Participants will be introduced to the pedagogy, skills and techniques for facilitating online professional development courses for teachers using Moodle. Participants will also learn about the design of effective online professional development in Moodle and how Moodle can be used to teach teachers about Web 2.0 tools that can support curriculum. Participants will complete sample online training activities designed in a Moodle course that introduces teachers to blogs, wikis and other tools. Participants will learn how educators from five state departments of education (Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Virginia) collaborated in Moodle to provide Web 2.0 training for teachers through a collaborative project funded by the AT&T Foundation.

Outline

Introduction: 5 minutes
Skills and Techniques of Online Facilitation in Moodle: 25 minutes
Using Moodle to Provide Online Training in Web 2.0 Tools: 25 minutes
Building a Collaborative Project using Moodle: 5 minutes

Participants will be using http://moodle.org and http://moodle.etlo.org to access Moodle tools, online facilitation examples, and a variety of Web 2.0 tools.

Outline (for Open Source Lab)

Introduction: 5 minutes
Skills and Techniques of Online Facilitation in Moodle: 25 minutes
Using Moodle to Provide Online Training in Web 2.0 Tools: 25 minutes
Building a Collaborative Project using Moodle: 5 minutes

Participants will be using http://moodle.org and http://moodle.etlo.org to access Moodle tools, online facilitation examples, and a variety of Web 2.0 tools.

Supporting Research

Dede, Chris (2006), Online Professional Development for Teachers: Emerging Models and Methods. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Presenter Background

Liz Farmer is Project Director for the EdTech Leaders Online (ETLO) project at Education Development Center, where she provides capacity building training on implementing and facilitating online professional development courses. Liz is an experienced online facilitator and instructional designer, and also manages ETLO's ongoing post-training support and consulting for educational organizations as they implement their local online professional development programs.

Barbara Treacy is a Managing Project Director at Education Development Center where she directs EdTech Leaders Online, a national capacity building online professional development program for state departments of education, school districts, regional education service providers and teacher training institutions with participating organizations in over 35 states. As part of this work, Barbara directs EDC’s participation in e-Learning for Educators, an eight state collaboration to provide high quality online professional development for teachers.

Leinda Peterman is a Senior Technology Associate for Education Development Center's EdTech Leaders Online project where she facilitates online courses, designs course content and works with the ETLO management team on a variety of projects, including consulting and support services for state departments of education, school districts and other education organizations.