The download went fine but when I tried to change format I continued to get errors. As this had never happened to me before I did some research and found that since YouTube went HD any of the videos uploaded recently have a  slightly different .flv format which seems designed to stop conversion.

After trying a number of different ways around this issue (converting using ffmpeg and DownloadHelper itself etc) I managed to ‘crack’ it by doing the following:

Downloaded using MacTubes as .mp4
Converted to .wmv using Visualhub

Students then very happy

I order to do this I have been looking at a few resources. Initially Arc Gis explorer, which is an awesome resource (here is a Link to the iLearn blog with more information) I am currently using this with my Junior classes to test the use of Silverlight from behind the proxy at school and how it goes bandwidth wise as opposed to Google Earth. I have also started looking at Open Street Map. Mark initially reminded me of this with the following TED video:

Having now created an account I have used Motion X GPS To start doing some edits. Would be interesting to see a Geography field trip where the students can actually contribute to a real Map. My only problem is the ease of using the basic Garmin Etrex I have and using the serial converter to get the data off, as opposed to my phone which simply emails the data in .gpx and .kml format already. Still some issues to look at but I am very keen to continue.

Version 3 also has photo sharing which means you can keep photographs of students safely in the gated village if you so wish rather than using public photo sharing like Flickr.

If you want any help setting up a video sharing server let us know and we will see what we can do to help.

Nothing special in this first lot I use Safari, Nat uses Firefox Except for when I need the web developer toolbar. Then there is iChat, Skype, Billings (which does the invoicing etc), the iWork and iLife suites, Pulpmotion which is kind of an offline Animoto, Marsedit (my blogging software), And Rapidweaver for websites.

Then we have Fetch (ftp client), Comic life, iCal, Photoshop, and Flash, Vector Designer and Pixelmator, Visualhub which I wish you could still buy but I got it ages ago, Time Machine, Toast, Cha Ching and Open Office.

Some apps that should be in here are textwrangler and now tweetie.

I guess this is only part of the story however as I actually launch most of my apps by using Command+space and then typing the first letter and hitting enter (this is a leftover of when I used Quicksilver on 10.4) I have yet to try Google Quick Search Box which is a development of this. But there you have some idea of what’s on my home Mac. Most surprising I guess is the amount of of paid shareware applications that I have accumulated that I never brought when I had a Windows machine.

It is windows only and as a Mac user I run it on Windows XP under VMWare Fusion with unity switched on.  It just looks like another app window and copy and paste works fine, you wouldn’t even know there were two operating systems running (2GB RAM helps).

It has been a while since I have used this app and it is now up to version 6.  The new version allows you to import student lists to further streamline your work and there are a number of comment banks for different subjects which you can copy and paste from the site.

I do still like to write individual reports for those students who stand out at both ends of the spectrum but for the majority of reports this is a huge time saver.

If you don’t have VMWare you can download Suns Virtual Box for free and Windows 7 RC1 is a solid operating system and is free to download until the end of July and use until March 2010.

The touch interface is fantastic for her and I was amazed how quickly she started arranging the words and letters in the correct order. The following video is the two apps that I have brought first.

I did read some interesting comments on the review page of people saying how toddlers using an iPhone was the downfall of society but I think these people need a reality check. Rylee can play the games for about ten minutes and then we do something else. There is no need to hide her from technology when her whole life will be surrounded by it. I mean just imagine if I took the iPhone off Mrs van Dijk after only ten minutes, now thats addiction.

The presentation really got me thinking about Linux again and this week Kelvin and I have begun experimenting on our network with Ubuntu to see how it will go with reasonably astute teenagers.

Our key points are that it must be able to be imaged easily (well G4L will do this easily) and that there must be some way of it integrating with our existing active directory.

At present at Katikati College we run 110 Desktop Windows machines, 130 Windows laptops, 140 OSX Desktops and 90 OSX Laptops. A number of the Macs are now eight-nine years old and still running Tiger hence they are very much at the end of their life so we are looking to replace these and a similar number of the Windows machines are about five-six years old. We are interested to see if running Linux will give us a bit more life in some of these machines and as I tried last year it wasn’t hard to get Ubuntu on an old iMac, for the Windows machines it will hopefully mean that one lab can continue to run comfortably for web-apps and office apps leaving the rest of the school as is.

I don’t really see a need for us to dump Windows as an OS, I personally don’t have a problem paying for software if it is good. I know that if the school Microsoft deal doesn’t roll over that there may be some cost issues but then we can just add some money to the Windows machines we buy and have the OEM license. Much like paying the Apple Tax we will pay for a user experience if it makes people more comfortable.

Where I guess my own ideas on this are conflicting are on the office suite of products. I have not used MSOffice for a number of years now and really don’t see why we are paying for product that we don’t use, not to mention getting parents as a flow on effect to buy 90 plus excel functions when they may only ever use eight but that’s just a personal axe I grind.

MSOffice may be industry standard but as I proved in a little experiment I conducted where instead of installing Office 2007 I put on Open Office Three and the user noticed no difference ( I know it was sneeky but I had to prove a point) we may have missed a very easy time to switch as people are now familiar with the ribbon interface.

So.. what next, well we have had Open Office for a while in the OSX labs due to the MS Schools agreement not covering them for Office and really our kids don’t notice a difference. The real key is getting adults to break the apron string.

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?

]]> http://tek.net.nz/2009/05/moodle-the-hidden-cost-of-ownership/feed/ 5 http://tek.net.nz/2009/04/stus-double-jeopardy-great-fun-for-basic-facts/ http://tek.net.nz/2009/04/stus-double-jeopardy-great-fun-for-basic-facts/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:18:04 +0000 Richard van Dijk http://tek.net.nz/?p=582 As much as it pains me to have to boot into my windows virtual machine (feel the mac snob coming out in me there) Stu’s Double Jeopardy makes me do just that.

While I have made up Jeopardy games before in Powerpoint and lately in Smart’s Notebook this is so easy and looks so good. There is also a lot of information on the site in the way of help files for everything from creating custom skins to adding music files. I found that my Year 11 class took about 45 minutes on the American Government Review game and now look forward to seeing what their recall is like come moodle test time.

Why Timelines?

Bee Docs Timeline is software for Mac OS X that makes it easy for you to present historical events in a way that reveals connections and clarifies relationships.

Make timeline charts of world history, family trees, fictional events or business deadlines. Timelines can help you understand and present history with new perspective!

The application allows you to very put together images and hyperlinks that look fantastic. The next step is getting my students who find it a real drag drawing timelines to create their own as we reach the end of our Civil Rights topic.

I have put a pdf version of the timeline on our moodle page at KKC The entries are clickable hyperlinks to the wikipedia articles as well which is a neat option. The next step is a downloadable version for ipods (fast becoming the most prevalent web browser at our college, those and psp’s)

But here it is as a youtube with some of my favorite Pearl Jam thrown in for good measure.