Thursday, May 28, 2009

LBCC Moodle Online Summer Camp

As you probably know, we’ll be transitioning from Blackboard to Moodle next year. We’ll have both systems available all year long, so you can begin your own transition to Moodle at a time and pace that’s convenient for you.

As one way to help you learn how to use Moodle, both from a teacher’s perspective and from a student’s perspective, we’re creating an informal, fun Moodle “Summer Camp Online.”

Here’s the deal: if you’d like to start a reading discussion group (trashy novels welcome!), a summer recipe sharing group, a mini-class in how to participate in Facebook, a Mac user’s group, a movie discussion group, or any other fun summer learning activity, please volunteer to become a teacher/facilitator or discussion leader and tell us (the Technology Initiatives sub-committee of ITEC) what you’d like to do. We’ll set you up with a Moodle course shell and point you toward some basic instructions on how to use it. (We might even have a short in-person workshop. But the nice thing about Moodle is it doesn’t take much help to learn it.) Then you’ll create your course or discussion group and be the official teacher/facilitator.

If you’d like to be a “student,” stay tuned for our “Course Catalog” email that will let you know what’s being offered. Then you can sign up and have something fun to do this summer while learning a bit about using Moodle!

Of course, this is all voluntary - no pay for teachers/facilitators, no tuition for “students.”

If you’d like to offer a short course or lead a book discussion group, please send us an email with a brief description by next Tuesday (June 2). We’ll then do our best to send out the “Course Catalog” email by next Thursday, June 4. Let’s aim for starting our courses the week of June 29, to avoid conflict with the first week of summer term, and let’s aim for most courses lasting 4 weeks.

Please send your course ideas, proposals, and/or questions to me right away, even if you just have a 1-2 sentence idea of what you might like to do. Nothing fancy or detailed required.

For example, I'm thinking of leading a reading discussion group on "The War of Art" - a book about recognizing and facing the resistance that comes up whenever we try to do something creative or meaningful.

Don't be shy - let's set up some fun, informal courses to teach each other something cool this summer!

Paul Hagood
Co-Chair
Technology Initiatives sub-committee of ITEC

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