Graduation! Milestone met....

So one worry's over -- homeschooling didn't end up ruining my eldest... (whew...).  It felt like a gamble sometimes. But, he did get into college... (5 out of 6 applications accepted; most with money -- he turned them all down but he did get in!)...  He has a plan (it doesn't include college this year). And he's still an integral part of the family with healthy family ties.

All those things that we called "education" ended up being OK.  He knows how to learn -- both on his own and by reaching out to others who know more than him on a particular topic; he's self-directed; he knows how to make decisions and be responsible, talk with the outside world, have fun with friends, dress appropriately for the occasion, cook for himself, clean up after himself and others, work alone and in teams, speak in front of crowds of people if needed, handle money responsibly, mentor younger children and older adults with patience and understanding of how to help them learn.  

He's an amazing 18 yo (no parental pride there... :) ).  And the steps along the way were just that -- steps along the way.  He really did learn to read.  He did learn math and has been accepted at multiple engineering programs, despite the fact that we never quite got through Algebra 2. (He did do Pre-Calc -- we just didn't make it through that Alegebra 2 curriculum -- any of them!)  He can write an essay -- in fact, his college essay was amazing (thanks to the 4 week online class he book on Bravewriter).  He still doesn't have the same sense of time as everyone else unless he needs to.  He still doesn't have many words unless he's got words to say.  He still knows all my mom-buttons to push -- and does occasionally.

What I learned through his 18 years of homeschooling (counting from the time he was born), was:

• In a homeschool lifestyle, homeschooling and parenting merge together and the ultimate goal is to keep the parent-child relationship healthy, regardless of what it takes. It means give and take on all sorts of topics -- chores, school, boundaries -- theirs and ours, when to be firm, when to give, when to celebrate. And, frankly, the parents are learning just as rapidly as their son or daughter -- I've never parented or homeschooled a teen before. Just like my teen has never been a teen before. 
• Developmental stages really are just that -- lots of stages just have to be gone through. But the stronger the underlying relationship (see above), the quicker one can adjust to each stage and realize that it really is a stage. Brain development, hormones, physical changes, social changes, and demands... all require continual adjustment -- kind of like working with google products -- things undergo changes continually. Some are good, some are hard, some are easy to adjust to, some changes feel like you'll never get used to them -- but you do and then they change again.
• Ebb and flow happens -- for the parent and the child. Interests, motivation, energy. I always find September hard (the adjustment to day-to-day reality after the theoretical optimistic plans of the summer) -- and April/May -- OMG -- the year continues at a rapid pace, we didn't get anything done, maybe I should look at school for next year or a more structured curriculum or a full-time tutor/sitter or...
• Life isn't a race. 5 years of high school, a gap year... all just decisions along the journey of life. It's very cool to be graduating from high school at 16 -- but in the bigger picture, how will that change things in 10 years or 20 years? 
• Learning happens. Despite what we worry about, humans are meant to learn. Those years of immersion into the online gaming world of Runescape in middle school... I so worried about that but I can see the progression from that to teamwork and strategy, to online communication, to learning the world of RPG which led to running Minecraft servers for a large homeschool community, mentoring younger students on Minecraft, playing with Russian students on collaborative online games, to programming Arduinos while building his 7th 3D printer, creating websites, participating in world-level Reddit forums on troubleshooting for 3D printers and Minecraft and robotics...

So we made it. However, it's certainly not over yet! I'm currently mentoring/facilitating three 18 yo's in their "Gap Year Entrepreneurship and Leadership Program." Once a parent, always a parent. Once a collaborative learning partner, always a collaborative learning partner?

And, I have a 9 1/2 yo coming up through the ranks. Not sure I'm any less nervous about "doing it right" -- but I am very sure that homeschooling is the right choice for our family, meets the needs of my children, and fits my educational philosophy. 

For interest:

• Final transcript
• His college essay for the Common App
• Homeschool Description for the Common App

RPG for kids

Found this great resource / blog post for introducing strategy and role playing games with the 5 to 7 yo crowd and their own toys.  Haven't read it yet but the post sounds great and I'm going to.  I know my son does a lot of "attribute" and "characteristics" discussion with his friends so it might be a really cool option to do.

