Over Christmas, I quit using Blackboard as my online courseware. I switched to its open source cousin, Moodle. I am sincere when I say that both are good programs. I was quite happy with Blackboard, but Moodle proved more suited to my specific needs. Part of this was due to bugs in Blackboard. Blackboard has since been updated and the company claims that most of these have been eliminated. I cannot verify this as the version of Blackboard I have available is old.

Price

I actually don't have to concern myself with this one. The state of North Dakota has made Blackboard available to its schools. It is a prohibitively expensive piece of software and few schools in our state could afford it, the necessary servers, and the technical expertise to operate it. Moodle is open source, so the software is free. The other expenses are real, but I found an alternative at Ninehub.com. Schools could afford a better host or even set up the necessary host themselves.

Bugs

There were some unfortunate bugs in Blackboard. One of them had to do with uploading files. When students tried to upload files (to turn in an assignment online) it didn't work in the most common browsers and operating systems. I had no trouble with the Firefox browser in Linux (or even on my Apple--most of the time). On Windows machines, it simply didn't work with Explorer. Since this is the most common combination, I see that as a SERIOUS problem. This has been fixed in newer versions of Blackboard, but not the one available to schools in North Dakota.

The other bug that really got under my skin was with "calculated questions". These were questions where I entered a formula. The computer would come up with random numbers for that formula so that each student had a somewhat randomized version of the particular problem. I love this for my subject. The trouble was that Blackboard had only a limited repertoire of numbers: between 1-1000. It couldn't deal with negative numbers, larger numbers, or really small numbers. This was another serious limitation in my subject. Also, some commands in the formula did not work. The commands have since been fixed, but the limitation in numbers has not been fixed. Again, that's immaterial because North Dakota is still running an older version.

Math

I teach math and science. A nice formula editor is a must for me. Blackboard has a lovely formula editor that uses Java and a mouse-operated control panel. This is fine for occasional use, but very slow for regular use. Moodle makes it possible to use LaTeX commands to format mathematics. I simply type the formula inside a double set of dollar signs. It's very fast for me to use. $$H_2O$$ is a lot faster to type than to wade through Blackboard's menus to write the formula for water. This was the single greatest reason to switch for me.

Interface

Blackboard is very attractive. A nice column of buttons runs down the left side of the screen and takes the user to different sections of the program such as "Assignments", "Announcements", "Course Documents", "Course Information", and a host of others. The student's first view is the announcements. The trouble I saw was that students didn't know where to find things. Now, with enough practice, that would cease to be a problem. However, with limited computers (at that time), I couldn't use Blackboard enough to give them the practice they needed.

Moodle puts everything on the main screen. One can divide everything up by topics or weeks, but the main point is that it is all right there. (To avoid confusion, students can collapse everything so that they only see the current topic.) This eliminates all problems with students trying to find things and it makes it easier for the teacher to customize everything for his own particular needs.

Lessons

As I've experimented with online courseware, I wanted to find a way to teach lessons online, but require formative assessment on the way (to check that they have learned and offer alternatives depending on their learning). Moodle has this in a primitive form. I was able to better embed lessons in Blackboard, but without the formative assessment.

Social Media

Blackboard has forums but very little else to allow students to work together. Since all my students are right there in the room, forums aren't much help. Moodle allows each student to contribute to a class glossary (and comment on the entries). It also has a utility for a Wiki. These are available add-ons for Blackboard, but aren't part of the standard program, and they aren't part of North Dakota's particular version.

Verification

I'll throw a grab-bag of features in here. Blackboard has a huge overlap of features with Moodle. However, what really bothers me when I work in Blackboard is that every time I do ANYTHING, it pops up a new screen to tell me I just did it. For example, suppose I write a new question. I enter the question and click "OK". Blackboard then pops up a new screen that says, "You just created a new question." Then I have to click "OK" again. This is a perfectly fine precaution for something like "Do you really want to delete everything?" However, since it doesn't offer the chance to take back my action and it's for EVERYTHING, I fail to see the point.

My final reason for the switch was passwords. High schools kids are terrible at remembering passwords. In North Dakota's version of Blackboard, they need to get a password through another group (the same folks that provide Blackboard). Unfortunately, when they forget, they need to go to the school's tech director. He then must make a request for a new password. A "forgotten password" makes for a convenient way to avoid work. With Moodle, I have control of the passwords.

I like Blackboard and used it very happily for 5 years. So far, I happen to like Moodle better.

Technology has made a new activity possible!

I planned on my Physics students watching a JAVA animation of projectile motion, holding a short discussion, and then working through a thought experiment I've used for several years. However, tonight I was setting up the links on Moodle (online course software) when I fell asleep at my desk. I woke up probably a half hour later and totally forgot what I'd been working on.

It turned out to be a good thing because I came up with a new idea. The JAVA animation comes with numbers. The student can change launch angle, launch height, and launch velocity. They can then watch the projectile, its trajectory, its vectors, and the time in the air and horizontal distance traveled. It occurred to me that I could have my students perform an individual experiment and report on it.

