With all that hard work out of the way, I also feel like maybe finally adding some new content. With all the excitement of Moodle 2 I am sure I can add something interesting for readers.

In the meantime, enjoy the new look and feel and please let me know if you have any suggestions/issues or other feedback to report.

Julian (Moodleman) Ridden

For nearly as long as I have been using Moodle there has been a demand from some sectors (in particular the corporate/enterprise) for the ability within moodle for a more structured framework in e-learning delivery. In Moodle’s traditional model, resources were all laid out and students were either guided through them by a facilitator or they were self paced. In particular this has been great for blended learning environments, but particularly difficult for those who delivery materials purely through online means.

To meet this demand there has been a hack (defined as changes needed to be added to Moodle code) that has been developed by members of the Moodle community to bring this functionality to those who needed it. It was dubbed Activity Locking and has been extremely popular since its first incarnation appeared for Moodle 1.5. The issue with a hack however is that it would break on every Moodle upgrade and required users to manually edit the PHP code within their sites. The demand has been so strong that for quite some time now there has been a dedicated forum on Moodle.org for those users who have wanted to enable such functionality. If your interested in trying it out on your install (which I would recommend holding off if you can instead) you can grab it for 1.9.3+ by clicking here.

But the great thing about Moodle is of course that it is Open Source. The reason I highlight this obvious fact is to point out that most Open Source projects evolve to meet the growing needs of their communities. With the cry for this feature so loud and so long lasting, it has finally found funding and is being developed as a core feature in Moodle 2.0. The new feature is being built by Sam Marshall from Open University with input directly from Moodle.com HQ.

How does it work?

The idea behind conditional activities is that each resource/activity created by a teacher can now have a set of criteria set to it outlining when and how it is to be displayed. Conditional Activities in Moodle are tied closely with another new Moodle2.0 feature called “Completion Tracking“. The criteria a teacher sets in their conditionals is based on where certain activities/resources have been completed. Options that determine completion include:

• # number of new posts or replies in a forum made
• # scored in a quiz
• has created # pages in a wiki or has made # edits
• A user has viewed a resource # number of times
• user has participated in an activity (i.e. has made a choice)
• A completion Criteria can be date based if required
• It can also be set that a student themselves can mark hen they deem the activity completed

So we now have a wide range of diverse completion options. Conditional activities now say that if a student has “completed” an activity/resource (or range of activities/resources) they can then see the newly created one. This may sound confusing but I’ll list my demo below.

Example workflow

Here is the demo that you will also see in a video below. The student is forced through this gauntlet of criteria to work their way through my course. In my demo I created a topic with two web resources, a quiz and a label alerting them to their completion of the topic. through the use of conditionals I have set up the following

• Web Resource Two is visible to the student but blocked. they can’t access it until they view Web Resource One
• Once they have viewed both Web Resources a Topic Quiz will appear as if by magic.
• The Topic Quiz has had a Completion Crieria of 70% set to it. it wont be maked as complete until that percent is reached or exceeded
• One the student scores over 70% in the Topic Quiz a label with a message alerting them of their completion of Topic One appears

This is obviously a very simple workflow but demonstrates how they can be constructed. You can see where in one instance two conditionals had to be met before the quiz appeared. It will really come down to the facilitator as to how complex these workflows can become. Another example could include if failing the quiz that a revision exercise would appear for the student to complete before moving on.

The video walkthrough

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFP_OpLygC4

Sam himself has also loaded two screencasts of his own that show a bit more depth to this functionality.

• Screencast One
• Screencast Two

Remember, if you want to you can sign up for a demo account on the Moodle Playpen Alpha Site and play around with thus new functionality yourself.

Useful Links

• Moodle Playpen Alpha Site
  Test things out for yourself
• Download Moodle 2.0 Alpha
  This is not to be used on live sites. Trust me on that!
• Conditional Activities forum on Moodle.org
  Make sure to add to the discussion on the forums to help shape this function for the finished release
• Full write-up in the MoodleDocs wiki
  All the info you could possibly want on this upcoming feature
• Activity Locking Hack for Moodle 1.9.3+
  Please remember that this involves changing your Moodle’s core code and is not recommended for those who don’t know there way around PHP

A question I hear regularly in my travel from both teachers and Moodle admins alike is “How can I give my student’s parents access to moodle?”. Surprisingly the answer is relatively simple if not a prolonged process.