Wired.com Geek Dad

Evaluating The Year

I found this somewhere else and did some editing (but forgot to keep the link so it's not attributed to the author - sorry!).  Some great questions.

1. What positive habits did each child show progress in this year?  Sometimes we forget how much progress they make in a year until you sit back and really think about what life was like a year ago and what it felt like you were continually reminding them of, day in and day out.  What's the current area each child needs to think about?
2. How was the schedule this year?  Was it too busy?  Was there time to get things done?  What took more time than you expected -- and was it worth it?  Do you wish you had added something that you initially thought you couldn't handle? What changes do we need to consider for next year’s schedule?
3. What were the unplanned learning experiences that happened this year? An unexpected illness?  A change in jobs or houses?  Unexpected trips?  What are some of the lessons each of us learned?
4. What did I learn about __________ (insert name of each child individually) this year? This question will be fun to consider as you think back over the surprises you encountered with each child as he developed. Record the delightful changes as well as the challenging attitudes or tendencies.
5. What curriculum changes do I need to consider for next year? What worked, and what didn’t work this year?
6. What was a crowning moment this year? Note the obvious successes you saw in each child.
7. What was our greatest challenge this year? Will this challenge carry into next year?
8. What do I need to change, as parent/teacher, in my approach next year? Are my expectations realistic? Was the workload realistic for the age and development of each child? Do I lecture and/or moralize too much? Am I too intense? Do I look for joy in each day? Do I need to change priorities? Are the most important things getting the least amount of time?
9. Was there anything I really hoped to do this year that didn’t happen? Why? Should it become a priority for next year?
10. What can we do to celebrate each child’s progress this year? Ideas might include a special honors night at dinner or an end of the year party with certificates of accomplishment. Accomplishments could include any progress, spiritual or academic, that each child has made.
11. What would I list as the academic progress of each child? Recognizing strengths and weaknesses will help you plan for next year.
12. What would I list that was really good about this year? (It is easy to forget.)
13. What changes would I recommend for next year?

Charlotte Mason

Charlotte Mason is a popular choice of an educational approach, especially for the younger years (though she had resources for all the way through high school).

Here are a some good Charlotte Mason sites:

This is a good blog series (10 days of posts about Charlotte Mason) talking about a lot of different areas of CM along with resources:

http://ourjourneywestward.com/category/charlotte-mason-series/

And some curriculum and planning guides for CM (they were at the NCHE Conference last year but not this year -- some of their materials look good):

http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/scmguide/

A good outline of the different ages and expectations. Includes a good blogpost series about planning a CM curriculum:

http://simplycharlottemason.com/series/planning/

Ambleside Online has some good outlines for CM as well:

http://www.amblesideonline.org/New.shtml

----------------

And, Fiona and I did a discussion series a year ago on figuring out your educational philosophy and deciding how to organize a school year.  You might find something helpful here:

http://homeschooltopics.wikispaces.com/06+JUNE+Planning+Objectives

Myers Briggs Personality Test

Here's a very easy Myers Briggs test that is free and fairly quick.  Gives % results:

http://kisa.ca/personality/

Here ares my results -- very on target compared to all the other tests I've done.  I like the % parts instead of putting people into 16 precise squares.

Personality test results

Ta-dah, your personality type is INTJ!

Introverted (I) 75%	Extraverted (E) 25%
Intuitive (N) 77%	Sensing (S) 23%
Thinking (T) 50%	Feeling (F) 50%
Judging (J) 59%	Perceiving (P) 41%

 Links

• INTJ (Wikipedia)
• Roles and intelligence types (Wikipedia)
• Descriptions of the personality types (typelogic.com)
• Career info based on your type (personalitypage.com)
• Relationship info based on your type (personalitypage.com)

VARK

Here's a nice questionnaire and study/learning tips for VARK.

http://www2.honolulu.hawaii.edu/facdev/guidebk/teachtip/vark.htm 

Results for me say:

The VARK Questionnaire Results

Your scores were:

Visual: 13

Aural: 0

Read/Write: 9

Kinesthetic: 3

Probably true -- though I thought I processed aurally... hmmmm...  Reading/writing emails also works for me to process so maybe that's what it's picking up.

