I'd like to get started with online teaching to enhance
what I do in the classroom.
Where should I start - Google Classroom or Moodle?
Hands down the quickest and easier of the two to get up and running. This is much easier for students to join a class, access on their phones (or their parents phones) to enter quick answers to posted questions and edit their work. Fourth grade can definately handle this but I think the best implementation would include both the computer lab and classroom teacher.
Post questions, assign collaborative work, collect work because if you assign it you can see exactly what they have accomplished. Their work opens as a Google Doc that is automatically shared with you and in your Google Drive Classroom folder.
The best for assigning collaborative documents and presentations that you check the project history of to see who is accountable for their work.
Worried about plagiarism? Check a document history to see when large amounts of text were pasted into the document. For those of you who have asked, turnitin resource is very expensive.
Moodle has a higher learning curve to get up and running and comfortable with the advanced features but WAY more powerful than Google Classroom. Moodle is used in many universities and is parallel to Blackboard but free. This mimics the online learning environments found at most colleges. Personally, I think it would be powerful for all of our high school students to experience a class in Moodle.
There's some great features including having all your students contribute to a wiki or forum. You can create quizes, create lessons and track students completion data. It's not as simple of an interface as Google Classroom but it you have time to learn it - it's very powerful. Check out the Moodle on Moodle - and be sure to watch the webinar on gradebooks in Moodle. That alone might have some high school teachers convinced to try it (or to take your use of it to the next level).
In order to get a Moodle Class set up for you to try, email Courtney Bullock with your school name and the course name. We can keep it hidden until you are ready to go live.
Often the first step is getting a handle on classroom management for getting out laptops or bringing students to lab and the classroom procedures that go along with that. If you'll be rotating students through assignments on your classroom computers, what seemless way will you be able to ensure all students have had their chance to complete the assignments.
For Fourth Grade up - I would suggest starting with Google Classroom. If your school has a computer lab and you have time - start a collaboration with your computer lab teacher. If you are a high school teacher with limited computer confidence, start with Google Classroom. If you are using Moodle, I would team up with teachers from content areas across schools and use different enrollment keys for each school. Then you will be able to build a class together and see only your students results or work.
You could use either Google Classroom or Moodle to assign a Google forms quiz, assign a You Tube video (or any video) and attach documents or links to websites for the students to access with one click.