Before Moodle 1.7 we traditionally had only 6 pre-defined roles. These included:

• Administrator
• Course Creator
• Teacher
• Non-editing Teacher
• Student
• Guest

Of course many situations arose where Admins wanted to create more roles that met their specific requirements. When Moodle 1.7 was released one of the many additions it brought along with it was a new Roles architecture funded mainly by the Open University that finally gave admins the ability to create their own roles with set permissions on demand. And there was much rejoicing (YAY!).

Now I could write a 10 page article on roles, which to put your mind at ease I will not do now. But needless to say the ability to create on demand roles to allow specific functionality for users is a godsend. I have a role to allow a user just the ability to post news on the frontpage, another role for College Directors and so forth. Todays post though will look at creating a Parent Role.

What is a Parent Role?

Here is the situation many of us are faced with. We have parents who want to see their child’s progress inside the LMS. How can this be achieved while maintaining privacy. Here was my list of “Must Haves” and “Must Not Haves.

Must Have:

• Ability to see their child’s marks
• Track their child’s access of materials
• Be able to view their child’s activity
• View content created by their child (forum and blog posts/uploaded assignments)

Must Not Have

• the ability to see other children’s details
• access to course materials. I don’t want my teachers judged by what they have online
• The ability to change or edit their child’s work

Great news is we can create a custom role that will allow us to facilitate this!

Before I go on I also need to talk about where we can apply roles. Most teachers and admins know that roles can be allocated at a course/category/site level. (i.e. admins are site level roles, course creators may be category level roles and teachers are course level roles). But what many admins don’t know is that we can also apply roles at activity and at the user level as well. For parent roles to function we actually add a parent role to a student. This means that parents will only see details for the student/students to which they are attached.

How do we set this up? Well the following is blatantly copied and pasted from the MoodleDocs. If you are not yet already a follower of this brilliant user created wiki for Moodle documentation then where have you been?

Setting up the Role

Creating new roles and allocating permissions is something that only Moodle admins can do. If you only have teacher access I am afraid at this point I have to tell you to not pass Go or collect $200. If you are an admin read on. All of this is also covered in the Moodle tutorial at the bottom of this post.

1. From your homepage’s “Site Administration” menu click on Users > Permissions > Define roles
2. Click the button “Add a new role”
3. Give the role a name e.g. Parent, short name and description

   For the following steps, as the permission list is huge, I find using the browsers built in “find” function invaluable.

5. Change any/all of the following capabilities to allow
   • moodle/user:viewdetails -- to view the childs profile
   • moodle/user:readuserblogs -- to read the child’s blog entries
   • moodle/user:readuserposts -- to read the child’s forum posts
   • moodle/user:viewuseractivitiesreport -- to view the child’s activity reports and grades
   • moodle/user:editprofile -- to edit the child’s profile
6. Click the button “Add a new role”. You now have what is needed for a basic Parent role to function

Assigning the new Role to the Student

Before we go any further I must point out the obvious. The parent needs to have their own account in your Moodle. This means they have their own name and password. The process/policy discussion round this is huge and not one for this post. But lets assume you have it created ok?

1. Either from the course’s participant list or through the search users function in the admin screens access the child’s profile page and click on the Roles tab. This tab allows us to add a new role permission to this student only
2. Choose the role to assign. In this case we will use the “Parent” role we created above
3. Select the parent in the potential users list (remember you can use the search underneath to save time), and use the left-facing arrow button to add it to the existing users list.
4. Your done! No repeat as necessary if that parent has more than one child at your institution.

The Mentees Block

The next question is, now that we have the roles assigned, how does the parent get to their childs profile? The good news is that Moodle has thought of this and has included the “Mentees Block”.

The Mentees block, from Moodle 1.8 onwards, may be added to the site front page or to the My Moodle page. It provides a mentor/parent with quick access to their mentee(s)/child(s) profile page.

To add this block to the site front page:

1. On the site front page click “Turn editing on”
2. Choose Mentees from the Add a block drop-down menu
3. If required, give the Mentees block a different title (e.g. Parent portal) by clicking the edit icon in the blocks header.

To add this block to the My Moodle page:

1. Access My Moodle configuration via Administration > Appearance > Sticky blocks
2. Choose Mentees from the Add a block drop-down menu
3. If required, give the Mentees block a different title (e.g. Parent portal) by clicking the edit icon in the blocks header.

