Moodle Online Course Reflections

After three weeks of the Moodle Basics Online course, I have made a few observations.

1. Only a few teachers attended the optional in person kick-off session that was offered. Since it is an online course, this is not unusual. However, the theory was that this session would bring a sense of community to the participants that attended. Only one of the participants that attended actually is following through on the course so far.
2. The teachers really seemed to enjoy the forum regarding how they envision using Moodle in their classrooms. 
3. While a number of the teachers needed a beginner's class to Moodle, some wanted something quite more advanced. In fact, I received a request to learn how to create screencasts. 
4. Some content I would change:
1. Take out the tutorial about adding widgets/Voki
2. Add optional content about creating screencasts for course
3. Take out instruction for participants to hide their course.
5. I am asking participants to give me their feedback about the course in the form of a survey. This will help me make more modifications on how this course is run again.

I'm looking for ways to have teachers share their module with the other teachers at their school. I am considering creating a video .

Introducing Prezi to Ninth Graders

I was asked to help some ninth grade students learn a new presentation tool, Prezi.
http://www.prezi.com

Prezi always seemed a bit - strange to me. Sure, it is a presentation tool, but the concept of zooming in and out was not quite clicking with me.

I went to the site to see their support and tutorials. I was in luck -- they have wonderful basic tutorials to get started on http://prezi.com/explore/staff-picks/.

Your Very First Prezi is a great way to learn the tool. It is tagged as public and reusable, so when you click on the name, you will see a new page with a button to Copy the Prezi.

You need to enter edit mode when opening the copy of the prezi to view the tutorial properly and make changes.

They cover concepts such as: zooming aspect of the tool to focus on parts of the big picture, adding text, manipulating and adding images, adding frames and changing the path of the presentation.

After running through the tutorial with the students, I directed the kids to create a new Prezi and choose one of the templates.

So, from start to finish, here was the sequence:

1. Create Prezi account (free) at www.prezi.com.
2. Once in, go to Explore topic. 
3. Then click on Staff category on next page.
4. Then scroll down to the Learning to Use Prezi category.
5. Select My Very First Prezi.
6. Click on Make a Copy.
7. This will take you back to My Prezis. Hover over the Copy of My Very First Prezi and click on the Edit button.
8. Run through each slide (follow directions on Prezi).
9. Close out at the end to go back to My Prezis.
10. Create a New Prezi and then select from a template to start with own individual prezi.

I think for some groups, going through each one as a class was not very exciting. Perhaps in the future, I will make it a small group activity instead of a large group activity.

OR, perhaps creating a sample prezi with the kids, showing them the tools along the way would be helpful.