19 May 2012

Moodle 2 meets Comic Sans! (other fonts are available....)

I am quite pleased with this as I noticed when Moodle 2 came out that, whereas in the “olden days” of Moodle 1.9, you could add extra fonts to the text editor drop down options, this was no longer possible. Primary schools in particular like Comic Sans MS – not everybody’s favourite, I know, but in a free world those who want Comic Sans should be allowed to have it! I reported this, and now in Moodle 2.3 the option to add extra fonts is back – and here is a screencast showing you how to add your own particular favourite.

18 May 2012

Easily choose and rename activities in Moodle 2.3

And another in the “Why Moodle 2.3 is the best minor release yet” series: here are two features I first heard of some months back when LUNS were developing them for their users – now they are in Moodle 2.3. One is a very handy way to rename an item without having to go into the settings; the other is very helpful and space-friendly way of adding a new resource or activity. Please take a look below:
6 May 2012

See what you're downloading in Moodle 2.3

Although you can tell from the icon on a Moodle course page what type of file you are about to click on or download, until now it hasn’t been possible to see in advance how large it is. This can be problematic for users with slow connections who have no idea of the size of a resource they’ve been told to save to their computers. In Moodle 2.3 coming out in June 2012 you can choose to display this information: both the size and the type of files you add for your students. Add to that the ability to drag and drop the file and you have both teachers and students with easier lives!! A short screencast here

29 Apr 2012

Drag and Drop Blocks is BACK in Moodle 2.3

In the “old” Moodle – 1.9, I was able with Ajax turned on, to drag and drop blocks up, down and across my course page. In Moodle 2, we clicked on a block and got some neat dotted boxes into which we deposited our block. There’s been a lot of dragging and dropping work going on in the background for Moodle 2.3, out in June. I highlighted one aspect last time -dragging and dropping your users but since then, and big thanks to the boys at LUNS(Lancaster University Network Services) we can drag and drop our blocks beautifully (tracker here for those of you who understand such stuff) It is still work in progress, as with other drag and drop features – watch this space!

16 Apr 2012

Drag and drop in Moodle 2.3

Drag and drop upload into the next version of Moodle – Moodle 2.3 due out in June – was the talk of the Irish/UK Moot at the start of this month. Many are hoping the newly crowned “Moodle superhero” Davo Smith will have his drag and drop block added to core (standard) Moodle. I have been exploring Moodle 2.3 as it is so far and have enjoyed a couple of drag and drop features already: as the screenshot below shows, you can drag files into a forum post as attachments.

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Additionally, as an administrator you get the “drag and drop files to here” option when adding users and their pictures – take a look at the following quick screencast:

9 Apr 2012

How to upload a course to MOOCH

I was prompted to add a course to MOOCH (Moodle.org Community Hub) following Moodle Community Manager Helen Foster's keynote speech at the UK/Irish Moot in Dublin last week in which she highlighted the various community sites available. MOOCH aims to be a hub for courses you can either enrol in or download and use on your own Moodle and I made a screencast showing the process, in the hope it might encourage others to share!

6 Apr 2012

Moodlefairy goes to Dublin #mootieuk12

I first decided I liked Ireland about two minutes after arrival when the customs officer  greeted me with a smile and a “welcome to Dublin”. And my opinion was confirmed a couple of hours later when I didn’t have the exact change for the city centre bus and the driver let me go for free. Irish people are definitely one of the nicest set of people I have encountered! I was fortunate to arrive on Sunday so I took the opportunity to do some sight seeing following my free bus journey. I walked from Trinity College at one end to the Guinness Storehouse at the other, enjoying the tour and especially the complementary Guinness on the top floor “Gravity Bar” with panoramic views of Dublin.

The evening was spent with some other early birds in an Irish pub in Temple Bar, where I had Irish Stew and � er  -Guinness. It was lovely to meet again for more time Michelle Moore who forever in my mind is associated with compression socks (long story!) but who is as enthusiastic about sharing Moodle’s strengths with educators as I am. Indeed her job title is Chief Evangelist and I like that.  Last year I met Paul Vaughan from SDC; this year I met bubbly Becky Barrington and another colleague Shirley Crawford with whom I  breakfasted the following morning before the start of Day 1

Day 1 for me was actually the pre-conference workshops on Monday where I ran the Introduction to Moodle session and was interested to see some Norwegian language activities being posted on our training course. I did Norwegian as part of my degree and was tempted to respond, but time and timidity failed me, but the following day, the start of the conference proper, I was approached by a Norwegian lady who told me she and her colleague were setting up Moodle in a school in Oslo  and had been very inspired by the session. So that was nice!

