There are a few presentations here at Moodlemoot about moving to Moodle, either from “nothing” or an alternative VLE. Listening as one does at a conference I was struck by how similar the issues that these institutions and organisations faced. They were also then same issues that other places have had moving to Moodle over the years.
The question I have, is how many did some research and found out what others did, or did they ignore the lessons of the past and rediscovered those issues for themselves. There is some value in that or is there?
Ask yourself, when you moved to Moodle did you ask others how they did it? Ask yourself did you find out the problems faced by others?
If you are in the process of upgrading to Moodle 2 have you done something similar? Do you know about the issues that others have had upgrading to Moodle 2?
If you moved sometime ago, or upgraded recentlyu, have you shared the problems and issues you faced?
If there is a to be a true Moodle community, then we need to share our problems and solutions as well as our successes.
So where is Moodle going, listening to Martin Dougiamas at the Ireland and UK Moodlemoot, we see how he (and Moodle HQ) want to take Moodle over the next few years.
Martin was pretty honest about how the use of plugins in Moodle are not as user-friendly or simple as it should be. I have always thought that Moodle needs to come with core modules and blocks as it does now, however administrators have the option to add blocks and modules via a web browser rather than installing files on to the server. If Moodle plugins were more akin to how WordPress (as in WordPress.org not the .com service) it would make it much easier to work with plugins.
On WordPress you search for plugins from a plugins repository, and then install the files. Once installed, you can then “activate” the plugin and it will then work across your WordPress blog. Such plugins allow you to add media players in your blog, make it easier to add third party services into blog entries, also how users can interact with your blog.
I think it would make as huge improvement to how many people view Moodle if the plugin process worked like WordPress. You as an administrator could choose which plugins would work across a whole site, it would make it much easier to add third party services. For example rather than using the Slideshare embed code, think how much easier it would be if all a user needed to do was paste in the Slideshare URL and Moodle took care of embedding the presentation. Moodle 2 does this already with YouTube videos, so it’s not “impossible”.
I also think it would be nice if plugins could be installed, not just globally, but could be installed and then made available to courses on a course by course basis. Add this plugin if you want it, otherwise leave it well alone. Would it be beyond current thinking to allow course creators to install plugins?
At the moment adding plugins to Moodle is not a simple task and can cause issues, especially if an older plugin is installed on a newer Moodle installation (and vice versa). I do hope that one day we can see a simple web based plugin installation with flexible permissions.
MoodleMoot 2012 – Course Creator Best Practice Workshop
There is a wide choice of workshops available at the pre-conference workshops. I am currently in the Course Creator Best Practice workshop led by Michelle Moore.
We have gone round and made our introductions, it felt (I didn’t count) that a lot of people were corporate or private training providers, though still a fair few people from universities and colleges (as well as schools). There were lots of people who had just migrated to Moodle or were in the process of migrating.
Even though I am an hold hand with Moodle, I’ve been part of Moodle.org since Wednesday, 10 March 2004 at 3.31pm, over eight years. Gloucestershire College were using Moodle before I arrived in November 2006.
I am hoping to get some useful hints and tips from the workshop. Straight off we are talking about design and style.
“Don’t use more than three font styles per page”
and
“Do maintain consistency”
One of the hardest jobs I find is trying to be diplomatic with staff about the “design” and “look” of their Moodle course.
It can be challenging to let them know that using multiple fonts, Comic Sans, colours doesn’t make their course “look better”
“Do beware the bling”
How do you get your staff to recognise the importance of good design and style?
Today is the start of the Ireland and UK Moodlemoot, in a unique move we have a single Moot covering both Ireland and the UK. The conference takes place in Dublin and so here I am in the air flying with Ryanair.
I am looking forward to the conference, hoping to find out how people are using Moodle to enhance and enrich the learning experience.