The Video Walkthrough

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJvAy63SqV0

Finishing Up

Note that as mentioned above this role can be used for not just parents but also is well suited to tutor’s, mentors and other supervisory style roles. This is just an introduction to one of the many roles that you can build in Moodle. If you have any oter roles you would like to see covered please detail them in the comments and Ill see what I can do.

Useful Links

• Parent Roles on MoodleDocs
• Other Useful things you can do with roles
• Roles Based discussions on Moodle.org
  

Recently a representative from Packt Publishing contacted me to ask if I was willing to write a review of their newly released book on “Moodle Administration“. To sweeten the deal they even agreed to send me a free copy of the book. Well, not one to turn down my first official freebie I was happy to oblige. But I stressed that sending me the book would not guarantee a positive review as I refuse to sell out (well not unless they sent me a new car or something) my fellow Moodlers. Well after reading the book I see why they were not concerned. So without further ado lets get into the review.

About the Author

“Moodle Administration” is written by Alex Büchner, a co-founder and technical lead with Synergy Learning, the UK’s largest Moodle partner. This to me was an important first step. It means Alex has hands on experience in dealing with the intricacies of Moodle administration. We are not talking theoretical knowledge but experience gained from hands on experience.

Unlike many technical leads I have dealt with, Alex also has the ability to speak in plain English, the ability to translate technical jargon and concepts into language and definitions that makes sense to the average reader. I have not met Alex yet, but hope that when I finally reach a UK moot that I can meet up with him and pick his brains in more depth personally. It is this ability to connect with the author that first made this book a pleasure to read.

About the Book

I want to point out that this book is not just a technical manual. What I was expecting when picking up this book was a series of chapters that outline various Moodle admin functions in a “Step 1: Do this, Step 2: do that” approach. While this would have been perfectly OK and would have made for a useful book, instead they have gone for a more informative approach. Moodle admin is more about putting in a series of settings and policies. It is about understanding why these policies are in place and the thought processes gone through to create them.

It is this vital element that has been missing from other admin books that I have read. Why would I use different methods of Authentication? What is good practice for theme development, How should I set up a server? Do I use a hosted provider or create my own? The author appears to go out of his way to explain the rationale behind various decisions and the impacts that these have on the site and its users.

The book also takes the time to provide some of the information behind how Moodle operates, not just as a product but also as a company. Some time is spent explaining the Moodle rationale, it’s business and development models as well as detailing what a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) is, how moodle fits inside this definition and the skill-sets required for an effective VLE administrator.

The technical side of the book that does go down the “Step 1: Do this, Step 2: do that” model does so in a logical and not overly detailed manner. Each step is clearly stated and explained while not going into stupid levels of depth. Useful screen grabs and tips are dispersed throughout these pages as well to add additional explanation and to clarify potentially confusing steps.

So, to sum up. . . .

Having read this book I now intend to not only recommend it strongly to others, but I also hope to find a way to factor it in price wise as part of my Moodle training kits whenever I run face to face Administration training.

This book is a detailed, well thought out and a very thorough walkthrough of the Moodle administration process from the early decision making processes through to final deployment and management and as such is the only book of it’s kind currently on the market. While others go into the details of “how”, this is the first book I have seen that takes the time out to explain “Why”.

Useful Links

• Order This Book Online
• Packt Publishing (you will need to do a search for moodle to get all their books)
• About Alex Büchner (profile on Moodle.org)
• Synergy Learning Website (UK Moodle Partner)

Have something Moodle related you would like reviewed? Use the contact form to drop me a line. Remember I respond well to new Porches

Just a short post today to advertise and link to a new Dashboard widget I built over the weekend.

In preparation for some hardcore iPhone developing I hope to start doing (please note it is a large amount of hope matched by little talent) I started playing around with Apples SDK kit on the weekend.

The simplest project I could come up with to start my “development” education was to build a Dashboard widget for OSX. Sorry Vista suckers, this is for Mac’s only.

Building an RSS driven widget in the SDK is a very simple task. In fact I had my first version of this up and running in 15 minutes. I was amazed. But I decided I really wanted a challenge. So rather than having it driven and displaying content from one feed I thought “what about multiple feeds?”. Also, “How about the option to see headings or the whole article?” I believe I was able to meet these lofty goals in my new widget. Currently it can display:

• Latest News
• Latest Modules and Plugins
• Latest Themes

I also hope to have feeds from this blog running in it as well very shortly.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy5pm7ImpcM

So if you are a Mac OSX user and want the latest Moodle updates streamed to your Dashboard, click here and grab the widget today. Please leave reviews/suggestions in the comments and Ill work on improving it. Also be sure to tell others as I see this widget as a great way a spreading the word about Moodle to others. Where is Blackboards widget…hmmmm?

