Augsburg modifications to moodle

As we’ve been testing moodle out we’ve also been tweaking the code to meet our needs. If anyone is interested in copies of the code snippets just let me know.

• Forum post emails don’t link back into moodle and neither do the RSS feeds – this breaks our single sign-on system.
• Forum replies in threaded form were too spaced out. We tightened up the reply spacing.
• HTML and Text resources automatically have a link in the upper-right of “Return to {shortname}” which takes you back to the course page.
• User’s can’t change their email addresses or id numbers. These are set with their accounts are auto-created by database authentication. The id numbers are needed for enrollment so those shouldn’t be editable!
• In the gallery module I added a top frame with appropriate navigation and made the gallery description more readable by placing it in a box. However the automatic advancing of images seems to have broken. I’m looking into that.

We have a few more minor changes in the pipeline but these were some of the main tweaks we wanted to do. The modular and open nature of the code makes these changes easier as you go along.

Educating the Net Generation is good!

So far I’ve made it through chapter 3 of Educating the Net Generation. I’m really loving it.
Here’s some representative quotes:

• “they’ve never known life without the internet”
• “they know more screen names than phone numbers”
• they tend to have a nonlinear thought process
• their differences include:
  ability to read visual images
  visual-spacial skills
  inductive discovery
  fast response time
• “they are constantly connected and always on”
• they thrive on social interaction
• to them technology means new features, a cell phone is not technology but a cell phone with a new feature is technology
• “instant messaging is not technology, it is an action”
• “the software blends into the background”
• they prefer face to face, not online interactions
• they are able to move seamlessly between social modes with ease — physical and virtual
• they thrive on first-person learning, experiential learning, constructivist learners
• “they are visually literate and are more comfortable in an image-rich environment rather than a text only”
• Power Point is there to “provide power to a particular point … not placing an entire course lesson on every slide”
• they share some characteristics with their grandparents, both are tinkers but take different approaches
• “they learn through social interaction”
• they know how to do what they do with technology, however this does not imply a deep understanding of technology

Whew! It’s really great so far. Beyond people just writing about the Net Generation, there’s also articles by members of the Net Generation.

Welcome to WordPress!

Welcome to version 2.0 of this site, now in WordPress. The formatting capabilties are far superior to iBlog — what I was using. Also, it has an integrated search and commenting capabilities. I’ll miss spellcheck. However, I can update this blog from any web browser, not just my work computer — iBlog is a program that runs on your Mac and you publish your blog to a web site. This one is a website.

NASA is podcasting

I just read that NASA has started a podcast. Copy this link to your Podcasting software.
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moodle vs Blackboard study, and some blogs

Well, “study” might be a strong word. They were attempting to answer “Can free software satisfactorily meet the needs of students, faculty, and instructional technologists for online teaching and learning?”

The answer seems to be “yes.” You can find details here.

Also, a few people are trying moodle in their courses and are writing about it….
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Never use AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), and stop using it if you already are

I read from this blog , about the new terms of service for the chat service. Basically, you waive the right to privacy and AOL has rights to use whatever is said as it wants…..
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