Never to late to learn ... more moodle musings

1. What does "Education" mean nowadays? What are challenges and perspectives for the future of education?

In today’s society, education appears to mean being able to pass tests and/or get grades to show that you know something. It does not necessarily mean that you understand what you know, or that you know what you need to know. Nor does it mean that you can appropriately apply what you know in a useful way that benefits your self and society

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As the world of technology and commerce, global enterprises and climate changes speed up the number of changes in an ever increasingly vast pool of innovations, societies are ill equipped to adjust and progress with the changes.

In order to survive and thrive with change we need to change our understanding of education and the adaptive, collaborative and innovative skills that we will continue to need.

Memorization and regurgitation will no longer serve our needs as they may have in the past. Although, truth be told from my perspective, this was never an “education”; it was merely a control mechanism and a way to “rank” people in a society. It may even have bordered on an educational “caste” system that benefitted a minority.

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2. What does "a learning environment" mean to you? How is a Learning Environment in Moodle different from other educational settings?

My answer to this is brief: a learning environment is life itself and all that life entails. Mooodle has the capacity to tap into a more organic method of learning that resembles the investif=gations and discoveries we encounter as we live our lives. Success is measured by more interesting questions and more involved adventures, not by a raw test score … at least this is my hope.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness" ... Mark Twain

and this means all sorts of travel for me ... physical and mental

3. What is your experience with creating a Learning environment for Moodle users? Outside Moodle?

My experience creating a learning environment within Moodle has been limited to the course assignments. I am a rank newbie.

My experience outside of Moodle encompasses several formal LMS within which I have attempted to “break the barriers” of the traditional learning models with more social constructive learning techniques. Blogs, wikis, puzzles, You Tube, Facebook, LinkedIn and forums have been staples in my “toolkit”.

4. Suggest your ideas for creating a framework for the course design that reflect the benefits of Moodle pedagogy.

I have no specific ideas at the moment, and a lot of potentials explorations and discoveries to follow as I move forward. As a newbie, and as an older educational facilitator/mentor, I am aware of the value and necessity of incubation time. For now, I am immersing myself, as much as time allows, in the process of learning the LMS and additional web 2.0 tools with mini-presentations that resemble some course development.

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" ... is my personal motto of the moment!

PS PODCAST

Creativity and Moodle

"Creativity is the type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual" ... Arthur Koestler

What do I mean by creativity in the case of this course?  In the case of my goals for Moodle Management  in the advanced sessions M4T I would like to apply my background of course development in a new, and different LMS,  as well as to learn and apply some additional new education methodologies.  In order to effect the Moodle constructivist learning model,  I am sorting through what I have needed to unlearn, learn and relearn.  Alvin Toffler wrote in the 70's that these would be the skills for literacy in the 21st century.  As a  lifelong learner (of already many years ~ read that as many, many years), new learning has been a serious and fun quest, and sharing the new learning has been a continuous and enjoyable endeavor.  As an educational entrepreneur,  I am always in a state of flow with creative learning approaches and facilitating endeavors.

 

With this final  Moodle course ~ in the  M4T series my initial goal is to design several modules illustrating a variety of adoption/adaption potentials for a variety of end users: not for profit, business, education, global collaboration (to mention a few) using multiple learning style modes for the enjoyment of having fun learning.  Building and then applying skills of new learning seems to me to be one of the most rewarding and memorable life endeavors. Collaborating and sharing the learning is a constant flow of changing and growing.  

I look forward to learning with and from the cohort in M4T now, as well as into the future.  I hope to be able to develop more "new learning"  and collaborate and share on a global stage, within and beyond  my multiple academic community associations.

As a post script:   the unit of SUNY (State University of New York) with which I have been  associated is ESC (Empire State College).  

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Team Logo and Business Card 2.0

We collaborated using gmail, Skype and mental musings re: design and copy.  The final products were created via Wordle and CS5.

Global Communication: Moodle with Carol and Silvia