Round One: Moodle 1, Peter 0

At the first meeting of our new learning community for Principles and Practices, there were no plans for exposing the eager participants to the Moodle. It was towards the end of orientation week and they were suffering from an overload of information, course syllabi, reading assignments and warm welcomes. So I told them briefly about the existing on-line course on the Moodle and the plan for hybrid instruction, based in the classroom but making good use of what we have carefully prepared.

Then someone asked about course textbooks and it occurred to me that they were the same as for the on-line course: an opportunity for a glimpse of the Moodle! Exhilarated, I flipped on the projector, stepped to the computer and typed in the address. Up came one of those little message boxes from hell: not available, try again. I tried again. Nothing.

Defeated, I took a white board pen and stepped to the wall. But the room had been recently painted and the white board not yet replaced. So I told them, speaking the hallowed names, Brown and Kumarivadivelu, spelling out the titles and the relevant editions. I spoke, they wrote it down.

How humiliatingly traditional can you get?