I wrote a little while back on this blog about how I used the MrCute (Moodle Repository Create Upload Tag Embed) IMS code to add a IMS/SCORM repository for TLF Learning Objects to my Moodle site. The advantage offered here over the standard IMS moodle resource was the ability for my staff to search for Learning Objects. This added database powered indexed search finally made these TLF objects accessible to many of the staff where before they just had to manually trawl through 1500 objects.

While the MrCute code certainly worked as advertised, it did have flaws. The biggest of these being that it over-wrote existing Moodle code (a big no no in my book) which made it a pain after upgrades and its interface was not the best.

Well the team at Worcester College of Technology and Learning Objectivity under the lead of Richard Goddard have not been resting on their laurels. Ever since the release of the first code they have been listening to feedback and working on their latest version, imaginatively called MrCute2.

The new version is still Open Source and the entire development process has been completely transparent and open to comments from the public. The new development has seen the resource developed as stand alone code rather than the old over-write method and also has focused on creating a cleaner, simpler interface.

While you cannot grab this code for yourself as it is not due for release till mid March next year, they are looking for users to test and provide feedback on their demo site. I have thrown together a brief video below to show some of the progress but I would recommend you visit their test site and try it our for yourself.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AflVTWWBCU

Additional Links

• The original Moodleman Blog Post on MrCute
• MrCute2 Development Information
• MrCute2 Test Area (You will need to sign up. It is free)
• Provide feedback to the developers on MrCute2
• The demo video on YouTube

Over the last month I found myself presenting at not one, but two moots. the first was the Australian Moodle Moot in Brisbane, the second was the New Zealand Moodle Moot in Napier.

At both Moots I found myself presenting on how I use the “Podcast” Module at Riverview to deploy podcasts (and Vodcasts) to our students. The trial last term was such a success that I now struggle to keep up with the needs of staff.

I have created a video of this presentation and also attached to it a demo of how the module operates to give you all a taste of how this could possibly work for you within your own educational institution.

After both Moots interest from participants on podcasting within Moodle was so high that it was decided a new Podcasting forum would be set up on Moodle.org to allow educators and administrators to talk more about this online.

When thinking of the Podcasting path I urge teachers and decision makers within Institutions to also think about the implications of licensing. A Podcast by design publishes into the public domain. I recommend looking into Creative Commons licensing alternatives. There are different flavors that allow you to assign the version that best suits your need. They have also now designed a variant aimed directly at the education market called ccLearn

Additional Links

• Download the Podcast Module
• Download the iPodcast Module
• New Podcast Discussion forum on Moodle.org
• Link to Creative Commons Licensing info for education

Well what an experience the past 3 days proved to be. I thought I would try my hand at live-blogging the MoodleMoot NZ08 event as I knew I had many followers that would be interested. In fact, over the past week my number of followers increased sharply. (many thanks to you all, I hope you enjoyed it).

Live blogging in Twitter is a dangerous method as you risk over twittering your audience. I did loose a few people, however the feedback from many was to keep going. This blog post serves as a transcript of the past couple of days. I hope you find the content as useful as I did

Julian (aka moodleman)

