Day 1 -Introduction to Moodle

Yesterday was Day 1 of our course Introduction to Moodle at Moodlerooms.com It was an interesting day as participants came into the course room and began introducing themselves to one another. Like the first day of kindergarten, learners quickly sorted out their common interests and connections in the introductory forum.

Congenial and often funny, participants added their personal avatars or photos as they signed into this asynchronous, online course with participants around the country. Participants range from college professors, IT directors, adult ed trainers, high school teachers and corporate trainers to native American community educators. It's an interesting mix of people in this online course. I look forward to working with them over the next fourteen days.

One idea we had early in our company was to help instructors from schools, businesses, corporations or faith-based and community organizations learn how to use Moodle and design a course for their constituents

Over a three year period, we've instituted a sequenced , scaffold instructional design for our introductory courses. Our deliverable was for participants to have designed a usable course after 28 days of participation in two Moodle courses, each lasting for 14 days. . In addition, we're concerned about best practices in online instruction. Research says that in order to teach online, you must learn online.

When we started our online courses early in 2006, there were few people using Moodle as an LMS online. Moodlerooms however was the first to offer instructor led, asynchronous instruction online with a deliverable,( a usable course) as the outcome

Now, fast forward to 2008 and there are more Moodle Partners offering online courses. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

Here at Moodlerooms we also have MRCTs (Moodlerooms Certified Trainers) facilitating instruction in the online courses. These Moodlers make everyone feel at home as they welcome participants to the course and answer any questions new Moodlers may have.

More later....

Intro...Part 2

Whoa! It's been a busy few months. You know that a Mama's work is always being done and this Moodle Mama 2 is no different. For those of you new to Moodledom, let me backtrack a little and re-introduce myself. My name is Sheila D. Gatling and I'm one of the co-founders of Moodlerooms, Inc.

Moodlerooms provides wrap-around technical support services for the hugely popular, free Moodle open source software. As an official Moodle Partner , Moodlerooms provides the support, hosting, customization, instruction, training and other services you need to tap Moodle’s full potential – whether for a single class, a school or a 50,000 student university.

Our Founders

Sheila Gatling, Co-Founder

As a 34-year veteran of the middle school classroom, Sheila is expert in teaching K-12 students, connecting with teacher education programs, and delivering professional development courses. She has been an active unionist, labor negotiator and New York State United Teachers instructor in their Effective Teaching Program. Sheila has co-authored a book entitled, The Black College Guide. She also has significant expertise integrating open source technologies, including Moodle and Linux, into classroom practice in both middle school and higher education environments.

Tom Murdock, Co-Founder

Tom arrives at Moodlerooms from a background of secondary school instruction. For the past 15 years, he has engaged students as a classroom teacher, a boarding school adviser, a wilderness expedition leader, an English department chairperson at two schools, and the administrator of a number of writing and art programs. Tom has been an enthusiastic supporter and contributor to the Moodle project for the past five years.

Gina Russell Stevens, Co-Founder

Gina has practiced as a management consultant for over 25 years. She also completed graduate study in online teaching and learning and is a certified online instructor with expertise in online community building. Her extensive experience delivering organizational development and strategic planning services to urban, minority and woman-owned enterprises has provided synergistic opportunities toward closing the digital divide. In conjunction with her consulting practice, Gina delivered classroom and online training on her models for culturally dynamic^TM learning and communicating to K-12 and higher education institutions, government agencies and corporations.

Lately......

This past Spring, the Moodle Mamas have been very busy introducing new users to Moodle as a tool to deliver services to educational institutions, corporate entities and individual instructors. One thing remains paramount as I Moodle each and every day, the Moodle community is collaborative,helpful to others and generous with their time. Moodlers help one another. That is true of the seasoned and veteran Moodlers as it is of the newly hatched, baby Moodlers I interact with in my Moodle 100 course.

Many new Moodlers are experienced with other learning management systems. It takes a minute for newbies to acclimate to a new navigation system. One of the great things about Moodle is the interactive forum discussion that allows new users to meet others in the course room. Instead of the usual, hello badge used in the f2f class, the introductory forum serves the same purpose as we go around the room, so to speak, introducing ourselves.

Today, June 15th is the start of another cohort of new Moodlers to the Moodle community at Moodlerooms. For the next two weeks, participants will learn about Moodle from the perspective of a learner. It's an exciting journey and similar to the first day of school we all experienced as children.

Stay tuned......

Introducing.....

In case you didn't know it, there are two Moodle Mama's on the face of the earth. My name is Sheila Gatling and I'm a co-founder of Moodlerooms Inc. Gina Russell Stevens is the other Moodle M We are a global e-learning company that supports the Open Source LMS Moodle. We provide services to support the Moodle platform. We provide hosting, support, training and customization for Moodle.