Internet Research for TechQuest

Search Strategies
As I set out to research Moodle and Professional Learning Communities for my TechQuest, I did it with three goals in mind. My goals were to find resources that :

• Provided guides for implementing a professional learning community
• Demonstrated ways that Moodle or other online communities have been used as a professional learning community
  
• Illustrated ways that Moodle has enhanced teaching and learning

To begin my search, I used Michigan State University's eLibrary to search through ProQuest and ERIC on FirstSearch. I found five out of my six resources there. The last resource I found through a Google search of "Moodle Implementation". My strategy for searching was to keep my goals in mind and to continuously ask myself "how does that fit with what I aim to do?".

What helped my search?
As I searched, I found that what helped me most was changing how I worded the terms in my searches. I limited my searches to full text in order to get the "big picture" rather than a snapshot from an abstract. I searched terms like "professional learning communities", "online learning communities", "Moodle in the classroom", "benefits of Moodle", "Moodle implementation", "online learning in elementary school" and "Web 2.0 tools in professional development". I was surprised by how many documents I turned up with these searches since I originally felt that each one was too specific. Finally, with so many articles to choose from, I found it helpful to read over the abstract first. If it didn't sound like it would give me new ideas or fit into one of my goals, I would go back to the search and try again.

What hindered my search?
Since Moodle is a relatively new tool being used in schools, it was a struggle to find a wealth of examples of its implementation through published scholarly journals. I would find articles where it was mentioned as a possible tool but it was not often that an entire article was dedicated to Moodle. However, the few I did find were very powerful. Other articles would cite online learning communities as an effective tool in teaching, learning and professional development. Since Moodle encompasses the same tools as many other online learning communities, I was able to make a connection to how Moodle would provide the same opportunities for my school. During my web search, I found several sites about Moodle including the theory behind it, resources for sharing about Moodle and tutorials on Moodle. There were not alot of articles that talked about the benefits to schools through my Google search.

How will I search next time?
I really enjoyed the majority of the articles I read through the eLibrary and scholarly journals. Several of them were from educational journals that were written in a way that allowed me to connect to the information. To do it again, I would use the same resources but I may expand my search beyond just ProQuest and ERIC on FirstSearch. In the past, I have had some luck with JSTOR. I would try a web search again as well. As Moodle continues to become an integral part of virtual learning, more research and articles about its use in education will become available to educators through a traditional search engine.

TechQuest Resources

Nelson, T., LeBard, L., & Waters, C.. (2010). How to Create a Professional Learning Community. Science and Children, 47(9), 36-40. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from Education Module.
My goal was to find an article that provided a framework for a Professional Learning Community that was centered around student achievement and professional collaboration. This article provided me with some basic guidelines for what a PLC should look and sound like. Essentially, a well established PLC takes on a cyclical nature where the members begin with an inquiry focus. Teachers look for an area to improve in teaching or learning and then begin to set goals. Implementation is the second step of the PLC process. After teachers implement the strategies and collect data, the hardest part of the process begins. During the final stage of the professional learning community, teachers come together to reflect on the teaching or strategy that was implemented in accordance with the collected data. The authors note that often this is where a Professional Learning Community loses its effectiveness. The reason for this is that it is a very humbling experience for a teacher to admit that there is still room for improvement. Often, this stage takes a "proving approach" where teachers use the data to show how well it worked with statements like "80% of my students passed". In an effective PLC, the guidelines say that it should take an "improving approach" where teachers examine student work or data and say "how can I make it better?" or even "how can I reach that other 20%?". In this stage, it is important to pose more questions rather than to make a definitive statement about the results.

What can I take away from this article for use in my setting? First, it is important to have the time, resources and teacher buy-in to make a professional learning community effective. If I truly want to make my Moodle courses into PLC's, I will need to make sure that I establish consistency and leadership within each group. The leadership is the most essential component because each PLC will need a leader to be the first to admit "I can do better" and to share student achievement or lack thereof. Finally, the leader will have to be someone who can do these things as a way to set the stage for a nonthreatening environment for reflection and further improvement for the other members of the group.

Duncan-Howell, J. (2010). Teachers Making Connections: Online Communities as a Source of Professional Learning. British Journal of Educational Technology. 41(2), 324-340.
I was intrigued by this article because it shed some light on what teachers will value from an online professional learning community. This particular article focused on the feedback of teachers who had participated in three different online professional learning communities. What they found was that teachers were most engaged in these communities when they directly addressed the needs of teachers by offering practical applications for the classroom. Teachers responded better to courses or discussions that were founded on theory but did little to no presentation on theory. The four basic elements that teachers looked for in their PLC were:

• Strategies offered for practical application with students
• New ideas or strategies presented by specialists
• An ability to participate and be creative
• The ability to both present information and observe

As a result of these types of courses, 77% of participating teachers said that these memorable discussion threads and courses inspired them to change something in their everyday practice. Finally, the study found that teachers felt they were the most qualified to determine the foundational ideas or topics of the PLC's.