	jsridden : off to bed. 5:30am start for flighht to NZ for #moodlemootNZ . Will liveblog again where possible. Wee you on the other side
	jsridden : Nice healthy breakfast. All low fat here http://snipurl.com/44o5q
	mister_peterman : @jsridden I want that! Stupid me not eating breakfast. The girl next to me on the bus is eating vegemite on toast. So hungry
	jsridden : Finally boarded and on my way to #moodlemootnz08 http://snipurl.com/44q5i
	betchaboy : @jsridden was just trying get all the MoodleMoot gossip from you blog… You there for ULearn?
	betchaboy : @jsridden btw, the new blog layout is intruiging! Is that just a WordPress theme? It’s awesome!
	MoodleMootNZ08 : @jsridden Welcome to Napier, Julian!
	jsridden : just arrived at #moodlemootnz08 and having my morning beverage. I am so tired. Need sleep. Napier is gorgous though. Ill liveblog what I can
	tabitharoder : @jsridden yes, liveblog keynotes
	jsridden : receiving traditional welcome and waiata at #moodlemootnz08 . The NZ culture is so welcoming.
	jsridden : martinD (aka #moodler ) now starting his keynote
	jsridden : MartinD expressing how he too finds NZ very welcoming.
	jsridden : keynote will discuss the moodle project, pedagogy, roadmap and some demo’s at the end. Cant twitter demos.
	jsridden : MartinS takes center stage at #moodlemootnz08 http://snipurl.com/46tly
	jsridden : impressive stats as always 50,000 registered sites in 199 countries.
	jsridden : It’s a full house. Audience is buzzing http://snipurl.com/46tok
	jsridden : 500,000 registered moodle.org members. 1500 new accounts each day. just over a third are teachers
	tabitharoder : @jsridden the photos are great! keep them coming!
	jsridden : Yay. He is talking about moots at moots. MartinD is on a 5 moot bender. I am jealous http://snipurl.com/46ts6
	jsridden : /me thinks that last tweet was possibly in the “Too much info” category and appologises
	jsridden : manages bugs, new ideas and ongoing development with project targets.
	jsridden : Retweet @tabitharoder: #moodler promotes docs.moodle.org – a wiki of documentation for moodle – at the #mmnz08
	onlineteacher : @jsridden Thanks 4 all teh Moodle info … I haven’t been 2 the Orange House (virtually) in a while *:-) Say hi to your wife via iChat *:-)
	jsridden : importance of elearning, like a real classroom, is flexibility and adaptability.
	jsridden : Step 3: Start using assignments ad quizzes. Basic assesment tools and simple online activity
	jsridden : Step 7: Teachers think deeper about the learning activities and how they are deployed. More engaging activities created
	tabitharoder : @jsridden no, keep tweeting, this is good, cant read slides properly so good that you write!
	jsridden : Step 9: Use of tools like workshop to establish peer-to-peer based activities and assesment
	jsridden : now showing how to request new features in Moodle with the Moodle tracker. A must for all moodle users. Vote for what you want. You can …
	jsridden : Every few months there are Hackfests. Moodle devs get together to work on code and resolve issues.
	lenva : @jsridden – following your updates while here at #ulearn08 – wish I was at both too
	jsridden : /me chants “you learn, I learn, we all learn at ULearn”. Catchy huh?
	sirchriss : @jsridden That cloning thing would be handy huh? I’ve the reverse problem to you. Even locally there’s too many good choices. #ulearn08
	jsridden : moodle 2.0 will allow students to browse photos from flickr and bring them into moodle. ALso alows to send images from moodle to flickr
	jsridden : Retweet @tabitharoder: is anyone tweeting at ulearn08? they can follow, we can follow?
	jsridden : new portfolio system allows users to send forum posts, assignments, blogs, etc to a portfolio system.
	jsridden : If you havent heard me rambling allready. You must check out mahara.org An Open Source, custum built portfolio system aimed at secondary ed!
	jsridden : Retweet @sirchriss: “Hooray! we do need a new schooling concept. MOre and more influential people are getting that.” I so agree!
	jsridden : moving on from Moodle 2.0 – increased Pedagogical support and usability (BINGO!…ahem, sorry about that)
	jsridden : OMG, did MartinD just mention Blackboard compatability as a goal? Well, I guess you cant go forward without looking backward
	GianninaRossini : @jsridden Blackbored?! Shock Horror!!
	jsridden : The Moodle.dog is currently called Mr Ninja! Is that because he hopes it is silent??
	mbogle : @jsridden Good luck!
	jsridden : MartinS hobknobbing as usual http://snipurl.com/46vqq
	jsridden : Morning tea. Hmmmmmm. Time to recharge my conference venue http://snipurl.com/46vuu
	vaughany : @jsridden Moodle 2.0 is gonna be **so** kick-ass. I have my work cut out trying to build a case even for contemplating a different VLE!
	jsridden : Now a talk on how Eastern institute Tafe are using Moodle.
	jsridden : Joyce is speaking, but has brought her entire team as well. Should be a good tlk. Will liveblog the intersting points
	jsridden : EIT had an unstructured start. are findung it difficult to measure usage and effectiveness
	jsridden : @sirchriss well, who can aurgue with the Trump..hmmmm
	jsridden : internet has gone flaky on me…sorry for lack of posts Sadly some awesome content Im not posting.
	jsridden : EIT had a great “Pimp my course” program that was very successful. Nice idea to encourage teacher activity
	jsridden : @betchaboy I am at the NZ Moodle Moot or also known as #moodlemootnz08
