A multi-tool focusing on Moodle

Paper
A multi-tool focused on Moodle to enhance teaching and learning: the case of Cop
ernicus Systems - Pioneers of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano
John Marconato
Consultant Autonomous Province of Bolzano gianni@marconato.net
ABSTRACT In 2001 in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano is taken the decision to
explore the potential associated with the use of educational technologies at tha
t time began to be offered in a variety of educational backgrounds. The paper de
scribes the approach adopted here to identify the strategic approach to the inte
gration of technology in teaching and learning solutions and educational, organi
zational and technological taken. After defining the organizational context with
in which the project is being realized, that of initial training and continuing,
is presented an analysis of the major issues that were and are, featuring the u
ses of technology in teaching. Describes the limitations inherent in the model e
-learning and Learning Objects and to those associated through the analysis of i
nternational literature identifies some pedagogical and didactic concepts which
anchor the learning activities that can be enriched and improved with the use of
technology . Mail is the theme of educational uses of technology as simple tool
s to support and facilitation of organizational and managerial training and as a
tool that supports active and learning processes. The paper goes through a rout
e from the definition of s mission of the PF, through the identification of peda
gogical and didactic principles consistent with the mission itself that inform e
ducational practices; reasons, always with reference to the mission, the choice
for both constructivist teaching for general use in this technology and propose
an operational approach that summarizes the purpose, conceptualization and opera
tion. This approach, called learning activities, is fully described in its conce
ptual references, in the specific mode of interaction and integration between co
ntent and activities in its operational aspects in the design, development and m
anagement and operational support provided by Moodle. As for the technological i
nfrastructure of the project, the paper describes the reasons for selecting Open
Source of the "multi-platform tool" that features, components thereof and Moodl
e as it is the pivot operation.
1
THE CONTEXT
When in 2000, within the Province of Bolzano, it was decided to explore the oppo
rtunities of technology in enriching and improving the training activities, obse
rvation of the international scene made aware of the limited and short of breath
but then dominant approaches already in crisis: those that focus solely on the
implementation of technological equipment available and used in different contex
ts, organizational and business-education in those schools. The implicit assumpt
ion in these applications obviously, was that the use of technology in all conte
xts and for all was to finalization of the processing of information: as a (hype
r) digital text that describes the services of a company or contents of a museum
, a digital school application could not be focused on the essence of the school
: the treatment of the contents of the various disciplines. A vision so poor tha
t the school use of educational technologies. The rich research approaches "led
us to study different authors and different experiences, among them that the cog
nitive psychologist David Jonassen, cognitive research on the impacts of technol
ogies, which, almost a compendium of his studies states (Jonassen 2005a; resumed
Marconato and Litturi 2005): "Most online learning assumes knowledge transmissi
on paradigm: online management systems (....) Meaningful activity and do not sup
port assessment, insults to learners represses That Their intellectual developme
nt, can not prepare people for life - to solve problem." In fact, the LMS, Learn
ing Management System, well represent the dominant culture (and weak) Teaching t
hrough (not with) the technology known as "e-learning, an approach that is appar
ently planning when in reality, it is an organizational model built with the sup
port of educational technology. In this approach, technologies are used to suppo
rt all organizational practices, logistical and secretarial involved in running
a "school" means the management of students, teachers, classes, the textbooks,€E
vidence of assessment, communications school students,
1
teacher-student .... The intervention in the learning process is, in this approa
ch, virtually nil. If, then, with reference to Jonassen and other researchers, t
he e-learning approach to teaching with technology does not improve the learning
experience, what are the conditions under which technologies express the real v
alue added enrichment ' learning experience? The international literature helps
us to identify useful courses to take. Thus becomes aware that: • People do not
learn from the information (such as not learning from the teacher) [Jonassen et
al., 1999]: using technology to distribute information does not help improve the
learning experience; • People learn using information as a tool for solving pro
blems [in Marconato and Litturi Jonassen, 2005]: Technology should be used to su
pport the process of constructing knowledge by students and not to help a conten
t expert to develop a product for learning (eg, a Learning Object) which is then
used by the person who wants to learn; • Learning is a social process: the tech
nology should enable and support the conversation, collaboration and performance
of activities between learners; • Learning is a process of involvement and comm
itment, people should be involved mentally, cognitively impregnated to learn [Jo
nassen, 1995]: technologies should promote an active role of learner. Read a doc
ument, drag and drop, check a box yes or no answer, cognitive activities are pas
sive and do not promote authentic learning. The implications of these lessons, g
uided by the constructivist paradigm, are numerous and not all easy to implement
, with or without technology, and culture in a school organization modeled instr
uctional sense. Difficult does not mean, however, impossible, and it is with thi
s awareness and in this perspective that the system is Copernicus, laboriously b
uilt.
