Mary Cooch - Moodle 2 for Teaching 7-14 Year Olds Beginners Guide

Mary Cooch , or Moodlefairy, as she is known online, has taught Languages and Geography at Our Lady's High School, Preston, UK for over 25 years. She now spends part of her working week travelling Europe showing teachers, lecturers, or business users how best to use Moodle, and the other part liaising with the ten primary schools linked to her own high school. Based on her personal experiences, Mary has a deep understanding of what works best with younger students, and empathy (being a non-technical user herself) with teachers who just want to use Moodle as a teaching tool without understanding all the geeky stuff behind it. Mary lives, eats, sleeps, and breathes Moodle and you will find her helping out on the forums of www.moodle.org or via the training centre based at her school www.ourlearning.co.uk. Mary will go anywhere to help you Moodle!

Mary is also the author of Moodle 2 First Look , the first ever book about the new features of Moodle 2. She also helps write the documentation on the main Moodle site, www.moodle.org and blogs on www.moodleblog.net.

I would like to thank Steve for his support, Estelle for her eloquence, and Chris for his commitment. I would like to acknowledge my Moodle Manager Assistant Head at Our Lady's Mark Greenwood for his muse, Moodle Community Manager Helen Foster for her help, and last but not least Founder and Lead Developer Martin Dougiamas for his Moodle.

Dr. Nellie Deutsch has been teaching English to speakers of other languages since the mid 70s. She has been integrating technology into her classes since the mid 90s. Nellie earned her doctorate in education and educational leadership with a specialization in curriculum and instruction from the University of Phoenix from the School of Advanced Studies in 2010. Her dissertation research (available on ProQuest, Amazon) focused on instructor experiences with integrating technology in blended learning contexts in higher education around the world.

Nellie is the founder of Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning (IT4ALL), an online informal network of volunteers that provides free professional development workshops for groups around the world, generally in conjunction with different projects and initiatives. Dr. Deutsch is also the founder and current coordinator of the annual Connecting Online for Instruction and Learning and Moodlemoot free online conferences, hosted online by Integrating Technology and supported by WiZiQ online learning platform. Dr. Deutsch has provided consultation on how to integrate Moodle and Elluminate learning environments for distance education at Open University of Israel, and worked as a consultant for WikiEducator.org, supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Otago Polytechnic (New Zealand), and Athabasca Open University (Canada) in developing online courses and facilitation.

Nellie mentors educators to use technology to enhance student learning using Moodle, WebQuests, Professional Electronic Portfolios (Mahara), Web 2.0 tools, social networks, and wikis. In addition, she is an accredited PAIRS (Practical Application of Intimate Relationship Skills), conflict resolution, and Reiki practitioner. She practices Mindfulness Meditation and the Alexander Technique.

Dr. Deutsch has written chapters in books on the use of technology and research (Cases in Online Interviews) and has peer-reviewed articles and books on technology-enhanced learning. Dr. Deutsch also serves as chair for doctoral students. She is currently researching and writing a book on learning with Moodle.

Finally, Dr. Deutsch has presented on integrating technology into the classroom and educational leadership at conferences in the United States and virtually around the world. Nellie organized and chaired a panel discussion on the merits and challenges of integrating technology into the classroom at the International Leadership Association (ILA) in London, in 2011. She will also present and facilitate Moodle for Teachers workshop at the TESOL, Philadelphia conference on culture in the English classroom in 2012.

Louise Adele Jakobsen is passionate about the potential a wide range of technologies have to enhance learning and support teaching, business, and life. Recent roles and responsibilities which have enhanced her knowledge, understanding, and application of a variety of tools include being the eLearning Curriculum Manager at a large Further Education (FE) College in the UK with responsibility for moving forward the eLearning agenda; supporting and encouraging staff to use Moodle in more interactive and engaging ways, and Learning and Development Manager at a private training organization where Moodle was used to support organisational and work-based development. Her enthusiasm is evident through the various training, sharing, and motivating strategies that are used. She has experience of working in FE, Higher Education, Adult and Community Learning, and Local Government delivering high class training to teachers, managers, care staff, and small and medium businesses. Louise has also developed resources and delivered training for and on behalf of national organisations including NIACE and THinK FE. She completed her MSc in Multimedia and eLearning with the University of Huddersfield (UK) in 2008. Her interests/experiences include teaching and learning, technology, eLearning pedagogies, effective use of VLEs (especially Moodle), designing and reviewing eLearning resources, using social networking tools in education, staff development/training and change management.

Louise authored the chapter Embedding eLearning in Further Education