May 10 2006

Well another Module almost over….

As someone suggested this one seemed to go faster than the first Module. Maybe the very large practical element to the course might have meant that this seemed more enjoyable but harder work..now comes the assignment -aarrghhh!

Must start setting targets I think:-

1) Add final assignment, lessons. Check marking scheme is working. Check Gismo finally works. Sort out groups so that different groups can use course at same time without knowing. Javascript frontpage image so different ones show?
2)Finish finally the Moodle course by 16/05, and then email and publicise to Masters Students.

3) Select one teacher and one student to do walk-through -although this will be artificial as course is meant to be summer course. Walkthroughs finished by 18/05

4)Outline for assignment with headings to Karon 23/05

Hmmm thats enough targets for me now.

By drtech • Delicious Links • Comments Off on Well another Module almost over….

May 7 2006

Initial Student Feedback…

Well have begun introducing the environment to the students. As this is going to be used as a blended environment sat down and demoed the Moodle environment and how to log-on etc. Then sent students away to log-on and play with the environment and then fill in a simple questionnaire about the design and layout of the site. Check out the .pdf to see a quick analysis of the comments.
Questionaire results for design and navigation

Has some nice early indicators and I seem to have at least made the site workable on a small 12″ monitor with low resolution if nothing else. Gismo the student tracker is not working at the moment..which I will need to look into.

Unfortunately as the course is meant to be summer based I do not think it will be easy for me to say if learning and the quality of learning that has taken place? Will use one student who has more time e.g. not a GCSE student to do a complete run through over a period of a couple of days and then use him to produce at least some kind of indication.

Must setup the course so other Masters students can have a go, maybe will copy course and change questionnaires to reflect this so can get feedback from a different section of users, even if ones that the course and Moodle were not designed for.

On a completely different note talked to a few students about pod-casting as I had placed a pod-cast for use as a revision tool (not made by me I hasten to add) and discussion was interesting whether this would be a tool most students would like to use? Will need further investigation.

By drtech • Delicious Links • Comments Off on Initial Student Feedback…

May 7 2006

Delicious links for 2006-05-07

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May 4 2006

Delicious links and IE gripes..

Well at the moment in constant battles to try and get both the Moodle and the Studentblog to be cross browser compliant and also able to be viewed on the smallest monitor with bad resolution. To put it bluntly its a nightmare. And I think a process that will take a lot longer than the weekend. And the weekend is the final amount of time I am giving myself to solve usability issues and also finish off the actual course, lessons and questionaires so that test pupils can try the course in a blended setting on Sunday and during next week.

Will then need to start following up with analysis of usage and learning using a few different evaluation techniques. Hopefully the following:-

*Expert walk through from another ICT Teacher – with analysis from questionaires and interview.

*Sample usage from selected group of students – maximum of 5. With feedback from course questionaire and ‘gizmo’ addin module of advanced usability statistics. And scores on the doors from the course marking in Moodle.
*Heuristic analysis – which to use I do not know yet.

*Review of comments from posting site for other Masters students.

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May 2 2006

Delicious links for 2006-05-02

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Apr 30 2006

Screencasting Over…

Well finally spent a whole day finishing off the screencasting, which became easier maybe due to my realisation that trying to reach a perfect ‘cast’ was impossible and the more relaxed the better as it might actually enhance the learning experience for the user.

Heres another sample from my Bloglines section. There are still problems of the size of teh file for streaming over a 56Kb dial up connection. BUT most students that I have asked on the ICT courses at the school have an ADSL connection.

Now am concentrating on adding more ‘constructivist’ elements to the other parts of the course, including the NumSum interactive spreadsheet assignment and the use of Lessons , Wikis and Assignments.

Other problems have included the usability of the site on a variety of resolutions and sizes of monitors. I have tested on some very small monitors recently and reduced the graphic front logo still further and some of the embedded graphics. I think I will change the banner graphic to improve consistency.

Aiming for the students to test and try course, from mid next week 9th May. Ready for final testing of scenarios and readying for presentations to my Masters group.

Nearly there :)~

By drtech • Moodle • Comments Off on Screencasting Over…

Apr 30 2006

Delicious links for 2006-04-30

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Apr 27 2006

Delicious links for 2006-04-27

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Apr 26 2006

Nice to be chatting again..

