Classrom Live with Beth Still

This was a very informative session discussing a variety of online class organisation systems including Moodle. Beth Still is incredibly knowledgeable about teaching using Web 2.0. Here is a quote from her Edublog "I am a self-proclaimed edtech evangelist! I love finding Web 2.0 tools for my students to use that will help them express their creativity. I believe that by giving students options it empowers them and drives them to succeed."
In the session today Beth explained that she uses tools such as Moodle to allow her students to learn using different platforms and to proceed at their own pace. Her blog link is http://bethstill.edublogs.org/beths-bio/
Moodle stands for modular object oriented dynamic learning environment. It is based on social constructivism allowing variation in instructional materials to meet the needs of all types of learners.
The intro page to Moodle reads:
"Welcome to the Moodle community!
Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites.
Moodle.org is our community site where Moodle is made and discussed. Please use the menus to explore and join in!"
The link is: http://moodle.org/

Other interesting tools discribed by Beth included:

1. Diigo  http://www.diigo.com/
   "Diigo allows you to take personal notes and highlight text information on web pages just as you would on a piece of paper. You can then bookmark and save this information for further review, while adding tags to keep everything organized. In bookmarking this information, you can also choose to share with colleagues and friends to allow them to access the web page, view your notes and highlights, and add their own annotations. "
2. Linoit  http://en.linoit.com/ 
   lino
3. Live binder     http://livebinders.com/  "LiveBinders is your 3-ring binder for the Web. Collect your resources, organize them neatly and easily, make an Impression."
4. Twitter widget  http://twitter.com/about/resources/widgets "Widgets let you display Twitter updates on your website or social network page
   
   Widgets are compatible with any website and most social networks. Simply choose the one that matches where you would like to include it."

 I do not understand the use of all of these resources yet but I am determined to investigate them and try to encorporate some at least in my future teaching.