Well worth a Listen

Not quit a predication but the title of a really informative, thought provoking and even controversial short series of broadcasts from BBC4 Radio by Sarah Montague called My teacher is an App that investigate ‘The classroom of the Future’, ‘The University of the Future’ and ending with ‘An Education Revolution?’ this final episode features a lively debate from a good cross section of interested parties.  I must say the series really gave me valuable insight into the many ways that technology is finding its way into the classroom around the world. Not too surprising there was one case where the application of technology was seen as a means to leverage outcomes while at the same time providing opportunities to rationalise resources, as in teachers, mmm. For the children of Silicon Valley’s hi-tech giants employees it seems that school does not include the use of computers before the age of thirteen! now that one was a surprise that I was most certainly not expecting. I recommend a listen and please feel free to comment.

Since I first began to make use of the Moodle vle here at college one of the activities that I bought into very early was the use of Forums. I use them in-class to acquire research findings, uploading extension activities set during the session, which we then use for presentation and open discussion later in the class plenary, and beyond class time forums are great for maintaining engagement with collaborative projects. And I guess I felt I had the use of forums just about nailed, when recently one of the class suggested that I set up a forum for use purely as an FAQ that could be posted to and answered by myself or other class members, great idea, and it is proving useful to such an extent that I now have an FAQ forum on all my courses. So how about your own use of forums? I see from the Poll I run on this blog ‘Which of Moodles features do you find most useful’ , Forums are the third most popular features of a vle, please feel free to comment.