The three experiments I'm most proud of inventing are:

• Which launch angle allows the projectile to travel furthest?
• What is the relationship between launch height and vertical distance traveled?
• Which launch angle puts the apex of the projectile's arc at the greatest horizontal distance?

For those who sneer, remember that these are high school students. They can run the experiment over and over very quickly and collect a lot of data. Then they will need to perform analysis through graphs, curve-fitting, and simply looking at trends in numbers. Finally, they will communicate what they did to the rest of the class through an online Wiki (like Wikipedia only limited to class members). They will need to do things like control variables, design the experiment, and figure out how best to analyze the results.

While it may seem simplistic to scientists, this kind of activity is a beginning. A complex experiment overwhelms beginners. Something a bit simpler  gives them the chance to think scientifically so that they can later do the complex experiments.

Prior to computers, I wouldn't have done this. Even with calculators, collection of the data would have required a lot of tedious computation or else time-consuming data collection in a real lab (with all the difficulties that presents). With a JAVA simulation, they can collect the data quickly and spend the time analyzing it. Since we have already done three labs with real projectiles, I don't see the harm in turning to a simulation.

Technology really is an opportunity for teachers who will embrace it and use it appropriately. Perhaps my activity from Physics will give you some food for thought in your own subject.

Over Christmas break, I made the switch from Blackboard to Moodle. I'll leave the reasons for the switch to another day. Suffice to say that it makes it easier to do some of what I'm about to describe.

Online Notes

The first thing I did was to continue what I've been doing with Blackboard: I put all handouts and notes online. I know I've heard the argument from teachers that it makes it less necessary for kids to take notes. I've actually observed this to be true.

What I've realized is that taking dictation or (worse) copying from a board is not education. Very little processing goes on. Every so often I'll babble off nonsense only to see it taken down faithfully. By putting the notes online, I actually spend less time giving notes. I spend more time having the kids do something...or even write their own notes. Putting notes online really has made me a better teacher because it has moved me beyond simply giving notes.

Online Homework

I don't think I'm the only person who has completed a homework assignment only to discover it was done all wrong. I also don't think I'm the only student who ever got stumped on a problem, peeked at the answers in the back of the book, said, "Of course!", wrote it down, and thought I'd learned something. As a teacher, I'm left with two choices: grade homework knowing it is supposed to be practice and that at least some of the papers I'm getting were copied. This also eats up a huge chunk of time that I'm not spending planning how to teach better (or relaxing). I've also tried to mark completion even though some kids may have written something convincing (or wrong).

I've started giving homework assignments through Moodle (and a different program for Calculus, but that's another story). I get several benefits. The first is that the program is set to tell the student immediately if the answer is right or wrong. I can even give hints. If I know a common mistake is to use sine rather than cosine, I might have a special message to that effect pop up when that mistake is made. The student gets as many tries as needed to get it right. I know it must be working because just today I got a complaint about it. The student told me he liked it better when he didn't have to get the problems right. He claimed homework should just be for completion points.

Moodle also has two other nice advantages over paper-based homework. The first is that I can randomize numbers within problems. That makes each homework assignment different. The second is that it can randomly select problems from a library. Of course, I'll first have to write that library. The result would be truly unique homework assignments and a lot less copying. Those without computers at home can print off the assignment at school, take it home to work on it, and return to school to enter answers. Since I've quit lecturing so much, there actually is more time to do this in class.

Quizzes

I'm about to take a gamble. I really want to start giving quizzes online so I have less to correct by hand. Down the road I'd like to do tests this way, but I see quizzes and homework as easing the transition (kids don't like change). To help sell the quizzes, I'm going to write the quiz so that it allows 1 fix per question. If I mess up on question 1, it tells me right away and I have one chance to fix it. If I have no clue how to do it, it won't help. If I made a mistake, I can fix it. This will make quizzes more a measure of subject knowledge.

With tests I'm unlikely to allow second chances, but they're down the road a piece anyway.

Review

For semester tests I tried something new. For my Biology class, I make 60 flashcards that were self-correcting. (As well as a regular but shortened review of the tougher concepts). For my other classes, I wrote up a series of self-correcting problems. These proved to be a really great review and, this year, I had the highest semester test grades I've ever had.

Creating

One feature I'm just starting to explore is the writing feature of Moodle. It contains a glossary feature where students can be assigned terms to define. This gets put together into a class glossary. Then, whenever they encounter a term from the glossary, like "photosynthesis" it is highlighted and they can click on it to read the definition. I was happy with my first experiment with this. I insisted that they put definitions in their own words and they did very well!

Another feature is the Wiki. It's like a Wikipedia, only just for the class. I'm less happy with how my first experiment with this turned out. I wasn't sure how to grade it so my assignment was too vague. Students were unclear what to do and were learning to use the program. The results were mediocre. I see potential with this tool, but it will require more experimenting. Like the glossary, when terms from the Wiki appear in other parts of Moodle, they are highlighted and can be clicked on.