• FP must pursue the objective of developing the "professional competence" (CP),
this should be seen as the ability to activate and combine resources in a conte
xt defined [The Boterf, 1998] • The FP should promote the development of " resou
rces, develop the ability to diagnose the situation in which use them to activat
e resources and combine them to achieve the objective of professional practice [
id.] • The CP should be developed and maintained to required standards through a
continuous enhancement of many places of learning paths through individualized
and self-governed, "navigation" between the opportunities offered by the context
[id.] • The FP should promote the development of "resources" tecnicoprofessiona
li, cognitive and personal-social-relational as necessary to deal with professio
nal practice.
2.2
Why constructivism
The philosophical approach seemed more convincing is the constructivist paradigm
because it has its conceptual assumptions and different applications resulting
issues of interest to the educational and training strategy outlined below and w
hich are relevant in the context of intervention, FP: • centering on the learner
rather than on content: what a person sensibly can learn more about an abstract
goal that fits all, • focus on learning "deep" rather than "superficial" knowle
dge and for the enforcement of labor " productive "rather than" reproductive (Ma
ier, P et al, 1998, Rhem, J, 1995, McLeod, A. 1996). • pursuit of an understandi
ng of content rather than their memory: the ability to appropriate content and t
o give them a personal sense rather than the ability to repeat information for s
chool use ("regurgitate, so intact, the information to introjected purpose of pa
ssing a school exam) • interest on the transfer of learning from school to real
life: Do not care what a person knows or can do after a training course, but wha
t you can do with that knowledge once again real life, • facilitating the develo
pment of those cognitive, metacognitive and social (analysis, reflection, debate
, negotiation, interaction, accountability) that underpin the ability of continu
ous learning is critical in the "knowledge society"
2
2.1
THE CHOICE CONSTRUCTIVIST
The mission
The work within the constructivist has its raison d'etre in the development of a
coherent path that starts with defining the mission of the context in which the
y work, vocational training (FP), to arrive at operational decisions, Teaching a
nd Technology. The starting assumptions are:
2.3
Constructivism in Technology
Constructivism provides us with paradigms and models use of technology appropria
te to the objectives
2
social, economic and personal that the public education system, in the view take
n, it should pursue. Technology, constructivist epistemology, are in fact seen a
s tools that: • are not vehicles of information transfer but cognitive tools, •
are not used for mere access to information but to support and facilitate collab
oration and socialization; • engage the learner in the cognitive activities and
materials; • not drive / direct the person - calling it a passive attitude, but
with whom the person interacts therefore requires an active attitude, • have no
value and make it as easy more efficient management of training activities throu
gh the simple replacement of operating modes of nature analogue mode or digital
instruments are "fashionable" but are tools that enhance the learning experience
of people learning, • are designed as open applications that interact with its
users, require an active role ((Maddux, CD, et al. 1997).
Based on the research and practice cognitive impact of technology was conceived
and developed the "platform" technology of Copernicus. 3.1 The choice of Open So
urce
3
COPERNICUS THE SYSTEM
Copernicus1 System is a service developed by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano
to improve system performance of local vocational training using ICT. The initia
tive was born as a collaborative project between four divisions of the Province
that have education as its mission (FP in Italian, German, agriculture, for the
staff of the province) plus the Computer Division. A collaboration to develop hu
man resources (skills), organizational and technological. A collaboration that l
ed Copernicus to a permanent institutional structure within the computer system
of the Province and its device for e-government. Following a feasibility study,
administered in the form of actionresearch which had the effect of actual animat
ion of the local community is built the pool of stakeholders, identifies the tra
ining needs satisfiable through the use of technology, the technological choices
 are made first. Is, above all, made the choice to use the technology only where
it is shown that their use improves learning. Use of technology is not, that is
, given a value per se or a quality criterion. Use of technology was, therefore,
sought a solid educational foundation in the most convincing theories of learni
ng, both in those in classical and contemporary.
