Moodle is an open-source Learning Management System (LMS) that provides educators with the tools and features to create and manage online courses. It allows educators to organize course materials, create quizzes and assignments, host discussion forums, and track student progress. Moodle is highly flexible and can be customized to meet the specific needs of different institutions and learning environments.
Moodle supports both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments, enabling educators to host live webinars, video conferences, and chat sessions, as well as providing a variety of tools that support self-paced learning, including videos, interactive quizzes, and discussion forums. The platform also integrates with other tools and systems, such as Google Apps and plagiarism detection software, to provide a seamless learning experience.
Moodle is widely used in educational institutions, including universities, K-12 schools, and corporate training programs. It is well-suited to online and blended learning environments and distance education programs. Additionally, Moodle's accessibility features make it a popular choice for learners with disabilities, ensuring that courses are inclusive and accessible to all learners.
The Moodle community is an active group of users, developers, and educators who contribute to the platform's development and improvement. The community provides support, resources, and documentation for users, as well as a forum for sharing ideas and best practices. Moodle releases regular updates and improvements, ensuring that the platform remains up-to-date with the latest technologies and best practices.
Links of interest:
🞭 Advertisements
🞭 Artwork
🞭 Information about meetings and classes
🞭 Maps
🞭 Medical or community development information
🞭 News items
🞭 Photos
Posters
Messages
Stories
To maintain interest, change the display on the bulletin board frequently.
Display boards
1. The Chalkboard
A is chalkboard is a reusable writing display surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulfate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk.
A smooth hard panel, usually green or black, for writing on with chalk- a blackboard.
This medium includes a large writing area, a writing substance (usually chalk), and an eraser.
Types of chalkboard
a. Fixed chalkboard
Advantages
• Provides ample space
• Always available when needed
• Can afford space to preserve diagram
• Provides space for making illustrations
• Allows the teacher to plan and draw sketches from the staffroom
• Can be used outside the classroom or in a different class to provide information
• Provides ample space to work on
• Can be used to store information
• Some parts may not be easy to reach due to height
• Requires regular painting for painted walls
• Painted walls are difficult to clean
• Are easily misplaced
• Too small hence limited space for providing information
• Easily damaged
• Are mobile boards which can move from one place to another
• Can adjust height or width to write on
• Can conceal information and display when needed
• Expensive to install
• If poorly handled the rollers may get stuck
• To display information in written or graphic form
• Keep a Record of the Lesson - problems, solutions and principles discussed during the lesson
• Help students see the connections of different ideas of lesson as the class progress
• Help Students Remember What They Need to Do and Think
• Emphasizing essential information
• Availability. Most areas assigned for instruction are equipped with chalkboards. Also, if more board space is needed, portable boards of various types and styles are handy. It is the most available instructional material which can be used in presenting the lesson
• The chalkboard is inexpensive, especially when the usable life of the board is considered.
• It is flexible in use in the sense that instructors may use it, learners may use it and changes can be easily made through erasure. You can easily add or erase if you committed error or you forgot to write about the topic.
• Space. Lots of writing space is usually provided. In showing solutions of the different mathematical problems, chalkboard is very useful to show it systematically.
• The chalkboard can be used to present more formally prepared lessons, or for informal, spontaneous sessions. As a teacher uses the chalkboard in discussing the lesson, it enables the students to follow and understand more the explained topic especially for those students who have hearing disorder.
• Ideas can be dealt with at all levels from facts to concepts, from cognitive to affective learning. By using the chalkboard, the teacher can write the important information about the topic
• Various colored chalk or pens can be used to develop the topic, show parts or build associations
• A point-by-point outline of a presentation can be made on the spot with diagrams, charts, and other accentuation drawn at the appropriate moment. The teacher can illustrate/ draw figures and highlight these drawings by using coloured chalks.
• The visual communication of the chalkboard directs attention of the class to the purposes of the lecture or discussion. Through chalkboard, the students can improve or develop their thinking ability and visualize their own ideas.
• Ideas or topics suggested in discussion can be listed on the board, reorganized, deleted, added to, and put in final form. You can easily add or erase if you committed error or you forgot to write about the topic.
• Test or discussion questions can be put on the board and covered up before the class assembles, then revealed at the appropriate time. This can save on time and cost of duplication materials. You can write important events such as holidays, assignments and other information that serve as reminder for students
• A number of learners can do practice or drill work on the board at one time, allowing the instructor to give feedback immediately. Using chalkboard, the students can improve their handwriting/ penmanship
Disadvantages of a Chalkboard
• The chalkboard carries with it “temporariness.” Material put on the board cannot be saved or made permanent. You cannot save the writings/ visual materials posted on the board.
• Chalkboards are often fixed in such a way that they are not always at a comfortable height for all potential users. Teachers with a short height may not be able to use the chalkboard in a maximum way.
• Being fixed, chalkboards can put restrictions on the use of classroom space and classroom activities as learners need to be placed when they can see the boards. Chalkboard is not applicable in dark areas and is not appropriate for students having visual impairments.
• With age, use of certain types of chalk, and/or improper cleaning practices, boards can become cloudy as they retain chalk dust.
• Some instructors are psyched- out of using the board because they feel a lack of artistic ability.
• Motion cannot easily be shown. It cannot show motion to discuss a process.
• A teacher’s handwriting or spelling deficiencies are most obvious when using the chalkboard.
• It can cause misconception or misunderstanding if it is not used properly.
• Chalkboard work can be messy.
• Be prepared. See that the chalkboard and erasers are properly cleaned and maintained.
• Plan what you are going to write on the board:
• Keep writing-
• Practice writing and/or printing in a straight line.
• Use yellow chalk on a green board, white on a black board, etc.
• If your chalk squeaks, simply break the piece in half.
• Learn to stand and/or move around so you do not block the view of learners as you use the board.
• Put the chalk down when you are through writing. This reduces the chances for distraction caused by playing with the chalk.
• Use the eraser to remove errors or make changes. Using your hands only smears the chalk and may deposit oil on the board, which can serve as a dust collector.
• In erasing the writings on the board, use a down-sweep erasing motion. Erasing the board with a side-to-side motion only enables the learners to observe (from a most unflattering angle) the instructor doing something resembling the "Twist." It also causes chalk- dust particles to fly into the air instead of into the collector tray..
• When you are through with the material, erase it completely so that it will not serve as a distraction while the next topic is being considered.
• Intersperse writing on the board with questions or verbal emphasis. Keep the class aware of what is being put on the board and why.
Nb: If important drawings or maps are needed on the board, a instructor is wise to save time by:
i. doing them before class, and
ii. Copying a projection on the board (from a filmstrip, slide, or opaque projector) rather than "free-handing" it.
· Chalkboard etiquette: if someone will be using the board after you, please don't leave it for him/her to erase. It's nice to clean the eraser against the board as well.
2. Whiteboard:
White surface for projection and writing or drawing.
Drawings and writings are done using non-permanent white board marker/pen.
• No dust produced
• Simple to use when displaying simple illustrations
• Fast and convenient to use
• Long lasting and not easily damaged
• Once installed it requires minimum maintenance
• Hard to improvise
• Has a pungent smell produced by pen and duster
It is a commercially produced as large sheet of hardboard with hundreds of identical and regularly spaced holes in it.
The holes allow a variety of peg and wire hook systems to be used to secure visual aids to the board
The holes allow a variety of peg and wire hook systems to be used to secure visual aids to the board.
A SMART Board is an interactive whiteboard, designed for engaging students and delivering unique presentations. As an instructor, you no longer have to stand behind the teacher machine to present. Simply walk up to the board and touch the screen. Your finger, or the pens provided, will act as your computer mouse, allowing you to visit websites, scroll through PowerPoint slides, and much more. The SMART Board is automatically connected to the teacher machine, so any interaction you make will occur on the computer synchronously.
Fully-functioning interactive whiteboards usually rely on four components: a computer, a projector, appropriate software and the display panel. The computer is connected to the projector and whiteboard. The projector displays the computer screen image onto the board. Action on the surface of the display panel is communicated with the computer over a cable or wireless connection and interpreted via the installed software. Careful planning of when to use SMART boards must be thought about, and that they should spend time familiarizing themselves with how it works.
Typically, smart boards are used in lecture or classroom environments and it allows the user to write or draw on the surface, print off the image, save it to computer or distribute it over a network. Smart boards are commonly used in post-secondary classrooms or any training environment
i. SMART boards give students a hands-on approach to classroom concepts.
ii. SMART Boards also have the ability to save previous notes
iii. Can be used to Refresh a Student’s Memory On Prior Lessons.
iv. Can Lead To More Interactive Lectures And Presentations.
v. Students Can Come Up During A Lesson And Solve A Problem.
SMART boards are more expensive than conventional whiteboards or projector and screen combinations. Their surface can become damaged. Front projection boards can be obscured by one or more users. Fixed-height boards are often mounted too high for users to reach the top of or too low to be readily visible by all users. .
Bulletin boards are a useful way to make information available to a community or a group to create interest in events, ideas, or products to create motivation to read, and to display artwork and other paper items of interest.
Bulletin board (notice board) is a place where people can leave public messages, for example, to advertise things to buy or sell, announce events, or provide information
🞭 To motivate the learner
🞭 To give the correct initial impression
🞭 To broader the sensory experience of the learner
🞭 To intensify impression and vitalize instructions
🞭 To provide information
🞭 To supplement & correlate instructions
🞭 To save time
i. Flannel/felt/cloth board
Uses adhesive qualities of materials to enable static displays to be fixed to a backcloth of similar material by exercising gentle pressure
Consist a thin sheet or iron on which shapes backed with small strip magnet will adhere. The metal surface is painted black with blackboard paint.
Applied in industry for demonstration or discuss and develop tactics by an imaginative instructor
Is made of soft material in which pins can be pushed without difficulty
It is uses materials that are readily available and quick and convenient to use.
Disadvantage is it is easily damaged and susceptible to termite damage
a) A suggested plan for placement of bulletin board is to have one near the administrators office for notices, near the library or class room
b) Materials should be dated to ensure that it does not remain no longer than desired
c) The material should be changed frequently & systematically
d) Student contributions should be encouraged
e) Everybody should be held responsible for reading and knowing