Differentiated Instruction

At one time we grouped kids based on ability and interest. The trouble with this approach was that kids changed as they matured, but they were locked into a certain "track." We called this "tracking." This got a bad name in part for this very reason, so schools quit "tracking kids" and just put them into one mixed ability group. This handicapped the kids in a different way. The teacher had to pick a level to teach to (usually the middle). The fast kids were bored and the slower kids were lost.

Now we are told to vary our instruction within the classroom. Instead of calling it "tracking", we call it "differentiated instruction." The advantage to the modern approach is that the maturing student can more easily catch up if he choses to. Moodle makes it possible. Students can work through lessons at their own pace (though many do require some pushing just to keep them at their own pace). I'm still learning how to do this, but I have found that not all kids have to be on the exact same page each day.

Technology is making my job tougher, but it's also making it easier in other ways. My greatest benefit has been that technology is taking away the rote teacher work and allowing me time to actually teach and think about how to teach. Students are gaining too because technology can allow them to take more responsibility for their own learning.

I'm not done with this topic, but I am going to close now. I'm tired and ready for bed! The kids need me tomorrow.

I think I did pretty well about making about a post a week (or more). Then it all stopped. I explained why in an earlier entry. I hope, this week, to talk some more about what has been keeping me busy.

I should have posted today, but that leads me to a few things that touch on education. The truth is, other than writing lesson plans, I took today off! It's the Sabbath and it's supposed to be the day of rest. I have not been observing the Sabbath and I've been reminded why God placed it in the 10 Commandments. Continuous work causes us to focus on ourselves and forget about the larger world. When we get too centered on ourselves, we start to say, "What's the point?"

I thought seriously about it today because I was asked to cover for the pastor of my church as he took some time off for a trip. After church, I came home, napped a little, watched a movie, did a lot of reading, and generally relaxed. I'm headed to bed and I feel ready for tomorrow. I know I write about education, but this is important for us all. That day of rest makes it possible to work the other days of the week. As a Christian, that day of rest reminds me that I'm doing God's work, not my work. That kind of perspective reminds me of my place in His plan.

So to all of you: remember to observe the Sabbath. As a former pastor observed: "Hell is a place with no rest."

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On a tangential note: the movie I watched had nothing to do with education but I want to recommend it. It's called I'm Not Scared and it's loosely based on a true story. I don't know how it ended up on my Netflix, but I'm sure glad it did.

In the late 1970's, Italy experienced a number of kidnappings. Poor (and possibly mafia-related) people of the south were kidnapping children from the wealthy northern end of the country and holding them for ransom. Many were badly mistreated, and some were even killed. As I did the checking, I was shocked at the numbers.

Anyway, the 10-year-old boy in a southern family is exploring an abandoned farm and finds a boy his age chained up in an underground hole. At first he doesn't know what to make of it. He's especially confused because the captive boy thinks he's dead and is in Hell.

Slowly the southern boy realizes that his father, mother, and many of the villagers were involved in kidnaping this boy from the north. As a boy who lives in an isolated Italian village in the 1970's, he has nowhere to turn.  Even his own parents are the enemy.

Anyway, the movie held my attention to the end and I plan to rewatch it and find the book. I don't usually like this kind of movie (especially when they're in Italian with subtitles), but this one really held my attention.

One note: I almost turned it off in the first 5 minutes because I thought there was going to be some creepy child nudity. There wasn't, and the moment was more about establishing the character of important personalities. Don't turn it off and you really will be rewarded.

One of the great things about being a teacher is that you're surrounded by cute props for pursuing your political agenda. After all, it's easy to ignore a creepy man who wants to stop smoking in cars. It's hard to ignore some cute kid who says the same thing. If you do ignore the child, you're mean-spirited!

I know sarcasm doesn't translate well to writing, so I'll stop now. (Besides, my students are teenagers at the end of high school. They're not even a little bit cute.)

I was inspired to write this entry because someone in Williston is using 7th graders as props. At that age, they still have some of the cuteness thing going for them, especially seen from a distance. We're expected to believe that 20 kids of 12 and 13 years of age spontaneously decided that we need a law to make it illegal to smoke in a car when there are passengers.

Smoking is a bad habit, and I don't let people smoke in my car. I also have unpleasant memories of traveling with my grandfather while he smoked in the car. I'm not entirely unsympathetic to this bill (though I'm opposed to it). However, I'm going to focus on another side to this: the use of students for propaganda purposes.

I would guess that there is a teacher in Williston or some other adult who has some sort of puritanical views about tobacco. He (or she) then found some compliant kids to use as props. This reminds me of a few years ago when some of my students were used to get a petition signed in support of taxpayer funding of the SADD program. They really didn't have a clear idea why it might be good for me to sign it...just that I should. They were just props.

It seems immoral to me to use students this way. They can't always reason through why they might support (or oppose) a particular cause, and there is a certain element of compulsion to using them. Teachers particularly have no business using their students this way.

We are called to educate our students, not to use them for our own political agenda.