1
Technological terms, all programs in use in the Copernicus system are open sourc
e. The choice has its roots in a specific political orientation made at the prov
incial department and technical body, even when it was not as widespread use of
the OS solution in educational activities (2002). The decision to encourage expe
rimentation of free applications was not originated from feeling better than com
mercial ones (some of the benchmarks had reported a greater richness and technic
al reliability of proprietary solutions), as explore potential solutions and the
limits of "free" and to see if the cost of not licensing, but also a higher cos
t in services, could result in a satisfactory quality of results obtained with a
cost, perhaps, reduced public administration. Reasoning, then, ethical and admi
nistrative activities in order to maximize results and, if possible, to keep ene
rgy costs. On a more purely technical, namely that the contribution of technolog
y to enrich and / or improvement of the service area of use (training, in our ca
se), a topic to be assessed was related to the identification of issues that wou
ld been able to open following the adoption of a solution "free" than the "owner
. The technology infrastructure that the system is currently equipped Copernicus
is a response to the issues mentioned above. Thus, we see them first and then t
he configuration of existing technology.€At a distance of 5 years from the choic
e in favor of open source can be identified weaknesses and opportunities faced b
y the educated choice and nothing you can say so because the alternative is not
shared yards and was not, of course, comparisons. These are some of the main wea
knesses identified: • lengthy deployment infrastructure: it seems, almost, that
for reasons inherent to the use of open source, there should be some form of man
agerial self-sufficiency. Do not use proprietary solutions and the associated se
rvices provided by the developer, has brought with it the need to develop in-hou
se expertise required to activate, manage and form intermediate users (teachers)
. Computer scientists who have made operating a load of LMS have walked the road
to learn from whether to install, maintain and do them, once the training of us
ers. This led to a very long time, certainly higher than they would have had if
he had taken a proprietary solution and the associated technical competence of t
he company. We do not know if this was due to a greater intrinsic
www.copernicus.bz.it
3
technical weakness of the instrument "free" (limited testing, structure DIY, ...
.) and / or limited support obtained through the inherent jurisdiction of the so
-called "community" of users which is used as an alternative to using the servic
es of professional assistance. It was noted, however, that a different approach
(used when entering into the system platform of a LMS) time of start-ups may con
tain significantly by using the services of professional consultants on a purely
commercial , now, are also available for applications not owners; • inefficienc
y / instability of technical applications: the solutions adopted have made and c
ontinue to give technical problems are not solved easily and quickly. Undoubtedl
y an open application is released after a testing period shorter and less thorou
gh than is the case with a solution "owner" (for which activates a commercial re
lationship) and this shows it clearly, especially during the new releases that a
re made available at a not fully matured. This instability, which can be accepte
d by the technician, especially if opensourcer as intrinsically linked with the
logic of the instrument, intermediate user (the teacher) and to that end (the st
udent) caused some concern, to use a euphemism; • hidden costs: Faced by the eli
mination of licensing costs, it should be noted the occurrence of significant "h
idden costs" of maintenance and the impact is not perceived as a vague and, ofte
n, its activity is performed by internal staff . If these costs were properly ac
counted for, it would appear these solutions as cost-free. The fact, however, th
at these costs are "fixed costs" and "variable costs" does not generate addition
al costs to those already Budgett and do not imply specific spending decisions,
which is very popular in public administrations; value embedded applications "fr
ee" . These are the primary assets identified following the adoption of free sof
tware. • motivation of operators and developing expertise: it was noted that the
"computer" in your organization are particularly attracted by the free software
and with pleasure offer their collaboration for the installation and maintenanc
e infrastructure and tools. This development of expertise increases the value of
professional interior and, consequently, the whole organization. Evidently the
possibility, often in the form of virtual and potential, real and shake, to inte
rvene in the source file, the commitment motivates more than one application wit
h which you feel to be mere users and not actors. The impact of this "spring" sh
ould not be underestimated in the management of human resources;
• Expanding the instruments used: the absence of the barrier represented by the
cost of licenses has expanded significantly the possibility of testing many of t
he applications currently available in the "market" international open source. T
he learning environments in which they can use the technologies are varied as th
ey are wide and varied learning objectives, not to mention the individual prefer
ences of teachers. Faced with this range of contexts,€think of using always and
everywhere a single instrument seems to be unwise and useful. The cost of non-li
censed calls to experiment with new applications and then maybe put aside if you
do not prove useful. Alongside these considerations must be highlighted that in
recent years the main innovations of computer tools for teaching are derived fr
om academic and / or by publicly funded research institutions and are of a "free
" (see the blog and wiki but also because it is funded by the European Union und
er the plans of research and development). It appears they are consolidating the
trend that the future of technology for teaching, at least in the contexts of s
chools and universities is mainly on the side of free software; • effective use
of the feature: Whereas the opportunities that offers a proprietary application
in terms of qualitative and quantitative features of scalabiltà, integration, it
is very likely that these prove successful on those "free". This was under the
impression is of a confrontation between the two types during the feasibility st
udy for the start of Copernicus. The assessment must be made for the choice shou
ld be informed, in our view, seeking the "best" solution but that of consistency
between this and the actual use, an assessment is not absolute but contingent.
