Tag Archives: imoot

Forum – the heart of Moodle (iMoot reflection #1)

Huh, the iMoot is over!

Judging by the feedback through various channels, the inaugural world online Moot was a resounding success. Congratulations and sincere thanks again to the iMoot crew, particularly to Leonie Beetham, Shane Elliot & Julian Ridden.

It was great to listen to so many passionate and clever moodlers, it was also great fun and honour to present at this event. I put my hand up for two things – the series of 3 live presentations called ‘Forum – the heart of Moodle’ (described below) in the Teacher Stream and a general panel discussion titled “Moodle v Pink Floyd – Breaking Walls With Moodle” (more on and from the panel next time…)

I embed a presentation I used as a backbone to my 3 ‘live shows’. In the first part of each presentation, I stressed that (at least to me) Forum activity epitomises Moodle for particularly two reasons. Firstly, because Forum is essentially a conversation, it encourages, enacts the constructivist notion of learning (we build knowledge with and for each other through active participation). Secondly, it presents awesome opportunities to get creative and moodle away (‘to moodle’ used as a verb meaning to tinker, create, experiment, get ‘a-ha!’ moments in trying to use Moodle in a meaningful way) to suit the needs of a particular context in a relatively simple, straightforward way with a little bit of imagination.

I tickled the participants with a few ideas about the possible uses of Forum activity (slides 5 to 8), took them on a brief web tour of what happened in my class just a day or two before, mentioned the ‘5 Principles of Moodle’ (see slide 12) then …. invited the participants to “walk the talk” on all five, immediately. Now THAT was the best part!

Inspired by Dave Cormier’s ‘live slides’ experience (read the post & rationale!), I simply created a few blank slides. One to doodle and practice, four with guiding questions on them.

While quietly expecting some input, I was blown away how quickly and effortlessly the slides filled up with awesome ideas from people (mostly teachers & educators) from around the world. Thoughtful, real educational experiences, positive and negative, pouring  onto the shared space.  I simply guided and commented on selected items that appeared on the  board while keeping an eye on requests, questions and comments in the chat window. We were literally building together. And every one of the three groups had slightly different ideas that simply enriched us all while having fun, engaged …Forum – The Heart of Moodle (iMoot presentation)

View more presentations from Tomaz Lasic.

I have since collated the responses gathered from slides, audio and chat of our ‘Forum – The Heart of Moodle’ sessions into a document I share below. I invite you to freely share & build upon non-commercially but if you do so please acknowledge the source by the request of the iMoot organisers and myself. Sincere apologies if I missed any points that you may have contributed but the devil of interpretation is that something always does get lost.

Forum – the heart of Moodle

A big thank you to all who participated in any of these sessions (and apologies for bumbling with Java setup on the first one :-0). YOU made them great, I hope you got as much out of them as I did.

A big, unsolicited plug also to Elluminate (not just because they were iMoot sponsors) – a great tool, worthy of exploring and using! I don’t know about you but I am getting myself a free ‘Vroom’ at LearnCentral very soon (thank you Jo Hart for helping me all along! 🙂 ).

Notes on the Panel 3 coming soon, still chewing through. Ciao moodlers!

Calling all moodlers

iMoot, the world’s first online MoodleMoot (‘moot’ is a word of ancient origin used to popularly name gatherings of Moodle users and developers around the world) is kicking off this coming week, Thursday 4 February to Sunday, 7 February 2010.

Quick numbers: 31 timezones, 210 countries, 40 presenters in 3 streams … all unlimited for AUD$45 and there is bound to be a time slot that suits you!

I know I sound like a salesman now (no, I don’t get a dime out of it) but this is a fantastic opportunity to have access to all materials, share, learn and connect with fellow moodlers from around the world for four days at a cost of a few beers.

Here is a little teaser/intro to my own presentation (in the Teacher Stream) titled ‘Forum – the heart of Moodle’. (YouTube version link)

Forum – the heart of Moodle from Tomaz Lasic on Vimeo.  (Sorry, the audio goes a tad funny :-/ ah well…)

I am sure that the inaugural iMoot will be packed with great presentations, panel discussions and just some renown Moodle camaraderie, even if online this time.

If you haven’t had a chance to look, here is the address again: http://imoot.org

Big thank you goes to Julian, Leonie, Shane, Martin & the rest of the iMoot crew for putting on this event.

See you at the iMoot!