The ExplorNet CareerTech Blog

CompTIA has updated its website and I found a great section of resources for  students and teachers. There is a test prep page that includes the exam objectives, practice tests, training materials and information.  And there’s a page for teachers that has information about program benefits and how to help students get certified.

By joining CompTIA’s E2C program, you can get access to discounted vouchers for students, and free vouchers for yourself.  Perhaps most importantly right now, students at E2C member schools can purchase vouchers for the current (2006 version) exams through June 2010. The 2006 exams map to existing resources and curriculum that students everywhere will use in 2009-10, rather than the updated 2009 exams that everyone else will have to take starting this fall.

If you are in North Carolina, NCDPI still (for now at least) has a statewide agreement that allows schools to join E2C for free.  See details and guidelines at the NC T&I website.

Finally, if you have the ability to make a trip this summer, registration is online for CompTIA’s Breakaway conference August 2-6 in Las Vegas. Information and registration are online. A special E2C strand includes Sunday-Tuesday training sessions led by Jean Andrews and Michael Meyers, plus specialized sessions for IT educators from across the country.

The ever evolving world of technology will present ongoing challenges for those of us who are already in the workforce, and new opportunities for those who are just starting their careers.  A Digital Media program that’s been in place at Middle Creek High School in Apex, NC the past few years produces a vivid picture of the brave new world ahead.

The program incorporates audio and video production along with basic web design, graphics and animation. Students produce sportscasts that are available as podcasts through iTunes. They produce a daily morning radio show that’s broadcast in the immediate vicinity of the campus, as well as a daily newscast for the school. They create web sites and graduation DVDs and video productions of the school musical. They edit sports videos that are played for thousands of fans air at Carolina Hurricanes games.

Most importantly, they learn how it all works together in the modern world of interactive media, where digital information and entertainment are available not just on radios and television sets but on laptops and cell phones, all on-demand.

Middle Creek has a Digital Media academy, so students have the ability to get in-depth exposure to skills they may use as they continue their education or begin their careers.  During my spring visit, students were busily working on a variety of projects.

Level I students learn a bit about each of the areas covered in the course (audio, video, web design, graphics and animation).  Some of them were in the school’s Mac lab, putting the final touches on videos that layered graphics - some of which they’d created themselves - over music tracks they chose.  They’ve learned a bit about the major Adobe CS3 products - Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash - in edition to audio and video editing software and equipment.

By Level 2, students are creating real products.  One group I saw was taping a segment for the next’s day’s campus newscast.  Others worked on radio broadcasts or sports play-by-play, or created websites for non-profits.  One girl named Abby showed a beautiful site she built for SkillsUSA competition around the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, in collaboration with a couple of other students.  They won first place at state, one of five state championships the school brought home.

Advanced Studies students were working on post-production for a DVD of the high school musical, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, complete with a multi-camera shoot, credits, profiles, behind the scenes takes, and more.  I saw last year’s edition, Seussical the Musical, and the DVD is definitely professional quality work.

Middle Creek’s Digital Media program is one of the models for ExplorNet/QTL’s new Digital Media courses, and the school’s three Digital Media teachers will help lead the training for new teachers from across North Carolina in late July. All three have experience in the TV news industry, and have brought those skills to work for students.  Hearing them talk about the program they’ve built, or the students they’ve affected, is a pleasure.

Luis Maldonado works closely with advanced students on the morning radio show, among other things.  He and some of his students are at school by 6:00 for a daily radio broadcast that goes from 6:30 to 7:30 in the immediate area of campus.

As Maldonado notes, the skills students are learning won’t just be put to use in entertainment.  These skills have the promise to help business save travel or training costs while building efficiency. They may enable doctors to perform diagnostics or eventually surgery remotely. They’ll enable professional development and collaboration and education, helping make expertise in any subject readily available far and wide.

Maldonado two other teachers who work with the academy - Thomas Hodges and Wes Petty all bring industry experience as well as dedication to the program at Middle Creek. With varied skills from Flash, Photoshop and Dreamweaver to audio and video production, they combine to offer a comprehensive program.  But ExplorNet’s new Digital Media program aims to help schools with a single teacher begin programs that may start smaller but become robust over time.  The summer training gives qualfied teachers a basic understanding of the major topics - a foundation upon which to build their knowledge and skills.

