Moodle Mania

Have you Moodled lately? Chances are that you may be one of the millions of people worldwide who is exercising their noodle using Moodle. Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, known by its buddies simply as Moodle, is a free E-Learning or computer-enhanced platform that allows educators to create and manage online courses. Its applications allow for rich user interactions in forums, quizzes, blogs, wikis and surveys just to name a few. Of particular interest to my own teaching is Moodle's ability to facilitate collaborative reflective thinking activities in blogs.

Gateway Gadget

Moodle’s own website claims that this software supports the “social constructivist framework of education” that I am trying to build within my classroom. I have attempted to facilitate this framework in years past using a basic discussion forum provided by my district. Unfortunately, this has led to mixed success. Although my students were making great learning connections between lab and course work, the rigidity of the forum’s format and lack of intuitive design led to a heavy time investment for forum establishment. Having talked with other educators who have used Moodle, its ease of use and intuitiveness of design makes it easy to implement and manage. Moodle has been termed by a fellow teacher as a “gateway drug for technology” because its ease of use gets non-techies into tech. Further, the luxury of having many applications packaged into one Moodle site allows for great flexibility.

Stealth Technology

In my own research, I have found blogs to be a cunning learning medium. By transforming traditional paper-pencil writing and verbal communications to a computer based medium students are intrinsically motivated to think and act in a reflective manner about complicated biological concepts. In particular, I have found that boys want to compose written works because of the cool computer technology. They perceive that they are “getting out of work” by using a keyboard rather than a pencil. Moodle stealthily harnesses student’s natural motivation to use technology in an interactive environment where links to websites, video and audio can easily be embedded into discussion prompts. Further, students can access the information at any time that they choose. This gives the learner greater choice and ultimately greater ownership of their learning. Students who have motor issues, lack solid computer skills and/or who have limited Internet access might find this shift to Moodle off-putting.

Glyph This!

Moodle’s capacity to account for individual differences and facilitate collaboration has the potential to lead to incredible cognitive growth. To begin, students’ cognition is enhanced by Moodle’s ability to embed multimedia instruction into forum postings. Students are empowered to construct meaning for themselves by visiting various interactive sites, simulations and podcasts. Further, glossaries and multi-language support found within Moodle aid English Language Learners and struggling students. This is not to say that Moodle is for every learner. Rather, students who are strong verbal communicators or who have difficulty putting their thoughts into writing would most likely prefer traditional group discourse. Also, students who have visual issues or who just wish to read from paper would opt for a more traditional approach to collaboration. Finally, subtleties of discourse such as body language, voice intonation and gestures are lost to homogeneous facial glyphs :( and screaming exclamation points!

Educational Oragami

Intellectual innovation and creativity is encouraged by the use of Moodle. This creativity begins with the instructor’s faculty to fold their lessons into works of educational origami with artful multimedia dimensions. Through creative lesson design comes creative student responses. The creativity is not in the construction of any artifacts per say, but with the uniqueness of the thought processes that students undergo and the construction of innovative ideas. However, a weakness of Moodle is its inability to protect these innovative ideas from being pirated.

Curriculum Schmurriculum

Moodle supports both substantative and syntactical structures. Students can use Moodle’s glossary feature to aid in basic content and vocabulary mastery. Further, unique understandings and new knowledge can be constructed through collaborative and reflective group discourse. Because Moodle allows educators to create online courses, the program can be perfectly aligned with content expectations. Great academic growth can be realized through its ability to support both structures of the biological discipline. The intellectual creativity, reflective collaboration and cognitive growth that Moodle affords has convinced me to jump headlong into Moodle mania.

From the Horse's Mouth

See Moodle in action at:


Moodle on Moodle: