Moodle: On Chats and Time

Here's an exchange I had with a teacher in our building regarding chats:

Chris,  Another Moodle question:  I have set up a chat for tomorrow at 8:05--how do I limit the duration of it?  I only want it to last for 5-6 minutes.

 

Dawn

*** 

Dawn,

I typically don't have a limit on chats...just in case students don't get in on time, etc. It seems that it takes a few moments to get things rolling and all. Also, I usually set the chat to save the transcript and allow everyone to see the transcript...it makes for an interesting "reflection" as you go back and as a class, see what happened in the chat.

 

The current version of our Moodle doesn't have a time control on chats...not sure if the newer ones do.

 

How are you using the chat in your class (just curious)?

 

Peace,

Chris

********

Today I have 1/3 of my class that need to make up a paycheck stub quiz; the other students will be reading an article I saved in Moodle about college admissions checking Facebook & MySpace during the application process.  We've discussed that issue with job applications.  Then I thought I would have them chat about it :)  That's why the short time. 

 

In the Moodle class this summer one comment was made that we should set a time limit because students will often continue with the chat beyond class time and you don't want it to go on & on.  That's why I thought there was a feature to set a time limit.  However, in my Moodle handouts I couldn't find anything about setting an ending time.

Dawn

******* 

Dawn,

Sounds like in interesting article...I think I read about that "FB/MyS" as app process online. Sometimes it takes a bit to get things "happening" within the chat and if I'm asking for first impressions on a reading from individuals, I have Ss post their response on a social forum topic (say, 3 sentences of reflection). Then, I'll have folks jump into the chat so that they feel like they've got something to bring to the group. A cool wrap-up is to have students then edit their original SForum post and add to their original post reflection on what was "said" in the chat.

 

But, that's a 25-minute chunk of time and it looks like you're wanting the Ss (and you) to try out some of the features of the Moodle site. Either way, it makes for good follow-up conversation afterward when you look at the chat transcript...very cool.

 

Oh, btw, there isn't a timer for the newest version of chat. The good thing is that there's timestamping for all chat entries and you could see who didn't fulfill your directions .

 

Peace,

Chris

Installing Squeak on the eeePC

And I'm not going to gloat, but I still am having so much fun with my little eeePC 4g. I've already "rescued" the hard drive as I felt like I needed a clean slate after dumping so many things onto the 4 gb hard drive (which, by the way, was not a difficult process).

I think I decided that this was not my primary computer and that I didn't need to trick out everything and install a lot of different linux distros...I still run the default Xandros light OS and have added some deb-based packages, but for the most part, I'm using the eeePC to access apps on the web (which, btw, I use Opera over the Firefox--Opera seems much more spunky).

Anyway, tonight I wanted to install Squeak (a FOSS smalltalk environment) and started with my usual Google of how to do it for the eeePC and the procedure is pretty much the same for other flavors of Unix/Linux: add a site to the depository, do a apt-get update and then install the deb. package. And Squeak is no different: I found the directions on the Squeak site and things worked as I wanted them to. In fact, I like this rendering of Squeak on the eeePC more than the one on my eMac (man, I have two computers that like that initial "e").

So there it is: a low-cost, low-impact computer that can still be a very useful laptop.

Episode 19: You can't reform education with technology

This week's podcast begins with a comment by Former Secretary of Labor William Brock in the Sunday Parade Magazine:
I explain my issues with his response to fixing American schools in his quote:

First, we have to agree that we have a problem. In the last 25 years, spending has risen 240% while performance has barely changed. Only 68% of students graduate from high school, and many states require only eighth-grade skills in reading and math to get a diploma.

The statistics are probably from The New Commission on the Skills of the America Workforce (in which he is chairman). The problem is that it is difficult to find the research or the survey that these numbers are based on. I would really like to find out the accuracy of the second sentence, because it is so loaded (but I could not find it on the New Commission site).

Some of the most interesting business models have come from the spirit of the "In Search of Excellence" theme (Peters et al) and I think a recent example of how business can work in an exciting way (instead of the typical "top-down" approach) is from American Airlines and here's the NPR report that describes the new leadership (from two years ago).

Living on the CLI: Setting up email

~/cjudson $ pine
I made a list of things (or reasons) why I use my computer and most of
that list had something to do with communication with others. At the top
was email and since I had already been running mutt (clean text-based mail
reader that is a step above typing "mail" at the prompt but with lots of
improvements) and I thought I might give Pine (or Alpine) another try. I
gave up on Pine because I use GMail as my main source for connections to
the world and for some reason there's lots of steps to setting up Pine to
read and send GMail.

