From The Herald-Times 12/18/2006Mark Helmsing doesn’t stand in front of his Core 40 English class lecturing and passing out homework assignments.
The Bloomington High School North teacher instructs students to log onto a program called Moodle — a course management program similar to OnCourse — where they type their thoughts and discuss themes.
“Moodle allows students to compose texts much more rapidly and frequently during the course of a class period,” Helmsing explained in an e-mail. “We can begin class by reading a Robert Frost poem, sharing our impressions of the poem’s message in the Moodle discussion forum, answer some critical reading questions about a novel we’re reading during a Moodle reading quiz, write reflections and personal responses to a text in the Moodle journal feature, and end class with a more open-ended discussion about a topic in the Moodle chat room — all before the bell rings.”
What is Moodle?
Moodle is a free software program in its infancy stage as a classroom tool in the Monroe County Community School Corp. To use it, students have to be enrolled in a class with a teacher monitoring Moodle, and they can access the program from home or elsewhere via the Web.
They can create blogs and journal entries, but because no guests can log in, it’s a safe place for communication.
“It’s not open to the whole world. It’s safer in that regard,” said North Technology Coordinator Steve Cole.
Moodle is customizable, uses a point-and-click method and can incorporate links, outside resources and video and audio clips.
It started last year at MCCSC in a pilot program, and Helmsing was quick to embrace it. He says the notion that a student studies, writes and takes exams in isolation “is eroding among educators.”
“There is a movement most commonly called Web 2.0, which refers to Internet-based services — blogging, wikis, social 
Cole expects other teachers to grow used to the idea of Moodle and come aboard, too, especially once they realize such benefits as scheduling a quiz to appear just within a certain time frame — and having it graded immediately — and the ability to encourage threaded discussions among students. One of Helmsing’s recent thread topics was about online etiquette. Because students in high school today are considered “digital natives,” Cole said, such discussions are exciting for them.
Benefits, drawbacks
Two days after a freshman class of 30 started reading “Stargirl,” a book about one teen’s rise and fall of popularity, Helmsing started a Moodle discussion about popularity at North.
“Popularity at Bloomington North is very important to nearly everybody,” wrote 15-year-old Jason Waterman, typing his words quietly in the back of the classroom. “The day that everyone graduates middle school, they say to themselves, ‘I am going to be cooler in high school than I was in middle school.’”
Helmsing says students feel more comfortable typing responses than they do writing on a handout he gives them. Waterman agrees.
“On paper, people tend to be lazier and not write as much, and shier for some reason. But people like to type,” he said.
Adam Turpin, 16, participates more through Moodle than he perhaps would otherwise, he said. But it’s really such attributes as paperlessness and the easy-to-maneuver program structure that he appreciates.
Students definitely are using the program, even outside of class time.
“We found students were working on assignments at 10 p.m. on a Friday evening, at 4 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon… Students were sharing news about athletic competitions they had won Friday night as early as they got home from the game, and by Saturday morning, their classmates were congratulating them online in the Moodle discussion board,” Helmsing said.
Others are taking more time to adapt, saying the computer-based comments from Helmsing feel less personal than a handwritten note, he said.
And, just because high school students are considered digital natives, that doesn’t mean they’re used to online learning.
“Just because a student spends two to three hours a night on his or her computer at home playing games and messaging friends does not mean he or she will possess good typing skills, computer problem-solving skills, internet research skills,” Helmsing said.
Users do not need a personal computer at home to keep up with class work, but Moodle “does shed light on the fact that a portion of our student population is woefully inexperienced with using computers and finds them unwelcoming and intimidating,” he said.
Also, while some teachers at Bloomington High School South are interested in Moodle, as are other North teachers, user interest could spell a management problem for Cole. He’s the only person managing online accounts.
Still, Cole anticipates major future benefits, including offering entire courses online for homebound people and other distance learners.
Copyright: HeraldTimesOnline.com 2006