Some of the Middle Creek students’ work you can see online includes:

• Music that a pair of students named Tony and Cole recorded together;
• Play-by-play broadcasts at sportsblock.net ;
• Photo albums at the Mac website;

Though Middle Creek’s program is an academy and more in-depth than most Digital Media schools will attempt, it’s a promising field and an exciting program for the future. Find out more about it here.

Robin Fred
The Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning

(March 27, 2009) - The final QTL IT Spring Workshop is going on right now at Watauga High School in Boone. We have about a dozen people on hand and had a busy morning with discussions, a virtualization lab and a tour of the Appalachian State IT Services offices.  Now we’re spending the afternoon going through some impressive quick labs that were actually designed by Errol Shook’s students at WHS.

As I write this, we’re talking about creating bootable Ubuntu flash drives - and teaching file systems, BIOS, boot order, etc. in the process of doing that.  A student designed this activity for Errol to share with other high school teachers.  Talk about high-level thinking skills!  Next up: another student-designed lab where we’ll build bootable hard drives using Ubuntu Linux and old junked 10G hard drives.

That level of thought from students here isn’t surprising, after seeing some of the hands-on activities Errol uses to teach the content of his Computer Engineering and Networking courses.  At first blush, one might think an activity like setting up PXE boots to run a virtualized Linux computer within a Vista-based PC would be beyond the scope of the Computer Engineering course objectives.  But Errol uses advanced labs like these to actually teach the content in a real-world context.  He always connect the activity and the steps of the process back to the basic technology - teaching everything from hardware technology to software file systems to user rights along the way.  And it works - his students complete the courses with almost universal proficiency.

Watauga High has a great IT lab setup, with some pretty high-powered new computers that Errol’s students built with kits from Computer Warehouse of North Carolina. He talked a bit about how he has it configured and the security measures he’s taken.  He tries to live on trust and give students the ability to do what they need to do, but like everyone has had to think through how to protect the school network first, and his own segregated classroom network second.

Here, that’s accomplished by way of a classroom that’s sectioned off from the rest of the school network via K12LTSP.  Students built the computers, which run Windows Vista but are set up to run a virtualization of Linux from a classroom server (maybe I can get him to write up how he made that happen).  Those virtualizations allow Errol to teach Level 3 students programming languages and technologies including Java, Linux, Ruby, Python, Perl and more.  The limitations of each individual PC are no longer a barrier to having what’s needed to teach those technologies.

It was gratifying to hear that Errol got a key idea for how to do all of this at a QTL workshop that Greg Thoyre of Orange High led a few years ago.  It’s great to see teachers turn an idea they got at a workshop into an innovation that transforms their classroom.

It’s also been great to have a guest named Cory Efland, who’s one of Greg Thoyre’s former students at Orange High and is now wrapping up his teaching degree.  After getting his A+, Net+ and Linux+ certifications while he was still in high school, Cory came to Boone to attend Appalachian State and get his teaching degree.  He’s been student teaching with Hank Hardin at Avery High School - a program that builds more than 200 computers for the school district every year.  So he’s learned from some of the best and is getting ready to start his own program somewhere.   His head must be swimming with new ideas after talking to the experienced teachers here.

We’ve talked a lot today about helping students get certified, and setting them on a solid career path.  CompTIA’s E2C program helps schools offer certification exams for students at a discount.  North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction has set up a statewide agreement to help bring schools into E2C just by filing the paperwork to join. Frances Nichols of Mt. Airy High talked about going through the process for getting vouchers and getting students to exam sites.  She says it’s worth the trouble.

One thing Errol always does after working with a student 2-3 years is to write a letter of recommendation for seniors who he feels have mastered the technology content and have done their work and who he feels would make good students.  Many of those kids get jobs with IT services at Appalachian State or other colleges and universities, or with local businesses.  This helps Errol’s program because he now even gets surplus equipment from those ITS programs that found out about the program from the students who got jobs.

Earlier today, we talked about Moodle, and the QTL system for managing online classrooms.  Those who haven’t yet dived in to the system because of bandwidth limitations or local restrictions or lack of time or whatever are getting a sales pitch from those who ARE using the system.  Will Stewart from Haywood County logged in to his account to show how he has students taking exams and doing work while he’s here today. We also talked about the WRAL TV story on Wakefield High School’s program, where Phil Vice did an excellent job explaining what Moodle’s a good thing.

