Photo Metaphor Learning Activity

I woke up this morning and found out we have a snow day! The arctic vortex of 2014. I was thinking that it would be fun to have an activity for students to do online on a snow day so that instructional time isn’t totally wasted.

This blog post is the first in a series of Moodle Goodies I am designing for our faculty. They will be accompanied by sample activities in a Moodle space that our teachers can import into their own Moodle courses.


Photo Metaphor

How to Use This Learning Activity: Review the information below. Select which Moodle tool you want students to use. Adapt the Learning Objective and Activity Instructions as needed. Select which Moodle instructions for students that you wish you to use. Copy the text you want to reuse and paste it into the instruction section of the tool you decided to use. If you have trouble with the links copying, try Firefox or Chrome as your browser.

Learning Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of a concept by illustrating it.

Moodle Tool:

  • Use the Discussion if you want them to see each other’s examples and learn from each other. This is my favorite method.
  • Use the Assignment dropbox if you want it turned in just to you.
  • Use the Wiki if you want them to be able to edit each other’s examples and learn from each other. This is a more advanced option; and isn’t as easy to grade. You’ll have to create a manual grade item in the gradebook for grading participation in the wiki.

Activity Instructions for Students:

Review the concept of _______ [you fill in here]. Then visit a photo sharing site such as Flickr’s Creative Commons, and find a photo that illustrates the concept. Write a paragraph explaining how the photo illustrates the concept. Create at least two proper citations, one for the photo, and one referencing content from an academic source (such as the textbook, an expert in the field, a published research paper, etc.). Use EasyBib How to Cite a Photograph to help you with your photo citation.

Then reply to at least two classmates. Reflect on the illustration’s connection to the concept. How does their illustration helps you understand an aspect of the concept better? Are there any components of the concept that don’t work with the illustration? Give evidence of your deepening understanding of the concept.


Discussion Tool

Setup Instructions:
Copy and paste the activity and technical instructions into the Description portion of the Forum setup. This allows the students to see the instructions while they are composing their response. Add the points for this activity under the Ratings setting.

Instructions for Students:
After you find your photo illustration online, right-click (Mac Ctrl+click) on the photo and copy the image URL/address.

Then go to the Forum and click Add a New Discussion Topic.

moodleimageiconClick the Image Icon and paste the URL of the image. If needed or desired, click the Appearance tab and change the dimensions to 400 pixels wide (put in the first box). You may also want to change the alignment to left or right so the text wraps around your image.

Click Insert. Then write your description of how this photo illustrates the concept. If you’ve spent some time writing, highlight all of your post (Ctrl A) and copy (Ctrl C) to save it to your clipboard just in case of problems. Then click Post to Forum. If Moodle logged you out, you can always post again, and paste the content you copied.

Now, Reply to at least two classmates as directed.


Assignment Dropbox

Setup Instructions:
Copy and paste the activity and technical instructions into the Description portion of the Assignment setup.

Instructions for Students:

Start a Word file.

Find your photo illustration online. Then right-click (Mac Ctrl+click) on the photo and copy the image. Paste it into Word.

Write your description of how this photo illustrates the concept and where it breaks down. In what ways does it not illustrate the concept?

Save your file. Upload your assignment here.


Wiki

Setup Instructions:
Add a new activity in Moodle and select Wiki. Give the wiki a name. Put the activity and technical instructions for students into the description. I recommend for your first time to have all the photo examples on one page in the wiki. But if you have a lot of students, you may want to have them each make their own page. Use the Collaborative Wiki mode, and give the wiki first page a name like Photo Metaphors. Tips for grading: If you need to, click the History icon to see which students edited what and when.

Instructions for Students:

After you find your photo illustration online, right-click (Mac Ctrl+click) on the photo and copy the image URL/address.

Then go to the Wiki and click the Edit tab.

Find an empty place at the bottom, and hit Enter/Return a few times to get a space to work.

moodleimageiconClick the Image Icon and paste the URL of the image. If needed or desired, click the Appearance tab and change the dimensions to 400 pixels wide (put in the first box). You may also want to change the alignment to left or right so the text wraps around your image.

Click Insert. Then write your description of how this photo illustrates the concept. Sign your name at the end of your writing. If you’ve spent some time writing, highlight your section and copy (Ctrl C) to save it to your clipboard just in case of problems.

moodlelineiconAdd a Horizontal Line after your photo and writing to help organize the wiki page. Click the Line icon.

Then click Save. If Moodle logged you out, you can always edit again, and paste the content you copied.

Now, Reply and Edit at least two classmates work as directed above. Click the Edit button. Scroll to a photo you want to comment on. Either add more text to their description (highlight in another color and sign your name); or add a comment below (with another color and your name).

Click Save when you are done. Read through all the examples from your classmates.


 

Your Turn: What supports do you provide to faculty for using Moodle? What other ideas do you have for learning activities? Any comments or suggestions for improvement this one? I appreciate your input!

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