Reflections on Bett 2012

Wow what a few months I've had.

I've moved from NZ to the UK and for the passed few months I've been talking to Synergy Learning about how we can work together. They suggested we meet at Bett in London.
I had been warned, but it is massive. The night before I helped set up the stand and realised that the hall I was in had more exhibitors than participants at L@S and Ulearn. And then there was another hall that was bigger!
The guys at Synergy Learning are great they've really got some awesome Moodle and Mahara experience with what sounds like a team of developers in the engine room who can make magic things happen.
The scale of the Moodle community was evident on the first day as I spoke to lots of DIY enthusiasts, users and potential users. There was lots of interest in Mahara, but not lots of existing users. I really appreciated my NZ experience with myportfolio and loved sharing this with them.

Bett is great - I had a few hours walking around and could have spent a few more. I'll just take some comfy shoes next time!

Bring Your Own Device

Wireless is one of those unmeasurable benefits to learning, but when going into schools I'm often asked about it or told what the school are doing. There is certainly lots of buzz around it at the moment.

Last month I attended ULearn and attended one of the key sessions on Bring Your Own Device with 5 schools that had already worked through implementing their own policy. They had been through the same issues of security, inclusion, support and planning but had developed policies for students to use their devices in school.

Personally I think its a no brainer - students get to use their computer, the school doesn't have to buy as many and we can start to utilise our devices as school.

Here are some examples of policies;

• Rangitoto
• Burnside High
• Orewa College
• Kristin

Moodle 2 Administration

Having used the book Moodle Administration I was delighted to get a copy of the Moodle 2 Administration. Whether you are an old Moodle 1.9 administrator or completely new to Moodle 2 Alex Buchner ensures that you are well informed of all the new features from installation to adding plug ins and networking with other Moodle sites.

Moodle 2 was released towards the end of 2010. It is an Open Source Course Management System that has become popular all over the world through its versatility in being able to be adapted to suit Primary and Tertiary education. The original Moodle was very successful, but since Moodle 2 there has been considerable more momentum and support.

Alex Buchner is the co-founder and Technical Director of the UKs leading Moodle Partner, Synergy Learning. His first book Moodle Administration most experienced Moodle users will be familiar with as a point of call and Moodle 2 Administration will do the same for Moodle 2. Administrators of all levels will find this useful, whether you install and host yourself or it is hosted by a Moodle Parnter and you are the on site administrator, Alex has written a guide that you can turn to for inspiration and support.

The first 2 chapters of the book cover the installation and the system which helps administrators who are handling their own Moodle installation. Alex uses plain English and a succint description of the tasks at hand so even those that are new to Moodle can follow the guide. It is nicely broken with clear headings that allow you to chose which parts are relevent to your install. Even if you are not installing Moodle yourself it is useful to briefly look over the pages to familiarise yourself with Moodle 2.

Chapters 3,4,5 and 6 looks at users, roles, courses and permissions. Existing and new Moodle users will appreciate the time taken over these chapters to clearly explain the relationships and the settings that are available in Moodle 2. Different scenarios are outlined in setting up a Moodle site and also individual courses making us aware of our options. Recommendations are also made and best practice shared along with the pitfalls of certain settings. The benefits of Synergy Learning's experience with Moodle in different settings save the reader lots of time.

Chapters 7,8 and 9 moves away from courses and users and looks as how you can develop your own Moodle flavour. Most Moodle users I meet have great pride in their Moodle as there is lots of configuration that you can manipulate. Alex goes through blocks, themes, plug-ins and configration with lots of help and tips to ensure that you can develop your flavour.

In Chapters 10, 11, 12 and 13 we look at reporting, security, performance and backups. This is again a sound insite in each area that give an administrator the knowledge that they need to get started and also to be aware of features for the future. These chapters make essential reading for the Administrator to keep an efficient Moodle and reap the benefits that the user expects, but does not generallly see.

The final set of Chapters 14, 15, and 16 look more towards extending Moodle with 3^rd Party Add ons, Moodle Networking and Integration. We look at how to to extend moodle in each of the cases and also how to revert back. Its useful as an Admin user to be aware of the potentials of networking and linking with Mahara although Alex warns us of the trust involved in each of the cases and clearly explains the impact of each.

All in all the book is the Admin User Guide that would be shipped with Moodle if you bought the software off the shelf. Alex has laid down his knowldege to build a user guide and shared his experience to make sound recommendations along with warnings of common mistakes that can cause issues in the system. The book is a must for new and old Administrators - a companion that you will always refer to. Get your copy here

Teaching with Moodle and Mahara

Moodle and Mahara in the classroom

View more presentations from Pete Potter

#Ulearn was awesome last week there is not one other time in the year where I see so many friends from across NZ. To have so many like minded people in one space at one time creates a buzz and the highlight is definitely those connections. I received great feedback on my Moodle and Mahara in the Classroom workshop it was nice to hear that it was hard to get a place and also that users at very different stages in their journey got something from it. There were Moodle users, Mahara users and people who used both. It takes you through my journey of using eportfolios and websites in my teaching and through the evolution of using Moodle and Mahara together and how it is shaping up for the future. Let me know if you have any questions.

NZ MoodleinSchools Hub

The NZ Moodleinschools community is a project that provides a tested and up to date Moodle instance for NZ schools. It means that schools can download Moodle or chose to have it hosted by a Ministry Partner with the assurance that it is tested and safe. As it is community driven you will see that the website has contributions from schools who share their resources, stories, experience and direct its future.
One of the new developments this year that is new to the community and to Moodle 2 is the idea of a central hub. This means that Moodle sites can be linked to a central repository or 'hub' . Moodle.org have their own hub called Mooch. The idea of the NZ moodleinschools hub is for NZ schools to collaborate and share courses through the hub. This has not been forthcoming through schools getting up to date with Moodle 2, this being a trial (with 6 schools) and teacher training, but I'm sure term 4 will be a good time to remind lots of schools of the advantages. As a teacher this does flip my switches!
I linked my moodle instance to the hub (with help from Kristina - again!) and found it 5 minutes with of admin work and once a teacher has created a course it takes them less than a minute to upload or search for a course from the hub, as the video shows.

How Kiwi educators are using MyPortfolio

Above is a document that has been created by the Myportfolio community. Myportfolio is the NZ Mahara instance that is used by over 800 NZ schools and has over 40,000 users (September 2011). It has been shared as a public page in Myportfolio and also through Twitter. Anyone can add to the document and reading through the posts there are some varied ways that it is being used. Have a look through and add to it if you are a user...

Moodle App

The long awaited Moodle App finally hit the App Store this week with around 90 seconds of changing some admin settings (--> instructions here) Moodle 2.1 has enabled web services and added the functionality of an App! The Android one is yet to be released so I went and installed it on my Ipod and made the changes in my Moodle. The installation was easy just prompting me for web address/username/password and we are in and met with the dashboard.

The great thing about the app is that it is not just a mobile UI for moodle it opens up the functionality of the mobile device allowing users to create and upload images, video and sound files straight from their device in to their Private Files area. In my opinion this bridges the gap between moodle and use in the learning space where demonstrations of learning and multimedia can be uploaded quickly and easily with the handheld device that most user have at their disposal. It takes moodle into the classroom and can be planned in courses as part of the learning experience.
From the dashboard you can also view Participants in the courses that you are in and communicate with them with their moodle Profile Details and also add them straight to you contacts in iOS.




Overall - Excellent. Making use of moodle and the mobile device that the app is installed on.