We also looked at the games module in Moodle, a feature that will be much more functional in QTL’s IT Moodle setup next school year.  Teachers will be able to create hangman, cryptex, millionaire, crossword or other games tied to vocabulary lists and glossaries.  It’ll make Moodle even more interactive and engaging for students.  There’s a good video overview of Moodle games on Teacher Tube (you may need to set up an account to see it).

Some other links discussed today:

IMGBurn - Software for creating bootable CDs from ISOs.

CWNC - Computer Warehouse of North Carolina, which donated numerous door prizes for participants here today (congrats to Troy Jones of Lincoln County who won the big prize, a 22-inch flat panel monitor).

K12LTSP - Linux and Terminal Services package designed especially for schools.

K12Linux - The Fedora 10 iteration of K12LTSP.

Avira AntiVir - The anti-virus software Errol now says he finds superior to AVG Free.  Good enough for me…

CONFLICKER - A potentially dangerous worm that’s set to go off April 1 (read about it on cnn.com).

By Scott Gupton
Computer Engineering Teacher, New Bern High School

Just last month a good friend was the victim of ID theft.  They are still cutting up cards and on the phone for hours trying to fix the problem.

Take a look at this PDF file - a very good example of a “Phishing” site.  It is very rare to capture good screen shots of such scams.  I am working on a graduate certificate in Information Security and I was able to gain access to it via one of my classmates.

This scam has been around for years, but people still fall for it most of the time.  Most of us (including me) do not look at the “address” bar of sites that we visit.  The “perps” know this and take full advantage of it.

Tip? Always take an extra second to read the URL (web address) to verify that it is legit.  And never trust an Email from banks, the IRS, investment brokers, etc., etc.  Yes they will send you promotional emails, but they will never (usually) request usernames, passwords, social security numbers, etc.  If you’re not sure, then call the company to verify.

In addition, be aware of another attack:  Redirected Web Traffic (Pharming).  It is the same concept, but this time “perps” take advantage of misspelled words and/or typing errors.

Here is an explanation (adapted from source: Thomson Course Technology):

Users often make mistakes typing Web addresses into a browser. Scam artists capitalize on this by anticipating some of the more common mistakes, including:

• Misspelling the address (for example, typing www.corse.com instead of www.course.com)
• Omitting the dot (for example, typing grocerycom instead of grocery.com)
• Omitting a word (typing only grocery instead of grocery.com)
• Using inappropriate punctuation (typing tool’s.com instead of tools.com)

Hackers can exploit a misaddressed Web name and steal information from unsuspecting users. They do this by registering similar-sounding domain names.  When users attempt to enter the legitimate website but enter the common misspelling or typo, they are instead taken to a website set up by the hacker to deceive them. This site can look almost identical to the genuine site, so users are easily tricked into entering personal information that is then stolen.

Redirecting Web traffic is not limited to malicious attackers. Several well-known Internet service providers (ISPs) automatically funnel misspelled addresses into their own Web sites that contain a search feature to help users find the sites they originally wanted.

I hope this helps!  Make sure you read the PDF!!!

Think Smart! - Think Security!

Scott

We’re always on the lookout for great student projects or hands-on activities that engage students in the content of these courses. Matt Rogers of the Buncombe County Career Education Center shared a very nice one with our online IT Teacher Professional Learning Community and gave me permission to post it here.  Here it is, in his words:

I’ve been teaching for close to 2 years now and I’ve done this project each semester with my level 2 class to pretty decent success. I have them create their own Computer Store.

We start with safety and I have my students write up “Rules for the Shop” for any techs they hire for their shop. Moving to Hardware & Software, I have them create different computers using the Wishlist on newegg and tigerdirect. Each computer costs a certain amount (a $500, $1000, & one beast of a machine). They also price specific parts to create a way of customers to “customize” their machine (kinda like what Dell does on their website). The students then create a catalog using Publisher. In networking and IT security, they discuss what types of networking services they would offer and the equipment necessary. IT Security would allow them to tell potential customers what dangers lie online and what to do to prevent them (this also goes into professionalism & communication). Same for printers and laptops.

Finally, they actually build their shop using Google Sketchup and present their shop to the class at the end of the semester.

You can also work in job interviews, troubleshooting (by giving them scenarios of customers coming into their shop), and other forms of supplemental material.

Some students also created websites for their shop.