Well it was nice to get back to FirstClass and chatting. Interesting to see other Masters participants sites including Will’s and Dan’s , both of which are looking very good probably a little more professional than mine but maybe that is due to the type of user I am designing for and obviously the type of WIBBLY / course based constructivist that I am aiming for. Did find that the more I am designing my WIBBLY and playing with new Web 2.0 tools the more frustrating it is becoming using FirstClass though. Where is the shared-bookmark feed, clips from web-pages and blog-aggregator within FirstClass to maybe make the collaborative experience more genuine? Answers on a postcard please?
Will’s ‘favicon’ inspired me to sort out that wee thing, to brighten up the browser search bar. Something I had never down before. Favicon

Still putting off the screencasting, although came across a really fun one which made me think about how smooth and professional do I want it to be, when this one both amused me and got the message across. Check it out at Alex Barnett’s Blog . He introduces you to a new tool called immedi.at which links Instant Messaging to RSS feeds. Its fab and would link into my ideas for the Moodle of a connectivist nature and interlinking of the sending of chunks of information. BUT it does work, but shall we say is a little temperamental…so whether I include it as a tool to use in the AS Applied ICT Intro course I don’t know. Could be fun to include that as one person adds a bookmark to the group del.icio.us account that it then sends a message to anyone who is online that this has been published!!!

My other stumbling block is the use of content and whether I can embed or add some .pdf documents or not. Some from ‘Educause’ that I want to use as reading seem to suggest that I can use the documents for educational purposes as long as it is explicit where the documents came from. So I’ll go for it, but there seem many pitfalls to online copyright.

Have also taken the criticism of some early visitors to my Moodle site, that it is made for high resolution large monitors. By decreasing mainly the size of the opening page graphic…..lets see if it helps, I need to find a low resolution monitor somewhere?

Okay see if this gets sent to my IM account……fingers crossed…

UPDATE – It works….just click on the ‘Monitor This’ – e.g the ROBOT image button and have a go yourself….

By drtech • Moodle, Planning / WBLE • Comments Off on Nice to be chatting again..

Apr 24 2006

Feedburner and more….

Well the cleaner scuppered any chances of screencasting today..so spent my time adding widgets, counters and the like to the website.

Feedburner has been of great help to manage feeds from my del.icio.us account and blogs, and enables you to produce and paste code to show little widgets of the latest feeds to those accounts e.g.
Your ALASdivide Delicious Tags

This is for the feed that all students will collaboratively tag any websites that they think are useful for their ‘Digital Divide’ research.

Tomorrow I promise myself screencasting.

Just added a little choon to hum that has been getting me through all this work.

Standard Podcast [ 4:56 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By drtech • Delicious Links, Planning / WBLE • Comments Off on Feedburner and more….

Apr 24 2006

Delicious links for 2006-04-24

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Apr 23 2006

CSS styles again…

Well spent most of the day finally theming my Moodle, adding logos etc etc. For some reason I picked my Granny’s favourite colour ‘green’ as the main theme of the site – which I am not sure if it works but to tell you the truth I have learnt a great deal from continually messing around with the style sheets in Moodle which will enable me to be able to change things easier and quicker next time. That is the wonderful thing I can do that without effecting any of the content anytime and any place. Obviously in the long term students and teachers can also alter the theming and stylesheets maybe from a small range to feel ownership of their learning and teaching experience.

Typically it seems one part of the style sheet does not work in Internet Explorer but does in Firefox – arrgghhhh! Will try to figure that out tomorrow if I can. Have added loads of get Firefox signs to main page, but also know at my school, all computers only have Firefox enabled so most of the GCSE and AS students that will be using this course are used to the ‘better’ browser.

logoscreenshot2.jpg

screenshotlatesthomepage2.jpg
Obviously check the website to see the graphics in situ I could keep messing for another month, but its time to move on and begin to finalise the rest of the main parts of the course.

A little worrying that I can only see Will’s progress via his blog, must say am a little dissapointed at the lack of a ‘community of practice’ that has seemingly not evolved with this unit. Is this due to its practicality? OR due to the fact that alot of the students are based in Leeds for this unit and so see each other face-to-face???

Anyways, will be back to screencasting tommorrow, and hope to finish my two main screencasts by the night – on del.icio.us and bloglines. Must then add the lessons and assignments………hmmmm…have just checked my Gant chart and can safely say I am behind. Evaluation, I am hoping there will be some willing students who are not too involved in their GCSE revision to help me along.

By drtech • Moodle, Planning / WBLE • Comments Off on CSS styles again…

Apr 23 2006

Delicious links for 2006-04-23

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Apr 22 2006

Delicious links for 2006-04-22

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Apr 21 2006

Delicious links for 2006-04-21

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