Moodle, Tests, and Luddites

After a week of letting my stat kids have the computers out during class, I'm more or less satisfied with the experiment. Goodness knows one can goof off in class without technology. I've rearranged my room to give me space to walk behind the kids when I need to. And I've done a test on moodle. And it worked. It was easy to grade (would be easier if I figured out how to use the group feature) and easy to manage. I suspect cheating was not worse than any other time. And my kids did no worse than on pencil and paper. My little Luddite's comment was "none of my other teachers make me do this" - but he and I have done a class before, so he should have known that "no one else does this" isn't a good argument with Mrs. Rice - whose attitude is "wow, let's give this a try".

So we are at the Christmas break. I have one more section of precal test to grade (and a unit to do for stat), but we are half way home. The finals are done and ready, the solstice is past and we've got a whole new year coming up.

Janet Rice

More Thoughts on Technology in the Classroom

Today was a more or less successful day using the computers in stat class. I've learned that I niceeed to have things organized and prepped before hand - and make sure there is time for things to happen (like finding the line right below HW for Lesson 35 that says Quiz for Lesson 35) so the kids can actually do something. I've learned that the timer feature on moodle is amazingly nice - and I willu se it again.

For the first time I let the kidlets have the machines out during class - I've decided that if they are going to goof off they will do that anyway (I certainly did). And I had a couple of my kids say that having the computer on is helpful because they take notes - and they actually did, which is amazing.

So this is a learning experience. Let's see what we learn tomorrow.

Janet Rice

Student Centered Teaching

Since my district has let me have $50K worth of technology to work with, I've been trying to really use it for my statistics class. That means migrating my assessments to moodle. Yesterday I had a kid refuse to take a quiz on the computer. My real worry was that he had vision problems and that this is something we need to be aware of and consider modifications. But actually, according to his mom, it is just that he doesn't like the computer and doesn't see why he has to do it that way.

So - how do I square this student's disklike of computers with the need to get him prepared for a college environment which will be anything but focused on his needs? What does student centered actually mean? Does it mean we cater to their wishes, or does it mean that we work to what we know they need (and that does mean putting the time in to finding out what they need)?

On a plus side for technology - how can we use technology to modify lessons and modify presentation of material for kids with vision problems? More things to consider.

Janet Rice