Work @ TAFE

What a mouthful!

I’ve been making a concerted effort lately to apply some of the social constructivist ideas (that I’ve read about during and after my Dip. Ed.) in lessons. I’ve been using Moodle (a Learning Management System with a social constructivist bent) over the past 6 months, as it emphasises activities rather than resources.

I recently posted to a moodle forum, asking for ideas from other people regarding how they use Moodle in a classroom environment to nurture a social learning environment - and this was helpful… (see Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment). It was quite interesting… most people use the forums and workshops to encourage learners to help each other… most people seem to be quite strict in terms of making sure that people post their questions rather than asking them verbally.

I’m not certain yet myself of the balance… I like using the forums and workshops to stimulate further discussion in class etc.

Anyway, I’ve spent most of today putting together a session for Friday, that will hopefully involve the participants in activities to learn about database normalisation… we’ll see how it goes!