Indeed, in practice, the actual use of technology is limited to some of the many
features, focuses on functionality closer to what you can do without technology
. Instruments as "rich" you are "beautiful" but of limited use. Perhaps, in a se
cond phase appears, however, not immediate, more feature-rich "or" advanced "wil
l find use in practice but also the applications for that date" free "it could b
e fitted. 3.2 The technological infrastructure
The observations made during the star-up of the project and awareness gained by
observing the trends in the international arena and failures that even then (200
1) were pointing out in other countries where before they had started to use the
technologies, they led to determine a first operational decision: no single too
l (proprietary or free) would alone allowed to cover the full range of learning
situations, learning objectives to be achieved, the individual preferences of in
termediate users (teachers) and those end-users (students). As for the tradition
al LMS, it was eminently a highlighted organizational (see discussion conducted
in
4
Opening of the paper) and for what little learning this, the model was built wit
h the transmission of knowledge wealth of features related to the development, o
rganization and content distribution. The instruments of communication and colla
boration present, although the only ones to have some educational value, have an
optional role considering the context (organizational - logistic) in which they
are located. The search for tools, not as additional alternative, had led to th
e identification of several learning tools based on sound pedagogy. These were d
eveloped through joint research of educationists and technologists. The choice w
as therefore to develop a multi-tool to use to support different types of "learn
ing strategies. Although not coincide with the LMS "technology" of the system an
d awareness of their usefulness for most aspects of organizational / managerial
than for teaching / learning, two of these make up the technological instruments
of Copernicus. These are ILAS and Moodle LMS. The first incorporates epistemolo
gy behaviouristica (people learn through the distribution of information) and wa
s chosen for its solid technological structure that allows for good content mana
gement; Moodle is developed based on a different paradigm of learning: social co
nstructivism (people learn through collaboration and doing "activities), and was
chosen for its flexibility in developing and managing a wide range of learning
activities. Through one of the projects that shape Copernicus Program Pionieri2
Teaching with Technology, the device technology has been expanded in the logic o
f a constructivist teaching supported by technology. Other instruments are now i
n the "platform" of the system are: • LAMS3. Learning Activity Management System
. Application developed at Macquarie University (Australia) that lets you organi
ze, through an assemblage of modules,€learning pathways that asks students to wo
rk individually and share the results, or collaboratively. The new release makes
it particularly flexible use of "forms of activity and the development of new m
odules. LAMS is integrated in Moodle as one of his "activities" • FLE34. Future
Learning Environment. Developed in Finland by the Media Lab's Center for Researc
h on Networked Learning and Knowledge Building, Department of Psychology, Univer
sity of Helsinki. It 'a program for web-based collaborative learning. The refere
nce model is the CSCL. The application is
used to work in groups for the construction of artifacts that represent knowledg
e. Constructed. • WordPress Blog. A classic tool for blogs that is used to enabl
e students to achieve micro-processed on curricular issues; • Mediawiki. Applica
tion wiki used as for the blog, for individual and collaborative construction of
knowledge. • WebQuest. Through some of the features of Moodle and Lams were dev
eloped webquest for two environments to enable students to develop elaborate, ev
en complex, through guided exploration of the web. • mental and conceptual maps.
