The Educated Kiwi
moodle
New job new Moodle busy busy
Feb 17th
TBC Moodle
So it is that I have started my new job at Tauranga Boys’ College. I am now a teacher of Year Nine and Ten Social Studies, covering New Zealand history at the moment and Year 11 Geography and History.
One of my year Ten classes is a laptop class, 29 students with nice shiny Macbooks. This week we have been charting the voyage of Captain Cook to New Zealand which we have done with iStopmotion, a great little piece of software and also meant we could familiarise the boys’ with the machines again after the holidays and reintroduce some of the software changes from the holidays.
I’ve also been working on our school Moodle site at moodle.tbc.school.nz. bringing the previous moodle sites into one and adding a link to google apps with single sign on has been exciting especially as we have had a number of network issues that we thought were our fault but in fact were out of our control. So I look forward to the challenges of the coming months both in my classroom and digitally, Not to mention the impending arrival of our second child next week.
The business end of the year
Sep 1st
So we come to the time of the year where assessments are due and option choices must be made for the future. It is about now that my Seniors are getting bored with me talking exam techniques or getting them to hand in work on time. But I will continue to do so until November when it will be up to them.
It is also now that I find the students use Moodle and elearning more than any other time in the year. You see despite the fact that the notes have been on Moodle all year many have just given these resources a cursory glance, whereas now it takes on true meaning. I like this as I guess my students can access the information when they would like to rather than when I allow them.
So I will be adding a number of new quiz/revision activities as well as linking them to a selection of sites that can help them.
I am trying to make the class Moodle page for the Year 11 History class very much a hub for their study while the year 12/13 ICT are more for putting up ideas and techniques to help them with their individual projects. I have also started using google docs extensively as it allows me to collect in volumes of work and then give feedback on it quickly.
So one week till the practice exams and then the a few short months till the end of the year.
Theming Moodle
Aug 6th
Now despite Kelvin telling me that I am not allowed to change things anymore I am a firm believer in innovate or die and if I don’t continually play with Moodle it bores me and the kids so I figured why not have a bit of a play around with the Newbury College themes created by Shaun Daubney
moodle@newbury-college.ac.uk.
These themes are highly customisable and all I have done is changed the background colour, link highlights and some of the images and links. Now I guess I can get rid of some of the messy menus that have been cluttering the front page and get that stuff into the menubar. Incidentaly the menu bar comes from lwis.net where you can find a free css drop down menu. In fact if Kelvin is still unhappy with the change I will use the nvidia style menus on the old theme.
The reasoning behind this change has for me come about from using
Moodle more and more with my classes and observing the number of clicks that are required to get to certain things. If through this change we can make Moodle a better portal and the technology easier to use it has to be win win.
When the Flu strikes E-Learning comes into its own.
Jun 26th
As the whole family has now had the flu it has been a decidedly average week. It has however been a good chance to use Moodle to set my class their work and still give feedback without being there. Our Year 11 History site has been used extensively while I have been away, coupled with plentiful access to our school owned laptops I can make sure that we are still on track for finishing this unit this term.
I can see when the Pandemic mania was at its height a week ago why some schools looked at having a few weeks worth on their schools Learning Management Systems. That panic has however passed and we can now be happy to progress at our own pace with E-Learning development.
Unlock Moodle Potential
Jun 17th
One of the effects of the latest flu pandemic is that a school can be shut down at anytime. Our particular school policy states that we will provide materials online while students are away so that they may continue with their studies. Unfortunately in a practical based subject that is a little difficult and rather than reinvent the wheel I went trolling for links to existing material. I have to say that Workshop Technology is not well represented online in New Zealand, something I would like to rectify given the time. What I did find were these videos showing the potential of moodle in secondary education – check out these great videos by MoodleFairy.
Moodle Glossary Import
May 22nd
Moodle Glossary Import
How to import glossaries into moodle from a text file in bulk. Using an xml converter.
Add a Moodle Glossary Then click on import entries
you then need to set up your import file. Do this in excel or open office. Text in one column then definition in the next, I have just used numbers as I will get my students to edit these later.
Then we need to run the xml converter
down load this from moodle.org http://moodle.org/
You paste the text in the left hand window then click convert at the bottom of the page. Then hight light the text on the right and paste it into a text editor.
From the text editor we save it and make sure it’s saved as a text file (not Rich Text)
Then in moodle we browse to the file select it then import entries and they should be done
Just for giggles I made our Moodle an approved platform
May 19th
So for the past week I’ve been pretty busy moodling. I’d managed to stuff the database at school somehow but after a quick upgrade and backup during the changeover between periods all was settled. So now we carry on with the KAMAR (our school management system) and Moodle integration. We really want to get this right before any further talk about it.
The following image shows our Moodle site with the Ministry of Educations badge on it.
I figured that Moodle was an approved platform and all the other vendors seem to be showing this off so why not join the crowd.
In other Moodle news I have added a bit more content to my Year 11 History page which you can access with guest access. I guess it shows a bit of what you can add to a Moodle page. I can not give access any further although I would be happy to show off how I am using the gradebook.
Moodle …the hidden cost of Ownership
May 13th
The Hidden cost of Moodle use is more than other LMS providers in the New Zealand market ……….YEAH RIGHT!!
Recently the Ministry MLE roadshow visited Tauranga and I had some calls from local teachers who attended asking about the hidden cost of running Moodle in a school as it was indicated that running Moodle could be more expensive than one of the commercial vendors (eg Knowledgenet or Ultranet). I decided to sit down and work out :
1. How much has it cost our college to run it
2. How much does commercial support cost
so………
Costs for us to run it at Katikati College, Roll 950.
