PLAYTIME!                                                                                                                                 
     .....

• Welcome to the playground!   Here we can play with CardiffSchools.Net (CSN) and Moodle (Ver.1.8) in a safe manner.
  
  For the purpose of this site we are going to assume you 'know nothing' and the training here will take you through CSN and Moodle from the perspective of a student, a teacher, an administrator and even a parent!
  
  Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS) an element of "e-learning" used inside CardiffSchools.Net  It could also be called a VLS Virtual Learning System or VLE Virtual Learning Environment.  Whatever it is called, it is a powerful package and well worth some study.
  
  There are two very important elements implicit in this system. The first is that Moodle is based on Social Constructionist Pedagogy - which is 'learning by doing' and interacting with others doing the same.  It's the difference between a formal lecture and a tutorial.  'Talked at' versus 'discussion'.  The second element is openness.  We like to interpret openness in its widest sense here.  Open in so far as Moodle is "Open Source" (no charge software),  'open' in so far as learning may not be a linear activity - get used to hopping around all over the place and finally 'open' in that once you design courses leave the material 'open' for other to use, modify and redistribute.  We all benefit from sharing!  Oh, and one last point - we do not expect you to have to pay for any software used in the course of these courses.  All downloads should be free i.e.  Adobe Reader, Flash, Real Player, Moodle, Open Office,  .....   
  

  This site will be based on video content. You will need a copy of Real Video to see the content correctly.  Real Video can be downloaded and installed for free by carefully following this link.  A full list of other software will be provided here.

  We have set ourselves a real task here - how to teach a learning system INSIDE the learning system itself.  We have already said that these pages are for willing learners (and you must be you are still here after us mentioning 'social constructionist pedagogy') and we can already assume that you know how to navigate the web and use a browser.  Otherwise we will assume that everything is new.

  Below is a list of the currently available courses but before we head onwards - please spend a little time registering, if you have not done so already.  These courses cannot be seen, or used effectively, otherwise. 

• Description of LiveClass

• This work is licensed under   Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

• Tutor assisted