The tools available are MindManger, Cmap, Freemind. • Elgg. Web application, th
e recent inclusion in the platform Copernicus to bring students to the concept a
nd practice of PLE, Personal Learning Environment These tools, each used in spec
ific learning environments, give life, both at the conceptual level, as at the o
perational, the " platform technology system. The nature of "platform", ie integ
rated set of applications is determined by how to use them. The teaching model a
dopted for the Pioneers is "learning activities" (described in next section) the
management of which is carried out via Moodle. In these applications are enable
d environments dedicated they are described and organized "activities" education
ally significant, to play on the same Moodle or one of the other instruments. In
this context, Moodle is used as an environment for organizing and coordinating
a variety of "learning activities" designed and developed by the individual teac
her on the basis of his teaching strategies and learning objectives that are giv
en. In Moodle there are several operating environments, a cross to all users, ot
her related educational activities that a teacher plays in a specific classe5. I
n the "transverse" have been developed using the Moodle learning environment ded
icated himself and the other instruments present. Although these areas are devel
oped around the model of learning activities. Moodle, in addition to classroom u
ses the second approach above, is used as a tool for project management. While t
hese projects-educational training background (the context, let us not forget, i
s that of professional schools), the activities carried out here are purely oper
ational activities to support the projects. The features used are those of: • sh
aring of project documentation through the instruments of the "resources," predo
minantly "folders", "Link to file" and "link to websites";
5 By login "guest" you can view some of these environments (the "owners" of cert
ain areas considered not to be made available to "guests") in http://e-learntool
s.provinz.bz.it/moodle /
2 3
www.copernicus-bz-4 pionieri.it www.lamsinternational.com http://fle3.uiah.fi/
5
• many-to-many communication between project team members through a more or less
structured forums and threads; • management of timing through the module "calen
dar". Given the real-world applications developed within a year of activity, the
se are the types of use of Moodle: • Organize educational activities; • Coordina
te educational activities carried out by using the various tools of the platform
; • Organize and manage "learning activities" • Undertake training of trainers;
• Manage learning activities in class; • Develop, manage and organize educationa
l records; • Develop and manage portals class • Manage projects. In Copernicus-P
ioneers, Moodle is therefore proving to be a very flexible tool for use in a wid
e range of situations, directly and indirectly teaching.
• Learning is a separate reception both in the process as the result, an "object
" is an entity well defined and static; • Learning is a result of mental activit
y,€exercise of thought; • The result of learning is much more than the sum of ba
sic components and units of content; • Learning is a process more complex than t
he simple transmission-memory contents. LOs that are not entities that belongs t
o the cognitive process, but that technology is apparent from the vocabulary use
d and topics on this practice. Also found this, in fact, concepts such as: • por
tability (ease of installation in any LMS) • Standardization (programming langua
ges) • metadata (eg IEEE LOM) • reusability; aggregation •, • interoperability •
granularity ( chunks - small piece - atom of consciousness). Typical programmin
g concepts object oriented which, moreover, show an economic concern, that of ma
king the product marketable in a variety of contexts. It should finally be recal
led that numerous studies conducted on the added value of intervention informati
on content through various forms of digital and multimedia, has led to the concl
usion that you can not detect any significant difference in the quality of the l
earning process in presence of interventions on digital content. (Russell 1999).
4.2 The conditions of learning activities
4
ACTIVITIES 'OF LEARNING
Moodle has proved to be an open and flexible tool for developing and managing di
stance learning activities consistent with the methodological principles outline
d in earlier chapters of this paper. Working with Moodle, exploring the features
from the perspective of the development of learning environments (Wilson 1996)
and management of training, the idea to develop a model of learning that • meets
the needs of learning people who aim to develop knowledge on which to base prof
essional practice • Requires IT developments by limiting the minimum skills need
ed by developers of these environments, • limit costs and development time. This
is a minimalist approach that can also be seen as an alternative methodological
and operational use of so-called learning objects and overcomes all the limitat
ions that characterize them 4.1 Beyond Learning Objects
The proposed model is spread around the conceptual constructivism whose elements
relevant for training were identified in the first pages of this paper. From th
is macro conceptualizations extract some specific ideas that motivate and charac
terize the model described here. • Tasks authentic: people learn when they perfo
rm authentic tasks (Jonassen and Land, 2000), tasks that have a direct bearing o
n the experience of people who are perceived as relevant to the professional tas
ks that must be done; • Activities : people do not learn by reading and repeatin
g information, but carrying out activities that have a strong mental component,
requiring the exercise of thought as when you browse, you analyze, reflect, you
can chat, argue, builds an artifact;
Always, the Learning Object (LO) have been criticized by methodologists, especia
lly those inspired by constructivist recalling that: • The learning does not fol
low structured paths and does not develop in a sequential manner;
6
• Experience as a resource for learning: the main resource for learning in an ad
ult is not represented by the information but from self and others; • distribute
d knowledge: knowledge we use to solve a problem or perform a task that is only
partially mastered directly, that we have access to through memory and thought,
that we can define localized. We all use the knowledge that is distributed in th
e environment in which we, in the minds of other people, in these artifacts, exp
erience and knowledge of others and in all its representations (Salomon 1993, Hu
tchins 1995) • Natural Learning : to formal learning, like school, only one of t
he possible places of learning. Especially for adults, contexts and, more import
antly, how others are learning. Almost all of us all realize that learning is do
ne in ways other than attending a lesson we learn, for example, by carrying out
activities, solving problems by trial and error (Schank and Cleary 1995).