It works pretty well and definitely utilizes what they learn in a real-world manner.

Hope this helps,

Matt Rogers
Career Education Center
Buncombe County Schools, NC

Robin Fred
The Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning

(Dec. 12, 2008) - This morning’s meeting of the North Carolina Joint Legislative Technology Commissions in Raleigh was indeed what state school board chairman Howard Lee called a “fantastically informative experience.”  The snapshots of progress in increasing the effective use of educational technology were dizzying to someone who views student engagement as the key to student achievement.

Rep. Joe Tolson - a longtime legislative champion of instructional technology -  set the stage.  He told the movers and shakers who had gathered to hear the state technology progress report that the challenge at hand is “providing tools so our students can be competitive in a global economy.”

Governor-Elect Beverly Perdue says she believes in technology as a critical tool for 21st Century learning, and it will be a key focus for her administration.  “This is all about North Carolina’s success in 10 or 20 years,” she told the gathering, adding that with it, “we can inspire and motivate all or most of our kids… and keep North Carolina competitive in a global economy.”

And without it?  “If we don’t teach our students with technology, how in the world can they adapt to the workforce?”

SAS President and CEO Jim Goodnight also made an appearance to talk about technology’s importance in the modern classroom in light of the fact that today’s kids use it all the time outside school.  “We ask (students) to literally slow down when they enter the classroom,” he said.  “Technology empowers teachers and engaging students in their learning.”

Goodnight touted the state’s 1:1 Computing Initiative, noting that after one year the dropout rate at pilot school Hunt High dropped by 42%.  SAS is putting its money where its mouth is, so to speak.  Goodnight announced to the group that the company is making its “Curriculum Pathways” program open free of charge to teachers and students across the United States.

Author Michael Horn (Disrupting Class: Student-Centric Education is the Future) delivered the keynote with a presentation that took a cutting-edge business theory and applied it to education.  His ideas rate a separate blog entry.  But in a nutshell, Horn contends that technology combined with a strong educational strategy offers a way to move from a “monolithic, factory-based model that doesn’t reflect the way we learn” to a modular and customizable approach that is truly student-centered.

The impact of technology on education hasn’t been easy to illustrate because too often the approach is to put computers in a classroom and hope simply doing that will make a difference.  The need for a better strategy was a common theme as other presenters talked about the transformation that’s now underway in many schools thanks to improving technology and smarter strategies.

Much of the improvement can be credited to better bandwidth, and MCNC’s North Carolina Research and Education Network has dramatically expanded that across North Carolina this year.  When 2008 began, only a handful of school districts were actively impacted by that effort to provide affordable high-speed connections to schools.  Now, 100 districts are connected, and MCNC President Joe Freddoso says almost all will be on the network within months.

Other highlights:

• Students at the host Centennial Middle School greeted participants with demonstrations of how they use technology.  One group of students I spoke with showed how they used Google tools and video cameras to track wildlife habits around the school.  A pair of 13-year-olds showed me the robot they’d built and programmed, and one showed a game she had created using a free online tool called Scratch from MIT.  Too bad all schools can’t offer those types of learning experiences.
• Howard Lee noted that in Greene County - a small, rural, poor district - the graduation rate has skyrocketed from 24% to 82% since the district began using more computers a decade ago.
• Bryan Setser of the NC Virtual Public School showed cutting edge tools that bring the virtual world so many students these days are comfortable with (think Club Penguin but with a focus on curriculum).
• Angela Quick of NCDPI spoke of blending the physical world and the virtual world through collaborative tools. These tools have been around a while but are suddenly more viable not only because the tools themselves are getting better, but because the bandwidth in schools is finally catching up (there’s that connectivity project again…).
• A Chapel Hill principal appeared via webcam and Wimba Classroom to talk about technology as a tool - using what’s increasingly available to support what’s happening in the brick and mortar structure. “It’s a way to go from ‘well-managed classrooms’ to ‘highly engaged students.’”

Michael Horn ended the meeting on a similar note, saying his book is called “Disrupting Class” rather than “Disrupting Schools” because he believes schools will continue to play a central role in spite of the use of online learning in home school and other environments.  But he anticipates schools becoming portals for guided instruction rather than the structured environment that’s prevalent today.

If he’s right, that means an ever-changing role for teachers, and an ongoing need for professional development and administrative support.  But in my mind, the result is not a world that is less dependent on teachers… quite the opposite in fact.

