Moodle mad!

The first week of term is always just that little bit crazy. I have really enjoyed meeting all my new students and pleased to see some returning. I am teaching on two new courses this year and am really enjoying the challenge. Over the break I set up a Moodle site for our section. I ran a training day for the staff to show them the basics of Moodle. Each staff member was a given a Moodle page for their course and they could add to it whatever they felt like. I was really pleased with the amount of enthusiasm from staff about the possibilities of using this technology. It was so pleasing. 

However in some ways my enthusiasm is short lived as many of the students don't have regular access to technology or we are so limited at TAFE by access to technology on a regular basis that I wonder in some ways why I went to all the effort. We have 7 laptops now for a class of 28. So Moodle becomes reduced to a communication device for those who have the time or inclination outside of class time to access the technology. Feeling very frustrated. With so many budget cuts to TAFE I don't see how we can move into the 21st century when our students have such limited access. Those above me have been as helpful as possible and share in my desire for students to have access but there is little money for my cause. So.....I will continue to campaign and try and find funding for more technology and in the meantime I will just have to get creative. 

Photo by Noah Smith licensed under Creative Commons Attributions License 2.0 Generic 

This week I am introducing the classes I teach to blogging. I must admit that in the last few months I have found it hard to find time however I will stick to it as much as possible. We can always find time to priorities the things that are important and taking time for reflection and thinking is good practice. 

Hoping that all will go smoothly this week so I can actually start marketing my business. Work/ life balance was non existent last week. Looking for a 

better balance this week

Favorite sites for the week:

Educational resources:

• A great place to find some some educational resources for a number of subjects. 

        Edshelf

• Easily record a presentation with photos from your ipad or ipod. Great for capturing and recording class work. 

        Show me App

• A really fantastic and creative app for digital story telling. You imagination is the only limit. 

        Scribble Press App

Until next week,

K