Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[teemuv]

A bit off topic but I'd like to hear some opinions or reasons...

"Moodle is a software package for producing Internet-based courses and web sites. It is a global development project designed to support a social constructionist framework of education."

Ok, as I currently work as Moodle administrator for my university I have been wondering if homeschoolers would need such a service? I do understand, that homeschoolers have different education methods, but I also think there's quite a lot of same type of educational paths. So having some of them online, that others could share and perhaps parents together could give "grades" to students. Or perhaps certain, more authorized, persons could act as professionals for free or small amount of money on their area of expertise.

So, would there be use for Internet-based courses supported and perhaps ran by other local homeschoolers? Or is homeschooling and Internet-based course system a big no-no?

[lobstah]

i, personally, am working on getting my bachelor's degree online and i love it. it is really the only way that i could do it right now with my schedule. having said that, you're not talking about college. you're talking about basic education, right?

we hope to send our children to a private school, but doubt that we can afford it so we will probably homeschool. i think that it would be awesome to have online classes and teaching tools available for our children, especially for subjects about which my wife and i don't know a whole lot.

[teemuv]

i, personally, am working on getting my bachelor's degree online and i love it. it is really the only way that i could do it right now with my schedule. having said that, you're not talking about college. you're talking about basic education, right?

I'm not a teacher and I don't have kids of my own, so I don't know how to actually teach. I do have Mary Prides Complete Guide to Getting Started in Homeschooling, but that only gives hints of the real thing. What I do know from my experience with Moodle, which is just one tool, of course, is that you can have several methods of learning / teaching in it. You might have (timed) examinations, multiple questionnaire, assignments, grading, group forums, online chat and so on. I know, that university aged students like it very much as you can do things when the suit you best. But yes, I think it suits best for basic things and is never a replacement for face-to-face education.

we hope to send our children to a private school, but doubt that we can afford it so we will probably homeschool. i think that it would be awesome to have online classes and teaching tools available for our children, especially for subjects about which my wife and i don't know a whole lot.

This is what I was after. Lets suppose you don't know much about atoms. With online education, and in Moodle for example, you could actually get someone who knows about it write up some basic teaching material, or at-least verify it, and then you could educate your children with that information by using examinations and assignments. But someone has to do the courses, the material. You have the technology, but without information it's useless.

Online education is not much more than a tool, but properly used it could help a lot homeschoolers.

[Ron Helwig]

I worked at Plato Learning for 5 years, and they have a whole heck of a lot of courseware available - for a price. They aren't set up (as far as I know) for home schoolers, and sell to school districts and even entire states. When I was moving here I thought that it might be good to set up a way to market their stuff to homeschoolers, but I never really did anything about it.

I know there's a lot of courseware out there on the net. If someone could find a way to make enough of it available for a very low price or free, they could really change things.

[Keyser Soce]

Good stuff.


http://www.khanacademy.org/

[Pat McCotter]

Good stuff.


http://www.khanacademy.org/

Thank you! I'll be busy for a while!

[Bogdan]

http://www.einztein.com/

"free online courses."

Honestly, I think the education system has been inefficient since people invented the video camera.

In every class (except for maybe 2) that I've had since I started school the teachers just ramble on while copying stuff from their teachers edition textbooks onto an overhead projector.

Any questions I've asked about any real meaning of what they were saying have always been answered with blank stares and repetition of the previous statement.

Why not just record one AWESOME teacher and then let the kids watch that lesson on tape. Whenever science unlocks some new mystery, just update the tape and you are done.

I learned more watching Carl Sagan and Bill Nye than I ever learned in school from any teacher...

[phobe]

Amateurs.....Amateurs....

Still think that the curriculum of today can prepare you for that unknowable future. If NOT,  you're ready to dump the
curriculized educational hogwash then go here:

http://www.ztcollege.com/