lead to intermediate products or a course can be arranged by putting together mo
re "activity" of short duration.€The choice of "activities" is determined not on
ly by its importance in professional, by: • the time required to complete (must
be compatible with the duration of the course and the total commitment of time r
equired of participants), • the possibility to be achieved through the experienc
e of each participant and the sharing of experiences, • can be completed with th
e content in the material supplied (digital package, knowledge base) and / or se
arch; If you can not to identify one or more "active" means to put the object of
the training process, it is likely that the course in question is irrelevant to
the practice of persons to whom it is addressed. 4.4 How to describe a learning
activity
4.3
How do you identify a learning activity
Especially when learning activities are carried out entirely remotely, you must
describe the task with utmost care. Teaching for effective communication, "asset
s" should be described through the following elements: • Title: give a brief des
cription of the activity; • logical basis of: argue briefly why the activity sho
uld be carried out; • purpose of: presenting the main purpose of the activity. T
his is the general objective of reports rather than a detailed description of th
e steps that must be made; • Objectives: provide the objectives (learning) to be
achieved to realize the asset; • beneficiaries, indicate the potential benefici
aries of the results of ' activities; • resources: provide the necessary resourc
es to perform the activity (tools, technologies, texts, time, money ..) • checkl
ist to check with detail the steps / activities and "tests" by collected and inc
luded in the portfolio for evaluation. The level of detail of description is rel
ated to the complexity and duration of the activity: brief descriptions activity
short descriptions to articulate complex activities. 4.5 How you develop a trai
ning sequence based learning activities
A curriculum for learning activities in the sense used here is characterized by
a sequence of activities that the learner is asked to perform. Because a person
is willing to dedicate time and energy performing an "activity", it must be perc
eived as significant by itself and must, in other words, be seen as having meani
ng in the real world of his professional activities (here speaks of "professiona
l learning"). There must be measured (and then fatigue) with a real problem, a q
uestion that you perceive the significance with which we can identify. Better if
it is a daily issue, almost. The farther away from everyday life, the problem b
ecomes more abstract, less if they feel the effect, unless it is willing to make
effort to learn and less likely the work of the trainer. At the edge of the imp
ossible. The training that "fails" is one that does not catch a real problem or
a problem that is not perceived as such, this training, for this reason should n
ot be done because it has inherent in its premise the reasons for failure. E ',
then, the task of the trainer who know the subject / discipline reference knows
the reality of the participants, to identify work situations subject of "activit
ies" to play. The "activity" with reference to the time needed for their complet
ion may be of different sizes: less than an hour, a few hours, several days. For
example, a single "activity" may cover the entire curriculum (it is likely that
the situation is more motivating) and is decomposed into sub-activities
Logical sequence of actions of teaching and learning based on "activity":
7
(1) Identification of a macro-activities to be undertaken during the duration of
the training offered, (2) Split into micro-activities at the "Forms" or, if pos
sible, "element", (3) proposal first task (indicating the time within which to b
e completed), (4) Designation of parts of the course material to be studied to l
earn the skills necessary to perform the micro-business (with, if any, auxiliary
materials in the knowledge base of project) , (5) Activation of 'interaction am
ong participants and between participants and teacher / tutor (supported more or
less consistent from tutor) for understanding the content, (6) Definition of th
e Implementing Rules of the (individual ,€group or sub-group) by specifying the
roles, resources, timing of completion, the nature of the product that will witn
ess the completion, the standard considered acceptable activity (= achieving the
expected learning) , (7) Start the activity by providing the necessary support,
(8) Collection of "products", evaluation and provision of feedback on performan
ce; (9) Remarks, if any, of feedback and review of working arrangements made for
him, possible remedies that could improve the implementation of subsequent phas
es; (10) Restart with a second round 1 → 9, then the third, fourth ... until the
completion of the process (11) Conclusion of the review process of 'entire jour
ney, with overall feedback and assessment "portfolio" (the collection of all the
"products") and for issuing the certificate of participation and (if appropriat
e) of profit. 4.6 Content and learning activities
