Voxitatis is pleased to announce the launch of the Voxitatis Moodle, a learning management system based on the GNU-licensed open-source product Moodle, now available at hs.schoolsdo.org.
Voxitatis Moodle for high school features daily challenges in algebra I, algebra II, and geometry.
To sign up for classes, follow the “How to Sign Up” link on the front page. Access to most of the content is restricted by a subscription-based service, but:
- The prices are affordable: $5 for students and $15 for teachers
- For that, you will get the opportunity to interact with other users
- From that interaction and those conversations, you will learn
We’re not doing this to make money but to help students master college- and career-ready standards in algebra I, algebra II, and geometry—by harnessing the power of something computers are really good at (social networks)—especially as those tried and true high school math courses have evolved with tests from PARCC and Smarter Balanced.
It was apparent from those tests that, although all teachers and parents want their kids to be mastering this content, the majority of them are not.
The system will launch this month with algebra I and add geometry and algebra II after a while or after we become aware of sufficient demand. The algebra I course is expected to be complete by December 18 and will be rolling full steam by the start of the spring semester.
And for teachers, some of the best professional development I have ever received was during workshops where we looked at actual student work brought in by the teachers in the workshop. It allowed us to see how teachers across the state were teaching the same material we were teaching in our own classrooms.
The kids were anonymous, but what was personal was the help we could provide teachers whose students we were grading at this workshop. It opened up my eyes to some of the misconceptions that exist among students (and even among a few teachers in our group). This is why we believe the Voxitatis Moodle system to be one of the most wisely conceived ideas for online assistance for students and online professional development for teachers.
It’s not necessary to sign up to take the daily challenges, because some parts of the site are free. But you won’t be able to get feedback, and that feedback is where the real value comes in, despite the low price tag. Sign up today by following the instructions online.
