Talk:Using Moodle for HomeSchooling

This is my first draft of the homeschooling page. As I, and possibly others, figure out how Moodle can be used for homeschooling, this page (and possibly other linked pages) can be used to document what is learned. --Stephen Winters (talk) 15:17, 23 April 2014 (WST)

Stephen: I wonder if this would get wider publicity as a forum thread? Would you like to start a forum thread about Moodle for HomeSchooling and put some of these thoughts in there? I'm thinking forums might get googled better than documentation, especially if you get some responses. Let's see.. --Mary Cooch (talk) 22:12, 23 April 2014 (WST)

Hi Mary, As you've already seen, I have put the first draft of the Using Moodle for Homeschooling article on the accompanying Article page. You asked me if my writing might be more appropriate in the Forums. I say that documentation is best suited in putting it in the Documentation section, and here is why.--Stephen Winters (talk) 12:37, 26 April 2014 (WST)

Forums And Documentation Both Useful

Forums and Documentation pages are both very useful, but have different functions. Forums are generally a random collection of all types of messages. They are great for ongoing conversations where people can discuss a wide variety of subjects with many twists and turns in the topic. But they are terrible for trying to use for documentation. There is not a good menu structure, and the messages are in an endless stream that goes into a black whole. When writing helpful articles in a forum, even those type of message threads get messages of various types added. When someone writes an article about one topic, then the topic of the following messages keeps changing from this to that then to something else. This is great for conversational and friendly threads, but they are not appropriate for writing documentation or information text. It is more difficult for forum visitors to find helpful articles when they have to weed through countless irrelevant comments. Here is a example of one person's comments about finding stuff in the forum "I know this questions has been asked before, but I'm really having difficulty finding stuff in this forum. The search results for some reason don't seem to narrow down well for what I'm looking for. So, please excuse me if this questions has already been answered."

On the other hand Documentation articles (when written in the proper structure) are more focused, generally stay one one topic, and can be more easily organized.

A Little Background

Over the past 25 to 30 years I have been a part of countless forums and bulletin boards (even before there were online forums). I have written and shared extensively in many online forums about a wide variety of subjects Then, about 12 years ago I became a part of several upholstery discussion forums. Since I've been an upholsterer since 1966, and I love to write, I wrote many indepth articles about upholstery topics in the forums. Through the years I saw many of my writings (and the writings of others) go into the deep pit of countless messages where there is no meaningful structure or organization. I felt like the articles that I had written were dumped into a big pit (the conglomeration of thousands of forum messages) perhaps never to see the light of day again.

Learning More About Structured Writing

Eventually that led me to create several informational websites that have the content neatly structured. An example of one is Upholstery Resource website These allow me to keep my writings more structured and organized. Over the years I began to do most of my Instructional and and Informational articles on this website. I could write out the instructions in more details there. Then, as I was answering questions on the forum, I would often direct the users to the pages on my website for fuller explanations. I loved the combination of using both the forum and the website.

Creating Moodle for Homeschooling Documentation

Now, back to creating content for using Moodle for Homeschooing. As I learn more using Moodle for homeschooling my thought is to create some better documentation with some detailed instructions. When I write some messages in the forum I'd like to have more content written here for someone to see. There would be no point in sending anyone to the Moodle Homeschooling Documentation now. There not much of value for anyone to see there yet. My thought is to first, as I learn, to put some more documentation into this area. A good mix might be to put the information and how-to's in the Documentation area, and to put general discussion in the forum with links to the documentation pages. If this article turns into multiple pages, then this page might be converted into a kind of Master Page/TOC for the homeschooling section. As more content gets added here, then messages can be written in the Forum with links here. But, at this point these are just random thoughts. We'll see how it goes. --Stephen Winters (talk) 12:37, 26 April 2014 (WST)