Moodle provides several benefits for students in Dave McSpadden's 7th and 8th grade math classes: 1) It supports student organizational skills, learning styles, and work habits. 2) It allows for timely grade feedback to keep students aware of how recent tests and assignments impact their overall grade. 3) It includes a forum for group interaction and opportunities for students to discuss problems and strategies without waiting for the next class.

1. Baisnet Web 2.0 MCDS
3/10/08 Joanne Oppenheimer Convent/Stuart Hall K-8
Moodle for 7th and 8th Grade Dave McSpadden’s Math Classes
“Moodle from a Student’s Perspective”

2. Screen Shot of the Math Moodle Home Page
Supports: student organizational skills, learning styles, work habits. These three tools for
acquiring knowledge can be problematic for students. Moodle Can Help!
Moodle has parent info sections ( student as teacher in his family)
Timely grade feedback (keeps student current and aware of impact of last test or assignment
Forum section for group interaction and teacher hours outside of class

3. Moodle Math Site Builds Knowledge Based on Group Communication
(Below a Screen Shot of Math Moodle Problem of the Week)
Students are expected to view and build on each others’ thinking.
(25 submitted assignments on right)
Work may be uploaded as a word file, a drawn and scanned image, or a graph. Different learning
styles are accommodated.
Strategies to solve problem are discussed. No one correct way to get to the answer.
Students can “mull over” a problem and answer it with feedback from classmates and teacher with
out waiting until next class for an answer.
Teacher can delete items which are not pertinent to online discussion

4. Example of “Poster Gallery” Type of Assignment
Here is a sample of a student posting of their Fibonacci Number site. In the past this assignment was
created as a physical poster displayed in the classroom. It had limited access and use by others in this
form.
Each student had to check out the classmate’s work and comment on their finds well as come up
with a different example to post. Those who put off this assignment had a more difficult time
finding a unique source.
Students who didn’t get much out of a regular poster on a wall can return to this site on the
moodle forum and click the live link for inspiration long after regular posters would have been
taken down and URL to the information lost or miscopied by hand.
Parents can view other posts and have discussions on the topic with their children.