If you’re a Dearborn teacher, you’ve heard of it many times.  You’ve even been required to use it to complete some of your own professional development.  But if you’re like many, you haven’t found the time to invest in it or seen how the benefits could possibly outweigh the costs of learning something so complicated.  I’d like to make the case that you can’t possibly continue to be an effective teacher in this age without it:  iLearn–Dearborn’s version of the popular education platform called Moodle.

Sure, it can be complicated to work with on your own.  But I guarantee the eventual benefits of using Moodle will far outweigh the initial investments of time and energy. In the coming days, we’ll explore 8 of the reasons you need to finally get on board with Moodle (iLearn).

Let’s begin with Reason #1…

Moodle puts data in the hands of teachers

In an educational environment in which teachers are increasingly called upon to base their decisions upon evidence (and rightly so), using Moodle is one of the best ways to gather formative evidence for students and teachers.  From quiz question item analyses to questionnaire responses, Moodle provides a snapshot of the learning progress of students that can be used to guide further practice. Data can be used for teacher reflection and PLC discussions, as teachers can work on Moodle to create and administer common assessments and compare data.

Moreover, the data belongs to the teachers, who as professionals get to decide how the data is interpreted and used.

Check out this recent post on the data that’s available with Moodle. Such a wealth of data in the hands of teachers can be powerful tools to empower teachers, in their own classrooms and PLCs, to make solid decisions about the direction of their instruction.

But while the amount and diversity of data that can be gathered and used by teachers are overwhelmingly convincing reasons to use Moodle, there are still others.  We’ll explore these in the days to come…