important, there is a hierarchy determined by the degree of importance of each i
n achieving the learning objectives. As a guide, identify the following types of
thumb: • Content to be provided: are essential to achieving the goal, we can no
t and should not be missed; • Content should be provided: they help to contextua
lize learning, have space only after treating the first, if there is time; • con
tent which might be: give useful and interesting background information. The con
tents of the first level - those who "should be provided" - can be treated throu
gh processing teaching and / or computer, the contents of the other two levels,
especially the third, will join the knowledge base of learning materials in form
of materials or crude, which are unaffected, ie, no reprocessing teaching and f
orming part of the literature. The second implication of the approach to "conten
t" as "instruments" covers the sequence of presentation of these that must follo
w the logic of their use, rather than the intrinsic discipline. Based on these i
mplications, a typical model of integration activity / content is described in t
he previous paragraph. 4.7 Moodle and learning activities
Moodle, already with its standard features, you can develop learning environment
s based on learning activities with ease and flexibility. The typical size for t
he development of environments is that for subjects within each of which will be
built a business or a sub-activity. The resources for the development of differ
ent learning objects are: • Label: For introductory texts, explanatory informati
on of particular relevance. Labels allow you to view, with simple but effective
graphics processing, a text which should be read in its entirety, a label can al
so be useful to introduce a short text of a subsequent resources • Text page and
/ or web page: for not very long descriptive texts can be read on the monitor;
• Link to file: for more complex and long texts that can be downloaded, saved to
a folder on your desktop and print, this resource can be useful to deliver mate
rials with which Pupils then work, such as grids, diagrams, questionnaires;
Compared to the traditional "content to be studied," The model described here hi
ghlight a special role for the contents involved in the formation that results i
n a specific integration of "learning activities carried out and" study "of educ
ational content. The constructivist approach is typically to the effect that the
contents are the necessary tools to perform tasks. The first implication concer
ns the selection of content: to be considered "useful" and usable in the trail o
nly those that are designed to enable the learner to perform the activities iden
tified. This approach highlights a topic often ignored in good instructional des
ign: not all content that refer to the same theme or subject area have the same
degree
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• Lik websites: useful links to additional resources, reference material and exa
mples. The activities used in the interactions one-on-one and one-to-many are: •
Community: To support the work of developing an elaborate, for deepening unders
tanding of a topic, content to discussions; • The task For distribution, re-deli
very and comment deliverablesۥ Database: to work with developed a collaborative
development or even to share "knowledge" or peer-reviewed, Other activities ava
ilable in Moodle (such as Workshop, Survey, Exercise, Lesson, Survey) can be use
d to meet specific needs Bearing in mind the difficulties that may be introduced
when working with complex tools. An argument that has been developed activities
should include the following (in brackets Moodle tool used): • Title of (label)
• brief explanation of (label) • Description (text page or link to file) • sequ
ence of (text page) • "first step" and its title (label) • Introduction to the a
ctivity planned as a first step (label) • instructions for the activity or sub-a
ctivities ( link to file) • example of similar activities already carried out (l
ink to file or website) • texts to study (link to file) • any patterns to follow
or grids to be used (link to file) • area of communication (forums) • other act
ivities to be provided (on tool) It 'obvious that the formal structure of the ar
gument related to the activity is determined by the content of it, by learning o
bjectives that aims to achieve and the resources necessary and useful to student
s for his completion. Even the formation of a curriculum for learning activities
is not a standard configuration. This is determined by the number of things to
do, unpacking from any one to work in sub-activities, content and complexity of
the task. These variables, including those in the formal didactic choices and pr
eferences of the developer environment, determine the number of subjects and the
ir "length". General criteria to follow in the development environments are the
most formal simplicity and sustainability education understood as a possibility
for the student to complete the path and
organization to provide the support necessary to avoid making "promises" of educ
ational services delivered is not "abandon" the invisible student.
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