MyPortfolio Tasters

I've been running MyPortfolio Taster Sessions this term and sharing the Teaching with MyPortfolio page. The page is a great resource and I refer to it in the session as the 'guts of MyPortfolio'. Really if you can do those things then you can use it in the classroom. I tried to keep them all less than 90 seconds, but creating a page was just too much.
The sessions have been well received and it was great to catch up with Heath Sawyer earlier this term to swap ideas as there has been lots of primary interest this term. Primary teachers seem to be more cyber savvy on the whole and pick it up quickly.
Sessions are Ministry funded for the rest of the year and can be booked here

Revolutionising education?!?!

Here is a great infographic from onlineeducation.net. I've seen more of this type of information hitting the mainstream media lately and I love it! The majority of it is information that we already know although it is backed up with some nice bits of data. The article is talking about higher education and it suggests that students are increasingly finding their own knowledge through the web and without a face to face teacher?? There is great investment from the Gates Foundation and governments in elearning, but I think that they are missing the important role that the teacher plays to engage, inspire, share and encourage them to think! blended learning is allowing educators in higher education to have more students, I hope higher student ratios is not something that filters down to schools.

Via: OnlineEducation.net

Moodle Developments

Martin Dougiamas gave this presenation lat month tahat showed some of the developments in Moodle.

Moodle Development May 2011

View more presentations from Martin Dougiamas

Martin gives some great stats and shows how moodle has ballooned around the world in many different languages and how it is being used by many corporates - I'd love to see this!!?
The slide titled Pedagogical Progression (slide 8) shows 10 steps that teachers go through on their moodle journey. This made me evaluate my own use and my workshops with teachers. The first step for teachers is mirroring their home drive and then adding multimedia which is an enormous step for the majority of teachers. After this I try and encourage some thinking about engaging students and building communities using quiz, forum and assignment. I'm not sure about the points 9 and 10 for secondary schools?? perhaps I'll change my mind with further use.
The planned major releases for moodle show a real strength in its development and it looks like there are some good things on the way. With further polishing of the UI and of course there is now an App for Moodle!
When trying to save in moodle 2 the hubs are introduced. The prospect of having different repositories for me, the school, web 2.0 sites and the local community are immense I can't wait to see where this goes. Of course some of this integrates into Mahara too!