Video: Teaching Reading

An interesting 10 min video about teaching reading and reading comprehension vs. teaching about the world and hooks in life to be able to interpret what is read.
http://youtu.be/RiP-ijdxqEc

Wonder if that's why homeschoolers (who are around adults and many other family interests day in and day out) often score higher on standardized tests...

Educational Philosophy Discussion

We just finished up a 3-month/3-session workshop on Educational Philosophy. Lots of great ideas. The co-facilitator and I both have high schoolers and younger -- but all of the participants of the workshop were homeschoolers (with experience) and their oldest was 5 to 8 yo.

Month 1: What is an Educational Philosophy
-- including what people are comfortable with as far as education and homeschooling
-- and what areas do people feel the most unsure about
-- how do you walk through an educational philosophy, what is the definition of education, what is a successful person

Month 2: Educational Paradigms
We all have lots of educational paradigms that we may or may not recognize. Nature/nurture, providing children with lots of free time versus helping them work within a structure, etc. The ones we recognize we feel strongly about are the ones that provide direction for the type of curriculum we choose, the type of framework we feel most comfortable with. The ones that are not as well defined in our minds are the ones that make us more vulnerable to others' opinions about what works most with them.

You can take a survey about your educational paradigms here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/educational_paradigms


Month 3: Based on your definition of education, what your long term goals are, and your educational paradigms, how do you actually plan out the year? Methods of planning objectives using math as the example were discussed, along with a few sources of organizational forms.

To see handouts and discussions from this workshop, check out the wiki:
http://homeschooltopics.wikispaces.com/

How to create a highschool Nutrition Class

Steps one would go through to create their own highschool class -- using Nutrition as an example:

1.  Look up sample syllabus examples to see what other courses cover and see if there are some good resources out there -- look at their textbooks, the topics they cover, etc.  Pick and choose...
("nutrition syllabus" = search terms -- can specify high school as well but not as helpful for nutrition -- sometimes helps for other topics)

http://ocw.jhsph.edu/courses/humannutrition/index.cfm
http://faculty.deanza.edu/liechtybarbara/stories/storyReader$105
(plus one attached that I couldn't figure out how to link to)

Look at some university programs:
http://www.ncsu.edu/foodscience/acdprg/u-nutrtn.html

2.  Figure out if you want it to be a full credit or a half credit (60-80 hours vs. 120-140 hours)

3.  Find a "spine" -- what you use as a basis of topics that you build from or if you want to create your own spine of topics
(remember -- you want to have multiple sources, multiple viewpoints so you get a good perspective of the topic -- not just one book's "bias"):

A textbook?  (search for "nutrition textbook" -- gives a good idea of the main topics -- here's an example but there are lots available)
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Human-Nutrition-Society-Textbook/dp/063205624X

Reviews of nutrition books:
http://www.todays-women-and-health.com/10-nutrition-books.html

Some favorite video or online sources:
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/search/search.aspx?searchphrase=nutrition

Decide if you want to add human anatomy/physiology with it:
http://www.ed2go.com/waketech/online_course/hap/detail/Human_Anatomy_and_Physiology.html

or search for "free online course materials nutrition" and get a list like this:
http://www.nafwa.org/lma/directory/Free_e-Courses/Nutrition/Nutrition.php


4.  Find something to supplement with:

Supplement with videos:
http://movies.netflix.com/WiSearch?oq=nutrition&ac_posn=-1&v1=nutrition

Science:  http://www.khanacademy.org/

Field trips:  
NCSU -- here are several faculty involved in their cross-departmental nutrition program:
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/food_science/acdprg/index.html

Duke Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition & Metabolism Center
http://stedman.mc.duke.edu/modules/stedman_about/index.php?id=1

Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
http://www.sph.unc.edu/nutr/

5.  Create your own syllabus.  Include a description of what it will take to get a "C," a "B" or an "A."  Maybe a "C" is to read 1 book, watch 3/4 of a DVD course and write watch one movie.  Or an "A" is to complete a 6-week ed2go class on Human Anatomy and Physiology; read 2 popular nutrition books with different perspectives; create a blog with weekly tips/information about nutrition that lasts a minimum of X months or XX blog posts...???   

Get started!  And enjoy!