Tuesday’s keynote was delivered via Skype by Martin Dougiamas, the original Moodler and we then chose different rooms for different sessions. I had been confused and then impressed by the fact that the room I had been in the day before had vanished and the room we were in today was three times its size � until I realised there were hidden sections in the ceiling that enabled the hotel to divide or combine areas of the vast ballroom � serious magic!

Over the two days I saw a variety of presentations, too many to describe in detail. Along with Becky’s and Michelle’s I also attended a session by another Sunday night diner, Dominic Lukes from whom I learned an awful lot about usability issues which I will pass on in my training. Often I don’t actually learn much in Moodle Moots, although I am always  inspired by ideas, so this was a definite reward for me. I did a presentation about my school’s MahoodleUsing Mahoodle as a Community Website” which will no doubt be available along with the others  -although without commentary, it probably won’t mean much. I was introduced to Pecha Kucha (and its prounucation) in the final hour of Tuesday’s events, although it went on in two rooms (well OK, the one divided) and I’d have liked to have seen them all in one room. Am I tempted? Yes.

The Gala dinner on Tuesday night was superb, complete with candles and wine-a-plenty. I met Andrea Bicciolo, an Italian Moodle partner whom I have frequently encountered on the Moodle forums. It was also good to catch up with Synergy Learning’s Alex Büchner and the newly designated “Moodle Superhero” Davo Smith, although I do think they should situate their stand slightly further away from the Ladies’ toilets next time:)

Wednesday morning brought us a “moving to Moodle 2″ panel with the Main Man himself, Gavin Henrick, Remote Learner’s Mike Churchward, Becky Barrington and Koen Roggemans, Moodle’s translation co-ordinator,  High School Network administrator, partner to Helen Foster but above all, Brilliant Cook! I found it very informative as I have no personal experience of migrating, apart from playing with my own Moodle sites which are only populated by celebrities and historical characters. My school district for political (and possibly technical reasons ) is still on Moodle 1.9,  but I have got the teachers enthused for the move, so we hope it will come soon! Check out their opinions here

Helen Foster bravely did her keynote using the live Moodle sites -and, with some patience, succeeded!  Called “Who’s afraid of Moodle.org?” the presentation  highlighted the different ways in which people could get involved with the Moodle community and the different sites available. The best verdict from Mark Greenwood: “She’s obviously a very accomplished and relaxed speaker” Relaxed? How do you learn to do “relaxed”? Someone please tell me!

Thanks to James Clay for taking hundreds of photos including the only ones I have of me to prove I went! Big thanks to Gavin for all of this � he left us with a teaser about the next Irish Moot in Dublin and possible arrangements for  a UK Moot on the mainland ( I presume) And thanks also to Mark Glynn whom I met on the first day and who instantly added to my initial impression of how lovely Irish people are. He facilited, time policed and generally helped out all over and along with Gavin and the team ensured the smooth running of the event. Probably my favourite Moot so far.

17 Mar 2012

How to report an issue in the Moodle tracker

Here's an updated version of the screencast on How to report an issue in the Moodle tracker:

11 Mar 2012

Commenting on, Watching or Voting on the Moodle tracker

Here is another newbie’s basic “how to” on the Moodle tracker: how to comment on an issue, watch an issue or vote on an issue. Slightly better sound this time, though I am still looking for good external microphone suggestions. I will redo the first one when I have time this week.

11 Mar 2012

Reporting an issue in the Moodle tracker

Despite having been involved in Moodle for a number of years now, there have still been areas where I have Feared To Tread: Advanced Gradebook being one (but that’s probably more because of the Maths than the Moodle) the Moodle documentation and, most recently, the Moodle tracker. I conquered the fear of the “docs” by having a go and sure enough it got easier- and I am relatively courageous now. The Moodle tracker gave me similar shivers because I didn’t  find it obvious how  to use it and I was afraid I would do it wrong. But again,  it’s simply a question of diving in…

I saw that Helen Foster has been working on documentation about the Moodle tracker here so I was prompted to make a couple of basic screencasts for tracker newbies. Anyone can report an issue if you find one. Here’s how:

 

 

Sorry about the sound by the way – I need a proper microphone! I’ll do one on commenting, voting on and watching issues next time.

Mary Cooch's Space

I am the author of Moodle for Teaching 7-14 Year Olds and also Moodle 2 First Look, both published by Pactkpublishing. A teacher (MFL and geography) for 26 years at Our Lady's High School Preston http://www.olchs.lancs.sch.uk, I also work as a VLE trainer and consultant specialising in Moodle and Mahara. My main Moodle blog is here http://www.moodleblog.net. You can contact me for consultation or training via the training site http://www.ourlearning.co.uk