Moodle Extends the Classroom Online

I looked over the other day to find my 10-year-old typing away at the PC with three instant message boxes open on the screen. She has not been a big IM-er, so it surprised me. The IM tool was not Yahoo! Messenger or AIM, but Moodle, the free, open-source educational software package her fifth grade teacher is using.

Moodle seems to be the open-source software of choice in our school district, and for good reason. It provides excellent tools for teachers to extend what they are trying to achieve in the classroom to an online venue. Throughout the year, students in my daughter's class will be directed to their Moodle site to complete assignments, reach links their teacher has approved for research, play Math games to hone skills, and write about what they think of it all. That's just a sampling.

As a parent, I was directed there to read her class student handbook so I know what is expected of my fifth grader for the year. What a pleasure not to get that eight-page document in the backpack, another item to be stowed away at home or recycled. My daughter read it, too, and we let the teacher know we both read and discussed the handbook.

As for the IM feature, I'm all for it. Of course, the kids will talk about much, much more (or less) than school work, but they're learning to converse online with kids they will sit next to in class and at lunch the next day and play with at recess.

One of the IM boxes open on my daughter's screen was her teacher's. A few lines in, her teacher wrote, "Why don't you do some work on the site while you're here?"

"It's Friday!" my daughter IMed back.

"Right," said her teacher.

 I like that my daughter can click on the reading section and read about what her teacher read over the summer and is currently reading to inspire her students to pick their own favorite books to read every day. She already has inspired the kids to start a forum talking about the books they are reading and what they think about them. Good stuff, and I'll be following how it makes my youngest's fifth grade year different than her older siblings'.