NCSU's Psychoeducational Clinic

NCSU has a full psych-ed testing clinic -- which can test for learning disabilities, processing disorders, dyslexia, working memory problems, etc.  We used them this year for my 9th grader -- a full battery ran $1050 but it also achieved academic testing (Woodcock Johnson) for the year. One pre-meeting, 2 3/4 days of testing, 1 post testing consult.

The person who did the testing for us used to work at Mel Levine's All Minds at a Time and my son was very comfortable with her. End result was a very extensive report with all test results -- and a lot of resources for working with challenges found.  Not for everyone, but when the time's right, this is a good place to check out.

http://psychology.chass.ncsu.edu/pss/facilities/clinic/

Another Educational Philosophy Approach

Julie Bogart, author of Bravewriter, wrote a blog about Developing an Educational Philosophy. Interesting to see another approach:
http://blog.bravewriter.com/2009/12/09/developing-a-philosophy-of-education/

Digital Literacy and Education

Co-Learners wiki: Things I've learned by David Warlick
David Warlick has written 3 books about digital literacy and education. Interestingly, he lives in Raleigh -- wonder if he'd be willing to speak to a group of homeschoolers about literacy and learning in the homeschool arena?
http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/?page_id=14

David Warlick's blog: 2 cents
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/

>We do not like to describe blogging by comparing it to a diary. But it would not be inaccurate to call this blog just that. It is a diary of my greater mind, my experiences, observations, and reflections, mixed in with the responses of an eclectic community of readers — who are often the smarter part of me.It is a conversation.I blog to learn.

I do not promise answers here. I will ask far more questions.

Many of the barriers that prevent us from modernizing our education systems come from the baggage of outdated notions about teaching, learning, curriculum, our children, and their future. Asking questions seems to be one way of probing and provoking new perceptions about what we do, why we do it, and how we might adapt within an almost constantly changing environment.

I sincerely hope that you will enjoy reading this blog. It is not always serious and it is not always about education. It comes from a non-traditional educator who is grappling with an intensely exciting world he had no reason to expect.

The Year's Week 2

I need to remind myself that week 1 of each school year is always an overwhelming feeling of doom and disaster -- and that it will work out as we find our pace again -- that elusive balance between my very organized, Type A, driven attempt to try to control everything and the reality of life 24/7 with an energetic 3 yo and an often unenthusiastic, monosyllabic 13 yo. My right brained learner doesn't work to a schedule, doesn't seem to change gears from his own speed to whatever anyone else expects so... things get done but at a meandering pace. It sometimes drives me crazy!

The things that did go well this first week:

* The "Tot Trays" for Jm seem to be met with enthusiasm and excitement. I can even convince him that we need to get chores done first before uncovering the table of trays. He even asked for "school" Friday afternoon. I just boxed up and inventoried what I have for the trays and I think we've got a great selection to last for the fall (& maybe even spring!).
--> Though they don't seem to be independent work after the first week, they did provide a great selection of topics for us to talk about and handle. If I give my time to a couple hours of tot trays and stories (be ready ahead of time!), I think it will gain me a bit of time afterwards when he is fine to have some time on his own.

* Bj seems to be OK with sitting at his desk for a couple hours with head phones on and working independently this year. Most days I didn't need to redirect (on the days I was home, anyway!!!)

* Piano is still positive.

* Bj was willing to test out some different options for the year and give his opinion (No Way on the science, Yes on the history).

* I think I found a World History sequence that will work for us for the next 2 years. It's by Walch called "Focus on World History" and is a workbook type text with a summary of each section followed by some great questionnaires/worksheets that require more research to explore the topic in more detail. Similar to what I liked about Trisms in that research skills are a big part of it, but with the added benefit of making sure that the basics were covered and put into place with the summary first. It is not as Euro-centric as many of the texts, nor too wordy for my non-wordy right brainer. http://www.walch.com/product/915. If this works as well as I'm hoping, we can use the same series for American History in 10th.

Things that need to be re-thought:
Science was a disaster!!!! All my careful thought and planning about merging online video learning with an encyclopedia-type science book that seemed like it would really fit Bj will NOT work. He found it very confusing without having something in place to center the odds and ends -- and to provide the basic spine of vocabulary and terminology. Back to the drawing board as this wasn't just because it was the first day. I ended up with a text recommended by a Science Education professor at NCSU (http://www.science-house.org/middleschool/reviews/index.html)called Conceptual Physical Science published by Pearson. A new version was published with a date of 2010 (in the future!) so I got it along with a problem solving set. Part of the huge benefit to the next text is the 1 year online access to supplement the text -- videos explaining lots of the terminology, tutorials about some of the topics, etc. I really hated to go to a traditional textbook for science but I'm thinking this will be OK -- and will provide even more skills that he will need in college.

