When I was approached, in the summer of 2008 by David Barnes of Packt to write Moodle 1.19 for Teaching 7-14 Year Olds, we discussed subject matter, and I suggested basing it on Language teaching as I am an MFL teacher by qualification. David told me there was already a Moodle languages book in the pipeline, so we settled for some fun Geography instead, but since then I have been awaiting with eager anticipation the Moodle book on a subject dear to my heart. Well today it arrived – Moodle 1.9 For Second Language Teaching by Jeff Stanford – and what an admirable tome it is! Respect to that man for making it so comprehensive! It goes thoroughly through the four skills of language teaching – Speaking, Listening Reading and Writing, with a plethora of common sense and inspired suggestions for delivering learning via Moodle. There is a sample chapter on the Packt website here The first two chapters deal with why you should use Moodle and the mechanics of setting up Moodle for Language Teaching, while the subsequent chapters deal with language- specific issues such as vocabulary learning, grammar practice and assessment. As if he hadn’t given us enough in the printed book, there are also two further chapters available on the Packt website, covering the layout of your course (highly important to grab and keep your students) and introducing Moodle to your classes. While the book is based on teaching English to non-native speakers, all the suggestions transfer perfectly to modern foreign language teachers such as myself. As he says in Chapter one, the book is “firmly rooted in a communicative approach to language learning” and I appreciated the way Jeff set out the Key Features of CILT versus Moodle Features supporting CILT.

Some random thoughts and observations:

To get the most of this book’s suggestions you’d need either to be admin or have an admin with ftp access to your server to add non-standard modules. Jeff makes heavy use of Nanogong (which fortuitously has just been added as an assignment type this week) , Inwicast Mediacenter and modules such as Questionnaire, OU Blog/Wiki (more powerful than Moodle’s) and Webquest. However, if you don’t have access to these, there are plenty of activities using Moodle’s Glossary, Quiz or HotPotatoes which will serve you well. He also provides instructions and ideas for using the free software Audacity for making sound recordings.
The book’s strong point –its huge range of activities – could possibly be daunting at first to a complete Moodle novice. If you are at all frightened of Moodle I suggest you test the waters first with Moodle 1.9 for Teaching 7-14 Year Olds (even if your students are older) as it assumes no knowledge whatsoever short of being able to turn on your computer. After that,or if you are already  relatively happy with Moodle and computer skills,  I would go straight to Chapter 3 and savour the delicious variety of “recipes” which Jeff serves up. For each task he provides an Aim (Help students identify grammar points) the Moodle module required (Lesson) any extra programs (Audacity/youtube) and a starred system for ease of use (***) I think this is very useful. It means the book can lend itself to teachers browsing for ideas – looking at different activities – checking their Moodle has those modules and they have the skill level required – and going for it!
Moodle 1.9 For Second Language Teaching is available from the Moodle books section of the Packt website. I could write a lot more but I suggest you read it for yourselves!

Moodle has a new basic assignment type, thanks to Dan Poltawski of LUNS and CLEO land here in the NW of England. Similar to the “upload a single file” type where students can browse and send you their work for marking , the nanogong assignment presents them with a little sound recorder into which they can record themselves , play back to check and then send to you. Nanogong’s been around and popular for a while but now it’s in an easy-to-operate assignment . Below is a simple screencast showing how to install (if you have admin rights) and how to use it with your students. It has been a big hit for us in Modern languages because it’s an excellent way of setting speaking homeworks – but it has advantages also for those students who might find writing/typing difficult and who would  be happy to speak their responses instead of worry about spelling. They can have a choice now – speak or type!

Although Moodle HQ  is physically based in Perth Western Australia, it has remote  outposts thousands of miles away in the Northern Hemisphere and last week I was privileged to  meet Helen Foster Moodle Community Manager and c0-author of Using Moodle  2nd Ed who’s based in Bonheiden, Belgium. We spent a lovely few hours together over dinner and a view of the runway of Brussels airport, talking about everything from the ins and outs of moodle.org and moodle.com to the linguistic nuances of Flemish v Dutch v German ( once a linguist, always a linguist!). I look forward to meeting Helen again if I can somehow get back onto mainland Europe – especially as one of her revelations was how lovely German (and ex-Midland) Moodler Stephan Rinkeis 

..or “How to let teachers see a block but not students” – a request often asked over on the forums at moodle.orgIf you have Moodle 1.9 you can control whether guests (non-logged in users) can see blocks or not. It is also possible, with some role and permisson editing, to allow a certain group of people access to a block while preventing others. The video below shows how to do it – but if, like me, you can’t get youtube in your area – there are instructions beneath the video!

1. Make your block!
2. With the editing turned on, click on the “assign roles” icon and then click on “override permissions” You need to click guest and change the button to prevent (viewblock) When you have saved the changes, non-logged in users will not be able to see this block
3. If you only want your teachers (or a certain group of users to see it) you need first to create a new role. (Just because your teachers are teachers in the Real World, Moodle won’t recognise them as such on your front page and so you need to specify who precisely is allowed to view this block.)
4. In site admistration>users>permissions>define roles, go to the bottom of the screen and click “add a new role”
5. Make a new , plain, basic role – call it what you like – teacher block viewer, for example.
6. Save this role and then go back to your front page block and click the “assign roles” icon again
7. You need to define who can view this block by assigning them the role of “teacher block viewer” in this block
8. Click the blue words for your role (teacher block viewer) and select from the box on the right the people you want to allow to see the block. Move them with the arrow to the box on the left.
9. Click the override permissions tab (as you did for the student) For the teacher block viewer, press the allow button and for the authenticated user press the prevent button.
10. Some people have their default front page role as student – if this is you, then in override permissions, click prevent for the student role.
11. Try it out!