	jsridden : great point .Never forget what your audience is capable of. If they dont have broadband, dont use too much media. Simple but often forgotten
	jsridden : I hate the “digital immigrant” stereotype, but students are certainly now expecting online content. Am I wrong to dislike the term?
	tabitharoder : @jsridden I not that keen on digital immigrant / native stereotypes either, are we not all living in the same age?
	jsridden : Chemistry lecturer now speaking (specialised in Wine) I want to do this course. Describes herself as not an expert, but her work looks great
	jsridden : I can study making wine at tafe?? My gift for presenting is a bottle of chardonnay made by the students. I could live here quite happily!
	jsridden : courses at EIT (feeling mischeivous, should I add a J…nahhh) are using a diverse mix of activities and resources to engage students.
	jsridden : following me at #moodlemootnz08, also look at @wcel and @tabitharoder for more tweets.
	jarruzza : @jsridden You are not wrong sir! I dislike the whole ‘Digital immigrant / native’ paradigm, and do not subscribe to it one jot.
	jsridden : Forums setup from the start for informal discussion. Strong emphasis on getting the students to know each other. Very important step
	jsridden : @jarruzza what happened..are you sick? You have gone all blue?
	deangroom : @jsridden no kids were not born to txt or type they learn it. Hate that term too.
	jsridden : blended course to “add” value, not for sake of it. – Another often missed point
	jsridden : I am thrilled that over the last year there has been a growing trend to re-evalutaing how we teach with technology.
	jsridden : It is refreshing to see this re-evaluation suported so widly by educators in general at all levels.
	jsridden : they have found the journal to be the most enlightening tool they have ver used. Forums were too public for many opinions.
	jsridden : Retweet @tabitharoder: their way of getting participation – giving marks for using activities
	jsridden : arrggghhhh 15 minutes of power left
	deangroom : @jsridden journals are v important reflective writing tools. Kids ask questions in forums. Both needed to spur on conversational learning
	jsridden : current teach focuses hugely on engagement by using fun activities. Made it not feel like education (sound like a familiar technique)?
	jsridden : session now finishing up. I will go quiet now as it is my turn to present my “Turbo charging moodle” Preso. It is on slideshare if u want it
	jsridden : looses alot though as it is really all about the demo’s which happen outisde of powerpoint
	rhysatwork : @jsridden BOL for your preso. Thanx for the conference tweets
	mauricecummins : @jsridden moodlemootNZ tweets great. Thankx for looping us in too.
	jsridden : Enjoying lunch at #moodlemootnz08 http://snipurl.com/471z0
	jsridden : listening to @tabitharoder talking moodle glassaries
	moTik : @jsridden Hi Julian, thanks again for the tweets.
	jsridden : /me is wishing he could afford to get to NECC . yould love to have presented there. some awesome presenters applying there this year.
	jsridden : I also appologise for those who have been flooded by my tweets. Feel free to unfollow till next week. Im not offended
	jsridden : group participation tasks really liven up an educator based audience. Must remember this for the next one I write.
	jsridden : @tabitharoder is now photographing her own workshop. Smile http://snipurl.com/472g8
	jsridden : so many here have not seen sloodle (secondlife moodle integration). You must check out this project http://www.sloodle.org
	jsridden : Retweet @sirchriss: Rate of change of education development just described as “twitter speed”. #ulearn08
	moTik : @jsridden Virtual Worlds = Higher-end Web 2.0 maybe?
	jsridden : Tabatha now showing moodle databases. Extremely powerful yet underused tool. No where near as scary as most ppl think’
	jsridden : about to present again. This time doing the “Podcasting in Moodle” preso again. Should be fun.
	jsridden : for those after the pres you can find it in my youtube channel.
	catspyjamasnz : No apology needed for your plethora @jsridden!
	jsridden : now watching stuart mealor present on social network based learning
	jsridden : RT @wcel: #mmnz08 Stuart ‘selling’ benefit of iPhone in education
	jsridden : moodle 2.0 and onward is looking towards social based learning. Can moodle be the new student facebook?
	tabitharoder : @jsridden random thought… custom profile – add twitter field? what do you think?
	deangroom : @jsridden how about calling it a ‘study network’ not social network – more schoolie and less confronting to muggles, I mean teachers.
	russell : @jsridden I hope moodle is paying you per-tweet today…
	jsridden : @deangroom agree and disagree. Studdy space would immediatly put a barrier to students. But is a good point you raised. Who is the focus?
	jsridden : RT @tabitharoder: so twitterers are in all three presentations now? #mmnz08 stories from everywhere!
	jsridden : @motik additional thought in last post. Can we control the beast of social networking to do our will in a classroom? I really dont know.
	jsridden : Should we expect students not 2 use social networking knowing that we as adults can allready see such relevance?
	jsridden : nice quote “Creativity is when the teacher and the learner are in the same body…”
	catspyjamasnz : @jsridden @bookjewel did a blog post on PLN Reflections http://tinyurl.com/4tn2et
	deangroom : @jsridden yeah I think teachers won’t let go of their comtol perceptions. Ive had greater buy in with the word study in it so far