After the meeting State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson told me just a few years ago she had teachers tell her that they feared increased use of computers would mean we’d need fewer teachers.  In reality, we should be able to offer our students more opportunities through the wise development and use of tech tools.  But great teachers who know how to use those tools to guide and inspire students will always be the key to making that work.

Robin Fred
The Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning

(Dec. 12, 2008) Author Michael Horn (Disrupting Class: Student-Centric Education is the Future) delivered the keynote to today’s session of the Joint Legislative Technology Commissions in Raleigh with a presentation that took a cutting-edge business theory and applied it to education.

Horn and his co-author, Clayton Christensen, studied how established companies sometimes fail because they don’t capitalize on ‘disruptive innovation’ - primarily, technology that changes the landscape of their industry.

For instance, three decades ago when American automakers ruled the world with big, luxurious cars, upstarts like Toyota entered the market with a very different approach.  The Toyota Corona, Horn says, couldn’t compete with GM’s Cadillac or other high-end autos in terms of comfort and performance.  And the big automakers paid it little attention.

But consumers who couldn’t afford those larger vehicles did pay attention - and bought a lot of Toyotas.  That gave the Japanese automaker capital to build better cars, and add more models.  By the time the established companies started paying attention, Toyota and its peers had a fleet of cars that were generally more fuel-efficient, often more reliable and in usually more affordable. They now dominate the market - but are in turn being challenged by upstarts like Kia and Hyundai.

Another example is Digital Equipment Corporation.  During the 80s, DEC gained market dominance with its big mainframe computers.  When the ‘personal computer’ was introduced, DEC didn’t see the potential applications. Their own customers told them they would not be interested in miniature computers, and DEC execs realized the profit margins on the big machines were much, much greater.  So they ’stayed the course.’ But smaller companies made inroads - not by selling PCs as an alternative to mainframe computers in a business environment, but basically selling them as ‘toys.’  And consumers  who could not possibly have put down half a million dollar for a mainframe computer were “thrilled with something that was better than the alternative, which was nothing at all.”  The rest is history: over the next few years PC makers made inroads, built a huge home and then business PC market, and came to rule the IT world.  But their products could now be displaced by Blackberries and iPhones.

The examples go on and on from there:  department stores were displaced by Wal-Mart and Target, which could be  displaced by Internet retail.  RCA and Zenith lost electronics market dominance to Sony, which capitalized on transistor technology faster by selling low-end products like transistor radios and then TVs and videogames and cameras and laptops and more.

So what does this have to do with education?  More than you might think.  Horn and Christensen wondered how their theory might apply in the classroom.  Their initial investigation led them to a couple of key conclusions:

• There are conflicting mandates in the way we teach and test, and the way students learn;
• Computer technology has so far failed to make a significant difference because we have crammed them in to conventional classrooms rather than change our approach to teaching.

Horn says modern education is generally based on a “monolithic, factory-based model” that doesn’t reflect the way we learn.  But, he says, technology offers a way out because it is modular and customizable.  It’s also scalable and offers a different path of ‘distribution.’

For example, a school that offers advanced and specialized courses like German or Statistics might be hard pressed to do that in a budget crunch.  Courses with low enrollment may be cut - but online learning can provide a way for students to still have those options.  It may not yet be as desirable as having a classroom teacher lead the studies - but it’s better than the alternative, which is nothing.  And as more schools offer German in this way and more students benefit, the entity (like NC Virtual Public School) that offers the course can get the resources to improve it, or to offer more courses.  In other words, like Toyota, it starts small but builds in quality and depth as more and more ‘customers’ join in.

Horn believes this pattern will lead to rapid development of e-learning, especially as affordable broadband continues to spread to more schools.  He says schools and teachers will always be important, but sees schools becoming portals for  learning and offering many, many options for guided instruction.  He says this may be the development that finally helps teachers go from being a ’sage on a stage’ to being a ‘guide on the side.’

Do you agree?  Feel free to comment…

Jim Ermert, Jr.
District Technology Coordinator, CET Instructor
Corning Public Schools, Arkansas

I have had a student administrator program for eight years now.  It is a big success story around here.  We have had several students work for the district and then go to college and get a degree.  I have some who just go out and start working at night to make a little extra money also.

