will contain instructions on the activity and a hyperlink to a web 2.0 site.

In this way, I can pick and choose the best of the latest Web 2.0 technologies for inclusion in my activities, while maintaining some of the logical structure of my course from year to year in an aesthetically pleasing and highly functional design.

I hope that helps.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rebecca on September 4, 2008 at 3:39pm

I agree Gregory that accessible interfaces are essential for students yet this is where the web2 technology lets us down.
It's so good to read about someonef who has tried and tested some of the technology and can pass on your experiences. I'm going to look into this - but I fear (already) that our educational institution (TAFE - Technical and Further Education) in Sydney will block most of it. However, since reading your post, I feel more encouraged to keep trying.

I think you'll find that Wetpaint will work! I now use wikispaces to keep my resources on but it's not that user-friendly for students who have little computer or English speaking skills to begin with. Wepaint does indeed seem more user-friendly. I still love moodle for structure - but I really have to spend hours getting to grips with all its features (way too many for me) - but everything I do with my students has to go through a series of passwords and protocols before we can begin so maybe I'm being unfair to moodle.

I'll check the hosted site - though I wonder if this will work for me in Australia.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page