	lasic : @jsridden @moodlehotpotato would love your take on http://tinyurl.com/4xewa9, no pressure though. Thx
	jsridden : @catspyjamasnz great bog post. Il be sure to keep reading
	jsridden : /me is feeling like “a delicate flower” that needs powerful sunglasses after last nights drinks. Why Moodle and Mohitos??
	jsridden : moodle2/mahara portfolio integration apparetly now fixed in head. Downloading latest GIT version now. Wish me luck
	mjollnir : @jsridden good luck!
	moodlehotpotato : @jsridden – local moot in UK? there isn’t one this year
	DBMandrake : @jsridden Good luck
	jsridden : @mjollnir ohhh, do keep me in the loop. Becoming quite the mahara advocate. Been picking on Nigel for all his bugs..I would stop but its fun
	jsridden : off to my next session. cant belive we are nearly finished at #moodlemootnz08
	digitalmaverick : @jsridden – if you are there @moodlemootnz – please say hi to Martin from me
	jsridden : Very funny video. Preso off to a good start http://snipurl.com/4820i
	ryanbretag : @jsridden is that video (why Moodle quizzes should be used) posted anywhere online?
	ryanbretag : @jsridden I very much appreciate it. Enjoy the show
	jsridden : Now seeing demo of captivate. An essential tool in any trainers toolkit (pc only) http://snipurl.com/482w2
	jsridden : If you develop training vids on a mac then use Screenflow. Awesome app
	lenva : @jsridden – also look at Silverback for Macs – fantastic
	moodlehotpotato : I feel like I have been at whole of moodlemoot nz with @jsridden‘s tweets
	jsridden : Captivate can also do branching videos for roleplay or senario activities. Cool! http://snipurl.com/483aa
	jsridden : @lenva thanx for that. I’ll check it out.
	jsridden : Some did not survive the conference dinner . I feel so much better now http://snipurl.com/4846h
	jsridden : RT @tabitharoder: #mmnz08 phone goes off in preso and a rude word came out (giggle)
	jsridden : Lunch time at #moodlemootnz08 http://snipurl.com/485bc
	jsridden : now sitting in session re: moodle networking at #moodlemootnz08
	jsridden : multiple technology colleges are networking to share content.
	jsridden : objectives include: cost splitting amongst colleges, greater variety, increased resource collection, better value to colleges and students
	jsridden : Their network project from woe-to go is 12 months. The project is operated through “The Tertiary Accord of NZ”
	jsridden : Noodle networking project timeline http://snipurl.com/487bs
	jsridden : RT @tabitharoder: #mmnz08 – TANZ dealing with coordination and communication issues – consider group dynamics and provide support
	jsridden : Moodle networking allows students access 2 resources from several colleges while still seeing their existing college brand.Important feature
	jsridden : Off topic – The Univ of Canterbury wants their students to help decide which LMS to use. Funiest Moodle vid ever: http://tinyurl.com/3bjko2
	jsridden : RT @tabitharoder: #mmnz08 TANZ – wanted interface to be same for students, want brand template to follow student
	jsridden : Templates EIT use are clean and simple. Never understomate the power of a clean interface http://snipurl.com/487rq
	jsridden : /me appolgizes again for spelling errors. Speed and accuracy with me seldom go together.
	jsridden : Offtopic – what happened to the DOW. Rescue package having oposite effect. Wall Street’s Dow has now fallen below 8600 …WOAHH!
	jsridden : managaging students on networked sites involves alot more work. Who owns the student in a shared moodle?
	jsridden : Finally! #moodlemootnz08 images coming into Flickr. Hope more attendees will add theirs: http://tinyurl.com/4hpadx
	jsridden : Sometime I amaze myself with my level of maturity http://www.flickr.com/photo…
	jsridden : ownership and co-ordination key to success of moodl networking. Does this really work within the beurocracy of a typical edu institution?
	jsridden : another secret to succesful moodle networking is celar guidlines from the beginning. Anohter good point.
	jsridden : Tghe power to share content amongst educational communities is awesome. More work should be done to bring moodles of a similar ilk together.
	jsridden : New presentation at #moodlemootnz08 re: FLAX . Interested on integration ideas with Moodle
	jsridden : FLAX stands for Flexible Language Acquisition System – Now you know
	tabitharoder : @jsridden I can twitter during panel for you Julian
	assistivetek : @jsridden Are you evaluating Captivate 3? Take a look at this post http://tinyurl.com/4duo3f
	jsridden : Content word guessing is a group task for FLAX where students compete to fill in the missing words http://snipurl.com/4890g
	jsridden : /me is looking forward to installing FLAX and experimenting with the possibilities. Could be used very well in Secondary and Tertiary st …
	jsridden : FLAX interface is reasonableclean and intuitive for teachers.
	jsridden : Just added FLAX to my del.icio.us links. A project well worth following I think if you teach langauges inan online or blended environment
	jsridden : @mikejisrael LOL. its just like your car always stops rattling the moment you get to a mechanic..damn “they”. Damn “they” to hell
	jsridden : Sometimes I shouldn’t ask http://snipurl.com/48agv
	jsridden : Heading in for our last session at #moodlemootnz08 , the panel http://snipurl.com/48b5d
	jsridden : Who on a panel takes photos? Honestly! http://snipurl.com/48b6a
	jsridden : the #moodlemootnz08 is sadly over. Brilliantly run, fantastic speakers. Sorry some of you missed it. Now I have to go back home