* Time for me -- I do need to bring in someone twice a week so I have time and space to give to Bj and to do the things I need to do. This is life. Considering I'll be in my 60's when my youngest graduates from highschool, this isn't a season. This really is life. What do I need, what do I want, what are my priorities, given that one of my priorities is to be homeschooling right now?

Enough ponderings for now... Week 2 really will be better -- or at least the next phase in adjustment as I try a full schedule for the week and find out how much I've overestimated Bj's capacity/interest in fulfilling that!

SAT and ACT Accomodations

A very good article about the steps homeschoolers would need to go through to get accommodations for taking tests -- like more time...
http://learndifferently.com/SAT%20SSD.htm

Learning Styles

I talk to so many people about learning styles that I need to have a permanent link to it so I don't need to re-invent my thoughts so often!

One of the HUGE benefits of homeschooling is that you can tailor your homeschooling plan to each individual student's best way to learn. Unlike a classroom where there are many children whose different learning styles need to be met (and therefore, by definition, learning has to be less efficient for at least some of those kids), by really understanding your child's style, you can find an approach that works best for him (I use “him” and “he” only because my household has many more “him/he” people in it than “her/she” type people!).

The other considerations are:

1. If learning is less challenging for your child, and if they understand better how they learn, the homeschooling process is less frustrating for both the parent and the student.


2. If you understand your child’s strengths, you can find material that best suits those strengths. However you can also focus better on strengthening his weaknesses if you deliberately choose topics/subjects that are easier for him and use that learning style in small doses.


3. It makes group learning less challenging for the student if he knows his primary learning style and knows if the group complements his/her learning style or not. My son (visual/kinesthetic/auditory) was very intimidated in a group learning situation where there were many strong auditory learners because he felt he couldn’t keep up verbally until we talked about his strengths and how his strengths were very obvious in other situations.


4. Part of developing an effective homeschooling approach is that you have to understand your learning style as well so you know what your bias is in evaluating curriculum and approaches -- and to understand how that fits with your child's primary learning style. It’s easy to be drawn to curriculum that would work for you!

Types of Learning Styles
There are many ways to look at learning styles. Some of the better-known approaches include:

• Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory (probably the most common learning styles model – with various ways to measure it and several ways to interpret it)
  
  • For a description and free online questionnaire, go to: http://www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm
  
  
  • A similar breakout, but focusing on 4 pairs of learning styles like visual/verbal and visual/non-verbal with specific learning techniques that students can use is at: http://www.metamath.com/lsweb/fourls.htm


• Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
  
  • For a description and a free questionnaire including graphical results go to: http://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/
  
  
  • And another easy to follow questionnaire with ways to put it in practice: http://literacyworks.org/mi/intro/index.html
  
  
• Gregorc model (Concrete/Abstract/Sequential/Random), similar to the Kolb learning styles
  
  • A good description of each of the 4 styles, what they do best, what makes sense for them, what’s hard for them, and what questions they ask when learning: http://www.csrnet.org/csrnet/articles/student-learning-styles.html


• Another learning style developed at NCSU (Felder and Silverman) uses the following styles: active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global
  
  • For a description, a free questionnaire, and how to use the information in learning, go to: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html
  
  

Book Recommendations
Since I’m an Abstract/Sequential learner who is very much an information gatherer -- and primarily Visual, I like to have lots of different ways of looking at learning styles! The following books are my favorite recommendations:

Cynthia Tobias: The Way They Learn

I think this is one of the best books to start with. She takes the basic Gregorc model and looks at several different approaches to learning. She also talks about the challenges of having a parent approach learning one way and the child having a different learning style.

Cynthia Tobias also has a website that offers video training on many of these topics: http://www.applest.com/

Dawna Markov: How Your Child is Smart

This is the only book I've found that looks at learning styles and the importance/interaction of whether the style is primary, secondary or tertiary. It explains how important the tertiary level is.