As a person coming from the classroom to a coaching position, I felt that this study deeply represented the true thoughts of a group of teachers. When in practice, it is very difficult to sit through loads of theory based trainings without seeing the practical application. This study will be very helpful in maintaining current Moodle PLC's and in creating new ones throughout the year. It has reminded me to think of how teachers will use it and to remember to ask for input about what kinds of learning communities they would like to be a part of.

Huber, C.. (2010, May). Professional Learning 2.0. Educational Leadership, 67(8), 41. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from Research Library Core.
This article was written by an elementary school principal about the ways in which her school has used 2.0 technologies to create a professional learning environment. She starts off by sharing the common false assumptions about the professional learning process. The false assumptions about professional learning are that passing on information is enough, information must come from outside of the school walls, and having a great plan means that learning will occur. By following this model, schools get into a habit of "going through the motions" when it comes to enhancing teacher learning. By using Web 2.0 tools, this school was able to "upgrade" their professional learning. The structure for this learning included sharing access to information looking inward for insight and protecting learning time. Strategies for sharing access to information included using wikis and Nings to share resources for a unit or get ideas for ways to differentiate within a certain area. All questions or topics in these sharing areas were decided upon by teachers. When they looked inward for insight, they would post resources as well as wikis, discussion forums or blogs for discussion. In addition, when someone attended an outside training, he or she would post to the school's Twitter page so that important thoughts to share weren't lost. Members of the PLC could comment on the posts or inquire further if necessary. Finally, to protect learning time, teachers, administration and support staff created Jings or podcasts to teach "how to" lessons like how to log in to a certain program or how to access data from a district database. This eliminated the need for extraneous meetings and allowed for teachers to revisit the directions on an as needed basis.

For me, this article was very powerful. It allowed me to see some amazing ways to differentiate how collaboration is done as well as the purposes for which it is done. It was a great example of a school that has attempted the same Moodle based professional learning community that I hope to establish and maintain over the next two years (and beyond!).

Larson, L. (May 2009). Reader Response Meets New Literacies: Empowering Readers in Online Learning Communities. The Reading Teacher, 62(8), 638-48.
For the second implementation phase of Moodle, teachers will be participating in the professional learning community as well as facilitating and online learning community for their students. This article demonstrates the power of using online learning communities in reading response through a case study. In the fifth grade classroom featured, students were studying the American Civil Rights Movement in conjunction with Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The teacher gave them two choices of historical fiction that related to these topics. Students were then introduced to a blog to be used as an "eJournal" to record their thoughts on the events in the stories and how they related to the Civil Rights Movement. Then, they used online discussion forums where they were expected to interact with peers by sharing ideas and feelings about the book as well as respond to questions posted by the teachers. As time went on, even the most struggling readers began to post not only more words but more meaningful thoughts. At one point, the students asked if they could construct their own questions in a discussion forum for their peers to respond to.

Since classroom teachers look for practical application, I think this case study is a powerful example to share with teachers when motivating them to introduce online learning to their students. I plan to share this resource with the teachers at the school as we begin to implement phase two and look for ways to effectively use online learning communities.

Hargadon, Steve. "Implementation Study #3: Moodle." K-12 Open Technologies. Web. 20 July 2010. .

This online resource was a part of a Moodle Implementation Study which looked at the various effective ways that five schools are using Moodle. It shows the diversity that this tools allows when using it in schools with students, teachers and administrators. This resource also gives an overview of what Moodle is and the educational pedagogy that it supports.

By reading this implementation study, I was able to look at using Moodle in different ways and think about how I want to employ it as a tool in our classrooms. Most specifically, I could relate to schools just beginning out with Moodle. One of the Michigan schools used it on an as needed basis for solving problems of practice in the classroom. I see this as being our use of Moodle for the first year of implementation for student learning communities. My goal for the first year is that teachers will participate in the Professional Learning Communities as "students" in courses that demonstrate the full capabilities of Moodle. Then, in year two, the goal is for teachers to begin to take on that responsibility of using the full capabilities with their students through virtual learning.

Hamilton, B. (2009). Transforming Information Literacy for NowGen Students. Knowledge Quest, 37(5), 48-53.
This article was written by high school Media Specialist Buffy Hamilton who is famous for "The UnQuiet Library" which she refers to as Library 2.0. She wrote this article on information literacy and ways to promote it. What was important for me in this article is that she writes about connectivism. This theory explains how technology facilitates learning because it creates a personal learning network for users to access resources, strategies and ideas. George Siemens, founder of this theory, explains it as follows: "The starting point of connectivism is the individual. Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual."

After reading this article, I decided that this theory supports what I aim to do with Moodle as a Professional Learning Community. Essentially, teachers will be part of a personal learning network where they are connected to each other and use each other for ideas, resources and strategies. In the case at my school, Moodle is the technology facilitating the learning. In addition, it can be said that Moodle is increasing the information literacy skills of our teachers who vary from digital natives to digital immigrants. I think it is important to note that it is not just students who have to adapt to a new set of information literacy skills.