A Recap Of Moodleposium, The Final Moodle Summit Of 2016

By
Cristian T. Duque
-
1720
A Recap Of Moodleposium, The Moodle Summit To End 2016

Monday, December 5th

For many days before the hype on social media was real, and the event did not disappoint.

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It started on one of those “magical” Canberra mornings. Moodlers from all over the planet (mostly Australians) received the welcome of Melissa Silk and her children STEAMpop.zone and Lumifold.

See slides for Melissa Silk’s keynote.

For the rest of the day, the audience split around sessions encompassing 14 presentations over three threads: “Innovate and Experiment”, “Enhance Engagement”, “Work Smarter Not Harder”. Gamification, transformative experiences and “shake ups” were the order of the day. Particularly interesting was Jennifer Lawrence (not that one, mind you, rather “our” JLaw) with Using the ‘Extended Workshop’ activity for peer assessment.

As Jean-Paul Gagnon and his existential-ish presentation, Why I’m changing almost everything next semester:

 

The evening was topped with Moodleposium’s second keynote, What resolutions can we make? by David Meacham, from UNSW Canberra. He pleads for “simplicity in an age of abundance“, in order to focus on the things that matter, pedagogically and politically.

See Meacham’s slides.

And the first day was out. Attendees felt a sense of closeness due to the focus on regional and local experiences, while at the same time they broadened horizons as the conversations shifted from “how to use Moodle” to “how to teach better through Moodle”.

Tuesday, December 6th

This refreshing message kicked off day two. On her talk, Western Sydney University’s Joanne Lind discussed the value of “mistakability” in the light of her experience as a Med School professor. Mistakes can be a critical part in fine-tuning learning and teaching approaches. Games, she argues, are a great way to welcome mistakes. (Perhaps except at family parties.)

The day followed through with insightful talks about Moodle for prisoners…

…critical thinking…

…robots doing “weird simulations”…

(humans gave them a run for their money, though)

…among many critical, fun and heartwarming talks.

The end of the day and the event whole came thanks to Sue Gregory from the University of New England, and her closing keynote, Virtual Worlds and more: Engaging in online learning.

It felt as the proper send-off, and a great way to conclude and synthesize the conversations that took place during two days in December at Canberra. In today’s world, virtualization is a continuum. We hop from realm to realm, each with its different languages, tools and customs. Learning is an invaluable potential beneficiary of this “multiverse” as it allows for comparisons and diversification.

The motto of the event was not just for show, as during its course people wrote ther resolutions on literal dialog balloons, and also online.

See the slides on Sue Gregory’s keynote.

Find the MoodlePosium program, with links to all the presentations, here (PDF).

 

What is your Teacher and MoodleNews reader resolution for 2017?

 

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