As many of you reading this blog probably know, Moodle 2.0 sees the inclusions of two new API’s that will change how Moodle is used by educators. The first is the Portfolio API being worked on by Penny Leach and her team to allow for third party Portfolio additions and the second is the Repository API.

The Repository API will allow Moodle to pull data in and store information from external repositories. In the Alpha release so far we have seen tie-ins with Flickr to allow for students and teachers to use files from a Flickr Source.

Well today was a big day for me because Martin D (the man!) has announced that Alfresco will be available as Moodle Repository out-of-the-box when Moodle 2 is released.

“I can safely say this plug-in will be in the 2.0 release.” -- Martin Dougimas

Obviously this is great news for many of us. (P.S. Martin of course has the right to retract this remark as development schedules change. He had just better not because I really want this)

Not herd of Alfresco before? Alfresco is an Open Source document management system that specializes in:

• Document Management
• Web Content Management
• Collaboration
• Knowledge Management
• Records Management
• Image Management

More information can be found at http://www.alfresco.com.

The reason this makes me so excited is that one of my biggest issues has always been document control inside the LMS. Who owns wht document? Which is the right version? Who made these stupid changes last? Alfresco allows to control this far more effectvely.

Stay tuned for more info as I find it.

Useful Links

• Alfresco Website
• Moodle Docs on the Repository API
• Repository discussions on Moodle.org
• Vote for this on the Moodle Tracker

Additional Info

Here is a movie describing many of the core functions within Alfresco.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=79txyMDEd00

Hi all and welcome to the new Moodleman blog.

Up until recently I was based over at Edublogs and loved every minute of it. In fact, if you are an educator wanting a quick and easy way into blogging I could not recommend them highly enough. But as my skills have grown I have wanted to branch out on my own and develop a more advanced blog design. And since you are here you have obviously found it.

There are some great new features on this site including:

• A new custom format just for iPhone/iTouch users. Go one, check it out!
• A new podcast engine. I am not making use of it yet, but I soon will be
• Full integration with the new DISQUS comments engine
• Better integration of video
• And more to come.

If you are having any issues please make sure to leave comments in this post for me to check and hopefully fix.

Hope to see more of you soon.

Julian (aka Moodleman)