Hardware -well we started using it 6 years ago on a rebuilt old Pentium box which we then moved last year to generic server that runs Moodle and our static website with raided 300GB drives and 4GB RAM (as a virtual machine ..so we can easily move/backup it) …hardware cost : $3500
Software – runs on Ubuntu Server (free) , Moodle …well free
Time to set it up: Well initial set up took Richard and I maybe an hour the first time (including server install)
Time to maintain: Richard would be lucky if he spends 2 hours per month …and most of that’s adding new modules he likes the look of or adding functionality.
Time to train staff: Hmm …the big one …well that’s been huge but its just been seen as part of the PD we would provide for any new system we bring into our college that adds value….so actual cost $0
Commercial Support
So if you don’t feel happy to do this yourself I found a number of companies that actually specialise in Moodle installation, support , training and hosting (no pesky servers onsite). Try Catalyst (Ministry development partner) or Totali ….just 2 of many companies that offer cost effective solutions for Moodle.
What do we need to compare this to?
Well Knowledgenet has its pricing on its website
For Katikati College:
Install cost : $6600+GST
Monthly Cost : $336.67 +GST
So to be fair there is no hardware cost at all but it would cost our college $11000.00 the first year then $4400 per year after that!! …..sorry I just don’t see the added value!! In fact recently at the KAMAR conference Richard stated that for the install cost alone he would maintain a Moodle installation for life!! (feel free to email him!!).
Sure I’ve heard the comment that Moodle is not as ‘easy to use’ as other LMS’s ..I really dispute that …it all depends on the level of commitment to Professional Development your school is willing to put into implementing a Learning Management System ..and isn’t that the same for any ‘new’ initiative in a school ?
Finally for all you doubters out there have a look at this http://docs.moodle.org/en/Top_10_Moodle_Myths
Thought it really sums it up as I think just because Moodle has no company actively marketing it in NZ we in the education sector does not make it any less relevant or applicable?
Finally Moodle has over 20 000 registered installations worldwide ..all in areas with multiple LMS’s available …can that many people really be wrong?
Moodle Assessments
Mar 28th
Over the past two weeks my year 11 History class has been completing an Internal Assessment Achievement Standard worth four credits of the 24 on offer in year eleven History.
They had two weeks to complete a task where they had to write a newspaper editorial from 1954 based around the events of the Civil Rights Movement at that time. The task involved them writing from the perspectives of someone supporting the decision of Brown vs Board of Education and someone against. I allowed submission of the assessment either on paper or electronically via Moodle’s assignment activity. They were allowed to submit as they revised their answer which allowed me to point out areas that they were weak on and many of the students took full advantage of this.
The boys in my class were especially impressive as they got into the task but even though they had plenty of time to do the task this picture shows some of the times the assessment was handed in.
It was due at 8:30am on Friday and I can see there were some late nights on thursday. In all however using the Moodle assignment feature has been very successful and made things very easy for me to provide feedback and feedforward even when I see most of these students every day.
Overall a useful addition to good classroom practice.
Moodle/KAMAR integration
Mar 15th
After the recent KAMAR conference I thought I best share the Keynote file we created. You can download it from slideshare if you wish. I will remind you that this is still beta at present but the integration does look pretty good. I will endeavor to add a narration track at some point so you can further understand some of the points but if you have any direct questions please feel free to email me directly or add them to the comments so everyone can get the benefit.View more presentations from rbvandijk.
Moodle Maps
Mar 12th
After the recent KAMAR conference I’m playing with my moodle plugins again. I really quite like the Maps plugin. You simply define the place you would like to map, students can add points of interest and annotate the maps. Very simple and clear for staff as well as students.
#lats09
Feb 25th
Well so far Kelvin has made it to Learning @ School. I will be there Tomorrow for our Breakout in Session 6 on Moodle. Our group will be given a logon (this is their firstinitialsurname and firstname as password) to the Tek Moodle site so they can have a play around and add courses, work with blocks and plugins and generally see how you can use moodle in your school. We will also be looking at how easy it is to put moodle into your school and customise it.
Also feel free to come and see us about any of the other ideas we have been involved in from phpmotion (school youtube) to the wiimote IWB and pens.
Using the Podcast feature in Moodle
Oct 20th
Using the Podcast feature in Moodle
A quick how to for using the podcast feature in moodle. For more information visit moodle.org. To download this go here
First select the podcast block
Then fill in the blanks
Give it a title, description, category and language then click save changes. The podcast will then be empty. Select add an item.
Then we need to fill in the blanks.
So give it a title, description and browse for the file then upload it
Choose the file
Make sure you choose the file
Thats it!
Your podcast will be added and by clicking on the button on the left your students will be able to subscribe to the podcast.
Using TeX notation in Moodle
Jun 30th
Choose the application
Click on The Notation Button which will open a java window (another box)
Editing and creating the equations
Have a look at the options and drag and drop to create your equation
Last step
Then click on the export button close the java window and paste into whichever text box you wish. And that should be it.
Moodle Blocks
Jun 25th
Recently here at Tek_ we have been toying with a few new ideas. I guess we call them Tek_Labs some of these are just a bit of fun others have had some good outcomes that we can then try at school. The latest have been:
Gallery2 – php gallery site that allows you to have a flickr like service of your own, it also has a wordpressplugin.
PHPAuction – Kind of like e-bay, not sure how we would integrate this with school but maybe as a fundraiser or for economics classes.
And then there is Tek_Net – our own moodle site which has some of our own teaching resources and allows me to trial out new ideas as far as moodle blocks goes.
Today I just added the Game moodle block and have been really impressed as it uses our existing quiz questions and allows you to make a number of different style quizzes (thanks to the moodleman for this and of course Sharon for pointing it out 
) I have started putting links to these blocks in the tek wiki to try and remember what a I have customised. Feel free to check it out and see what we have been adding outside the standard moodle install.
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