Kimberly Brueck (Instructional Technologist), Cindy Brown (Associate Principle), and Craig McKendry (Math Teacher) from Green High School presented on using blended learning to encourage professional development and innovative teaching. Although geared towards K-12 I decided to attend anyway in hopes of more universally helpful principles and tips.

(Unfortunately the presentation was much more of a tour of Moodle than it was a guide to best practices in collaboration.)

Kimberly started off polling the audience about what their job is. The crowd was a mix of principals, professional development specialists, technology specialists, and library technologists.

Kimberly then encouraged us to be willing to envision something “complex” in planning for online learning. She encouraged study of options and ensuring that there is sufficient infrastructure, robust training, and clear expectations. Additionally, it is highly recommended to have dedicated support and development personnel.

The Green High school district used Moodle, a free and open source Learning Management System.

Starting small

Before launching into online learning, Green High decided to start by building a professional learning network. They began by converting all hand-out materials to a one-stop-shop online source. This included:

• Staff handbook
• Staff directory
• Links to important information
• Instructions for staff

Additionally, they began in a blended format while they acclimated the staff to using the online tools. They set up a school-wide discussion forum to support teachers. Kimberly encouraged those wanting to dive in to automate tasks normally done on paper, demonstrate collaborative features, and eventually to outright require collaboration from teachers.

Avoid Clutter & Reinvention

Kimberly had these tips:

• Stay focused on district and building goals
• Don’t “crowd the inbox” of staff members
• Make a long term commitment to developing the online learning environment.
• Be prepared to meet people where they are and then move forward.

At this point Cindy took control to show us the setup of their Moodle homepage. She gave us a tour of all the kinds of documents they had posted on their Moodle site.

Cindy explained how Moodle helps them to keep to keep their eye on the goal of accomplishing teaching and curriculum goals.

Craig speaks up

Craig took over at this point. He became interested in Moodle through a course he took from U of Akron. Akron used Springboard (another LMS) and Craig really enjoyed the interaction and reduced paper overhead in taking the class. All class assignments were downloaded from the web and most class participants had laptops.

Craig uses Moodle in his math classes to post lessons and notes as well as quizzes.

Mike’s Take:

The presentation provided a good overview for school districts who have yet to dive into teaching online and supporting faculty development with online learning tools. It wasn’t much up my alley because I’m already in a college system that is using these tools for online courses.

Moodle has always looked really busy to me. Like  it has too much clutter in your face. That said, it’s great to have a free and open source option for learning management.