Oliver Williams

Thanks - looks good I'll advertise it on my trainee teacher forum http://www.kmtraining.net Cheers!

I was busy loking for help with delivery of my ICT coursework units and hit a brick wall. I knew other teachers from board-led courses would be in the same boat and we managed by email. But I knew if we were having problems, so would others. So I set up a forum to faciltate just that: www.eboardtalk.net (sorry, no proper link, but I live in the dark ages of Win95/98 and the forum editor won't let me do any of the clever stuff) I am to include anything teachers want to discuss - already going is KS3 online testing, the new applied GCEs (sections also for DiDA, GCSE, BTEC, Nationals and so on).

This is my fourth year that I've been teaching with moodle. My network manager had the foresight to realise its potential. We started all our courses with enrolment keys/passwords in the thought that that was the best way. Over time, we realised it was a false economy - we kept having to share/enrol interested parties to show what we were doing. The site is now key-free (near enough) www.qehs.net/moodle Only times it needs a key is if you have a chat/forum that lets guests in. Choas prevails if you don't (and the students use it like an inhouse MSN!) We have nothing (much) to hide. we use journals as blogs - just for student and teacher. THe kids love them (better than a MS Word diary etc. Great for detailing coursework development/issues etc. Reflecting on lessons learnt etc etc. Working really well (years 9 - 11). As others say, kids love it, technophobe teachers can master the basics, it is free and the support network is immense - who can knock free upgrades for life? I liked it so much I've set up my own 'teachers of ICT' support forum using it - probably not the best tool, but it is so easy to use and no problems (so far). I got bored with their being little or no support for AQA/Edexcel/KS3 work - the only UK board who did anything were OCR. Check it out - www.eboardtalk.net

I'm an ICT teacher based in the UK and have struggled to find support in the understanding of ICT coursework. Only one exam board offers any useful forum (OCR). AQA and Edexcel just limit help to a FAQ/email system - and only they get to answer. So, I set my own one up - eBoardTalk.net - it covers KS3 online tests, all KS4 courses (GCSE, DiDA, CiDA, AiDA, short courses, Nationals, applied) and KS5 (applied, a level, Nationals, BTEC) - for AQA, OCR and Edexcel. The more the merrier - see you there! Oliver

I'm a big fan of moodle (moodle.org) for online assessment. Obvious limitations for your open questions, but it does enable multiple correct answers that would avoid the linguistic issues discussed. Have also been using TeX notation for our mathematical friends.

Born and bred in Edinburgh, Scotland in the early 70's. Educated Bristol (BSc Maths), Strathclyde (MSc Operational Research) and Sunderland (ICT PGCE). Spent 7 years working for Anderson Consulting/Accenture before parting company with them, a year renovating a barn on the south of France and then decided to become an ICT teacher in the north of England. Currently working in Hexham - 80% ICT teacher, 20% ICTAC Consultant for local authority. Recently joined the Fast Track Scheme - lets see where I go from there. Big fan of moodle - so much so, just set up own teacher support site (http://eboardtalknet) using it.