The main problem I had starting this program was selling it to the super and board.  After the first year I was able to show how much time and money the district saved by allowing students to work for me instead of having a study hall.  One of my prior Student Admins, Cody McGrew, was the ExplorNet IT Student of the Year.  He is now the network administrator for the John Deere dealership here and just finished his BS in MIS at Arkansas State University.

Here are the steps I use to choose candidates for the program:

1. The student must take my A+ class in the 10th grade and pass with at least a B average.
2. The student can apply for the admin program by submitting a “job application”.
3. If chosen, the student becomes a “Junior Admin”.  This means he job shadows a “Lead Tech” for a semester to learn proper PC repair and how to act in classes.  There is ZERO tolerance for cut-ups or stealing.  They can have fun, but must act like professionals in front of teachers and their classes.  Another task as a “Junior Admin” is they have to do the “dirty” work for the Lead Tech, such as running cables in ceilings, carrying computers and monitors, etc.  This gives us a level of hiearchy which helps me keep them in line and stops any arguments on whos turn it is to go out on a job.  This usually is not a problem, but somethimes I have a few get lazy close to graduation.
4. When they are in 11th grade they can become “Lead Techs” and start going out on their own and work for the district.  My Lead Techs have parent permission slips that allow them to go to my other campuses and work.  They have a lot of trust and rope given to them, but I find they are mature enough to handle it.
5. At the end of the year,  the Admins are given a certificate honoring their work for the school.  Many of my students use this work experience on their resumes and I am always getting calls asking about their abilities.  We do three different community projects which gives them the community service they need for scholarship apps too.  We maintain the Corning Police Dept network, Corning Community Center’s computers and donated computers to the newly opened Sarah House which is a home for disabled young people who are finished with school and don’t have anywhere to go during the day.

I have presented this to several techs in the state and some are doing it.  I think it is a win-win situation for the kids and district.  They get valuable hands-on experience and the school gets free tech support!  Hope this helps.

Robin Fred
The Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning

Sitting in on a new teacher training session for QTL’s Computer Engineering, I’m listening to West Montgomery High instructor Kathy Tarlton talk to our participants about teaching the content of the A+ certification based program.  

Inevitably in these trainings, the subject of higher-level projects comes up.  There’s discussion of how to serve the needs of advanced students.  Participants always bring some good ideas of their own.

This morning Kathy is showing where to find an interesting online video from Lab Rats! concerning whether to Buy or Build a PC.  The hosts are discussing the pros and cons of building your own system versus buying a pre-built system from a local storefront vs. buying a factory model.  Their discussion covers a lot of the basics of computer technology and would help any CE student understand the context and importance of various PC components.  The Lab Rats! site has a lot of videos on topics that would be of interest to IT students.

But the site made me think of the ever-expanding options for projects that would keep the interest of those students who finish the basic course work before everyone else.  If you have access to video question, why not have your most advanced ‘geeks’ earn extra credit by creating videos of their own?  You could assign them topics or let them pick their own.  Put them in groups and let them plan it out themselves, or guide them toward creating videos you can then use to teach the rest of the class.  They’d love it, they’d learn from it, and they’d help you teach their peers.  Win, win, win, if you can do it.  

Robin Fred
The Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning

We’ve worked hard to create and continually improve a program that is truly designed by teachers to benefit students.  It’s always gratifying to me to hear a new teacher say the resources we provide help them get a strong start.  It may be even more satisfying to hear from veterans who’ve been with us for years, and find they can use what we provide to implement a successful program.

Phil Vice of Raleigh’s Wakefield High School is one such teacher.  When we first launched our Moodle system a couple of years back, he was among the first to use it to ‘go paperless.’  He says he uses QTL methodology and curriculum as a ‘turnkey’ solution to preparing his students to begin their IT studies or careers.   He says the system allows him to manage his classroom, make students responsible for their own learning, and prepare them not only to be knowledgeable about technology, but also to develop the habits which will make them good employees.

Phil says Moodle has helped him save paper, and helps in other practical ways such as letting him conduct labs and activities with small groups, while ensuring the rest of the class has productive work to do online.  He also uses QTL’s Moodle-powered online Professional Learning Community to connect with other IT teachers in other schools.

I asked him to document how he approaches all of this, and he graciously wrote up a brief paper that may serve as a ‘roadmap’ for new or even veteran teachers.   I posted his thoughts so you can read them in Phil’s own words.  The link is available from the ‘resources’ page on our website.