Many parents automatically know this as the tertiary style is the style used to get your child’s attention most effectively. Do you automatically put your hand on your son’s shoulder when he’s out of control? (Tertiary: Kinesthetic). Do you most effectively get his attention by raising your voice or speaking directly to him? (Tertiary: Auditory).

Willis and Hodson: Discover Your Child's Learning Style: Children Learn in Unique Ways - Here's the Key to Every Child's Learning Success

This is a good overview of several different ways of looking at learning styles, personal interests, etc.

Bottom line:
Learning styles is only one way of looking at the different approaches people use to learn and to interact with each other. Other ways to understand how people learn and interact with each other are personality styles and right brain/left brain learning. I’ll do posts on those over the next few days (hopefully!).

Spanish program

Spanish; Recommended by Karen
http://www.tellmemore.com/homeschool

Spanish Language

I need to start thinking about foreign language options...

Here's one that has 11 free lessons:
http://www.learnspanishtoday.com/ms_vls/index.html

Unit Studies and Older Kids

We had an interesting discussion last week about why unit studies were used so much more at the younger ages than at the older ages. I've really been thinking about it since we had a marvelous time with unit studies when my 7th grader was in K-3 -- and some later on than that. However, when I look ahead to highschool, I don't automatically look at unit studies, nor do I feel that it's as important or doable.

For one, I do want a strong university-bound transcript at the end and the basics seem easier to cover with individual classes, though some lend themselves to easily be covered together such as English/Literature and History/Social Studies. However, to get enough depth to do any AP exams or SAT Subject Tests in specific areas will mean really focusing on one topic.

I think one of the other reasons is that as he gets older (& as his little brother needs more of my time), he's looking for other things -- more independence in what he's doing, information and learning from other people, etc. These lend themselves easier to outside classes on specific subjects or on purchased curriculum that covers the material.

And, from my perspective, it was great fun to put together a unit study on kings and queeens or light houses, because I knew how all the pieces fit together and I had room to be creative. As his level of understanding and learning increases, it becomes harder to create a unit study because I don't have the background to pull it together easily. It would need to be based on someone else's framework -- and there aren't many unit studies available for this age group that combine things in a manner that I feel are interesting and cover things at the appropriate level.

LEGO Engineering: From Kindergarten to College

An interesting 52 minute video from Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach

LEGO Engineering: From Kindergarten to College
For the past 10 years, Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach has been working with the LEGO Group to bring engineering into every classroom as a way to teach creativity, teamwork, and systems engineering as well as math, science, and literacy. We believe that as the world becomes more technical, and more dependent on technology, it is imperative that those who vote and who make policy understand the fundamentals of science and engineering so that they will make informed decisions on policies like developing a sustainable energy plan or reducing global warming. We do this by bringing engineering into the pre-college classroom and challenging students to design and build solutions to open-ended problems. Chris Rogers will show a number of examples from around the world of how teachers have used LEGO Robots to teach everything from how to graph to how to problem-solve. From LEGO snowplows (made by 1st graders) to automated hamburger makers (made by 13 year olds) to a LEGO robot driven by a fruit fly (made by a doctoral student), students have been excited, innovative, and very enthusiastic to learn. He will conclude by explaining how you can help affect your local school and classroom. Kids (of all ages) welcome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG-izyXfFHI

Tools for Offering Online Classes

Something to look at for offering online classes -- especially at the homeschool level.

Started with ed2go, the company offering the Alice and XHTML courses.
Then...
Blackboard is what the schools use (but $9500 price tag and you do the work)

Then...
Drupal is, I think, the open source platform for online class options: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupal

Moodle is a free open source program for offering online classes -- might be an interesting way to explore http://moodle.org/

MoodleRooms takes that one step further and for a monthly/class fee, they will handle the student sign up, etc. part of the class (plus moodle tutorials): http://community.moodlerooms.com/

Sloodle takes Moodle to the 3-D level -- hmmmm.... not for me!
http://www.sloodle.org/moodle/

A more expensive version than MoodleRooms but that is infinitely more accessible than Blackbord and less expensive than ed2go is DigitalChalk: http://digitalchalk.com/

All of which includes cloud computing (which I don't really get except the cloud is a metaphor for the Internet!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing