Moodle Moot UK 2010 – Closing Keynote

Closing keynote/plenary: Geoff Rebbeck, Thanet College

Moodle brings teachers and ‘technicians’ together. Moodle removes the technical barriers for teachers when properly implemented.

First challenge: the wider world of technology

We used to think the institution needed to be the host of the learning technology, and use it by the institutions rules.

But students now have their own technologies and devices, and we need to know how to incorporate those learning technologies.

Best way to use Moodle is to put very little content in, and give students the power to put their own content in. Moodle is organise and grows as part of the life of the course it is supporting. If you set it up you’re making assumptions about how the students should behave.

Personalised and social learning. Need to make sure we capture those. Moodle consolidates what ‘we’ already do as teachers. Moodle isn’t simple, but it is intuitive.

When we think technology can do everything for us can let us fall into the trap of becoming passive teachers. Getting the set up of your course right is more of an art than a skill.

Using Moodle to save money, is the wrong way to approach it.

Need to develop experts who are capable of managing their own learning. That’s where we need to go with Moodle, it shouldn’t be just a repository.

Skills we need to develop:

• have to have a drive to be able to think reflexively, not just one way to do things
• have to have the ability to adapt technology to purposeful pedagogy – make do with deficiencies of software and bend it to work  the way we need it to
• need vision to be imaginative in using blended learning