As might be expected with a conference focused on a tool, there are a fair few technical sessions. Now that Moodle 2 is out, there are quite a few sessions on upgrading and the new functionality within the new system. As my college is already running Moodle 2, I will be “avoiding” the upgrading sessions and aiming to attend the sessions on using the upgraded Moodle.
It will be nice to meet old friends and colleagues and talk Moodle. I don’t usually go to Moodlemoot, as it clashed a lot with other events in April and usually I am more interested in how people are using stuff to support learning over how to use stuff. Over the next few days I am aiming to write some more blog entries from the conference and even the odd video or audio recording.
I have been to Dublin a few times now, however even though the conference venue is close to the airport, I hope to get to Dublin itself at some point.
Twitter actually started six years ago and probably like most people joined when it became “big” after SXSW in 2007.
I didn’t use it much in the first year, partly as there were very few people on it, more so because I was using Jaiku a similar service available back then.
In the five years of using the service I have posted over 26,000 tweets and have over 3000 followers. I currently follow just under 500 people and in the main I try and keep it to under 500 otherwise I feel that the stream becomes too quick and loaded.
In the main looking at Twitter I usually use it to post links about my blogs, links to news and sites I have found interesting, photographs (usually via Instagram) and importantly conversations.
My pattern of tweeting follows what I am doing. When I am at work in the office I do find I rarely tweet, whereas when I am travelling or at an event the amount of postings I make really increases. At events I will tweet about the presentations, discuss and also post links related to the sessions I am in.
I did once say Twitter would die… and in reality I do still think that may happen. If you look at the number of mainstream and traditional media accounts who in the main use Twitter for broadcasting I can see some people leaving Twitter as others disengage. Social networks exist because they are social and only work when you have a community. Without a community, they will wither and die. If key influencers leave Twitter then their communities will disengage with the service and either follow others to a new place or an existing service.
This is something we have seen before. When Jaiku stopped their SMS integration, and also stopped new sign ups, the community on the service began to disintegrate and people began to move to Twitter. Today we can see how some people are disengaging with Facebook and moving to Google+ and Twitter.
At this time though it would appear that Twitter is still going strong and I can’t yet see myself moving away (just yet). So are you still on Twitter?
I am surprised that not only is Twitter still going after five years, but I am still engaging with it. Will I still be on it after another five years… I have no idea!
It’s been a while since I attended a Moodlemoot, however this year I am attending Moodlemoot 2012 which takes place in the fair city of Dublin, 2nd-4th April 2012.
Moodlemoots are an opportunity for the Moodle community to gather and share experiences, new things and learn from each other.
I am interested to see what I can learn from others at this Moodlemoot. The technical for us is less important since we decided to outsource our hosting (and maintenance) to ULCC. This doesn’t mean I am not interested in the roadmap of Moodle, I am and really would like to see where Moodle is going over the next few years. I am pleased to see Moodle making the move to mobile and I hope that continues.
The real challenge as far as I am concerned with Moodle, is not the technical nature of the software, but how do you get teachers to use it effectively with learners.
I always find it interesting that some people talk about how easy to use and intuitive Moodle is, whilst some people complain about how complicated and unintuitive Moodle is. You won’t find many of the latter group at a Moodlemoot, but I do think their viewpoint is noted and listened to.
One of the things I want to find out at this Moodlemoot is what strategies are people using to motivate teachers to use Moodle and what things work well and what things have broad appeal. How are people making Moodle more engaging and interactive and encouraging learners to make that move from a passive user of Moodle to a learner that engages and interacts with the platform.
Another aspect of the moot will be the networking and engagement with the community. It will be great to discuss the above with old friends and with new ones.
Nearly four years ago I posted an image of my “tweetcloud” that creates a word cloud of what I am tweeting about… As some of you might expect coffee was quite large.
Having tried Tweetcloud again (well now called Tweetstats), quite surprised by how much coffee is still in there….
I am sure I don’t tweet about coffee that much (anymore).
