The+Moodle+Philosophy



[|Moodle] is designed to support a style of learning called [|Social Constructionist Pedagogy]. This style of learning in interactive. The social constructionist philosophy believes that people learn best when they interact with the learning material, construct new material for others and interact with other students about the material. The difference between a traditional class and the social constructionist philosophy is the difference between a lecture and a discussion.

Moodle does not require you to use the social constructionist method for your courses. However, it best supports this method. For example, Moodle enables you to add five kinds of static course material. This is course material that a student reads, but does not interact with:


 * A text page
 * A web page
 * A link to anything on the Web (including material on your Moodle site)
 * A view into one of the course's directories
 * A label that displays any text or image

However, Moodle also enables you to add six types of interactive course material. this is course material that a student interacts with, by answering questions, entering text, or uploading files:


 * Assignment (uploading files to be reviewed by the teacher and/or students)
 * Choice (a single question)
 * Journal (an outline journal)
 * Lesson (a conditional, branching activity)
 * Quiz (an online test)
 * Survey (with results available to the teacher and/or students)

Moodle also offers five kinds of activities where students interact with each other. These are used to create social course material.


 * Chat (live online chat between students)
 * Forum (you can choose the number of online bulletin boards for each course)
 * Glossary (students and/or teachers can contribute terms to site-wide glossaries)
 * Wiki (Wikis can be inserted into courses, or a Wiki can be the entire course)
 * Workshop (workshops support collaborative, graded efforts among students

That's five kinds of static course material, and eleven kinds of interactive course material. In addition, some of Moodle's add-on modules add even more types of interaction. For example, one add-on module enables students and teachers to schedulde appointments with each other.

//Source: Moodle: E-Learning Course Development, A complete guide to succesful learning using Moodle, William H. Rice IV, Packt Publishing, p 9-10.//

[|Constructionism (Learning Theory)] - Wikipedia [|Learning and Using Moodle] - Learning and Training Space Blog [|Pedagogy] - Moodle Docs [|Using Social Constructionist Pedagogy?] - Moodle Documentation [|Philosophy] - Moodle
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