And so, I turned off the cron job for fetchmail and searched out the
answer to the question "How do I set up Pine for GMail?" And after some
tweaking, I got it to work. The better site that gave me most of my
answers was a post from virtualmyles2 tracked on ObjectMix.com
(http://objectmix.com/pine/326840-pine-gmail.html). I'm going to use what
virtualmyles2 wrote and add one change from my setup from this morning.
(Translation: Credit the above url for providing the info, only me for my
two contributions).

1. First enable IMAP on your Google account!!!
-Log into Google and click "settings",
-Click "Forwarding and POP/IMAP"
-Under IMAP Access click "Enable IMAP"

# Chris says "Whenever you see your.username at gmail, Google identifies
your username as username@google.com. So, it's your entire GMail email
address, not just the stuff before @google.com. Just remember:
user=your_username@google.com"

2. Your .pinerc needs to
be "something" like this:

user-id=your.username at gmail.com
user-domain=gmail.com

#Here's my other contribution: you need the "/novalidate-cert" Pine will
tell this when you try to send something the first time...that's how I
found out about it.

(all on one line)<= This is very important; it should be on one line.

smtp-server=smtp.gmail.com:587/tls/user=your.username at
gmail.com/novalidate-cert

(all on one line)<= This is very important; it should be on one line.

inbox-path={imap.gmail.com:993/ssl/novalidate-cert/user=your.username
at gmail.com}INBOX

(all on one line)<= This is very important; it should be on one line

incoming-folders=your.username at gmail.com {imap.gmail.com:993/
novalidate-cert/ssl/user=your.username at gmail.com}
(you probably have to check "enable-incoming-folders" in your Pine
Setup, Config as well)

(all on one line)<= This is very important; it should be on one line.

folder-collections="your.username at gmail.com" {imap.gmail.com:993/
ssl/user=your.username at gmail.com}[]

Be sure to save your work (:wq for my vim friends) and you should be good
to go (or at least I was). Pine will ask for your password and then the
option to save that password for your next session and then things are
pretty easy to figure out from there.

Pine (or Alpine, if you're using the very up-to-date version) impressions:
One of the reasons I like the cli is that hands are on the keyboard and
not running over to the mouse. One of the things that I'm not crazy about
is the combination keystrokes to get things done (I started with vim,
okay, and if my first editor was emacs, then maybe things would be
different). Beyond that, it's about getting to know another environment
and using the "O" (other cmds) a lot. Pine is easy, though, and it
<emphasis>seems<emphasis> to fill the gap between the terminal "mail"
command and the web-based version of GMail.

Later on I'll be taking a look at my other way of communicating: Twitter
and perhaps, Plurk. Also, I'll be looking at changing my prompt and a few
reminders about getting around.

~/cjudson $ exit

Living on the CLI: Day 1

For the most part, I can fake my way around the command line. I've been
using an eMac as my main computer at home for, well, as long as the
thing has been in existence (5.5 years?). I think I stumbled upon the
"underpinnings" of the Mac OSX right after I got the machine when I
heard about all the cool Unix programs that are available.

I've played with loading programs via Fink and MacPorts (I like Fink a
bit more because like most programs, the one you use first is the one
you like). I think I learned the most about using Unix after using Dave
Taylor's <i>Unix for Mac OSX Tiger</i> back in 2005. From there I
started playing with shell scripting (another Taylor book: <i>Wicked
Cool Shell Scripts</i>) and more recently I'm working my way through the
wonderful <i>Learning Perl</i>. Aside from a purely curious pursuit, I'd
like to think that there is some practicality to all of this command
line, retro computing stuff. I mean, why bother with a prompt when I've
got one of the coolest interfaces in computing?

I think the answer may be that the GUI tends to be distracting and the
user might lose some power over what she or he really wants to do. I
think this is the answer. I also think that computers, as a whole, tend
to mostly be things to amuse us as humans (and that shouldn't be any new
news, eh?) So, for this week, I've decided to live a little off the grid
(or GUI) and live on the cli: to see what I can (and can not) do in the
ways I currently use my computer.

Now, to see if this post makes it to blogger.com...one of my first
issues: blogger.com doesn't seem to like text-based browsers like lynx.

Peace.

iPod Shuffle won't work after iTunes 7.7 update

Here's what happened to me:

I'm ready to head out for a run and I've just updated to iTunes 7.7 and the iPod shuffle (2nd generation) is loaded up with new and exciting stuff to take my mind away from the run.I'm halfway out the door and the thing doesn't work.

I start with the usual "5 - Step" method of troubleshooting an iPod and nothing is working still (I think I made it to step 3 and just did the run without the iPod).

When I got back, I plugged in the iPod again and noticed something odd: a Podcast playlist now appeared below my iPod shuffle drive. Ah! The answer: delete it and it will work.

Here's simple steps to cure the problem if your iPod shuffle won't play and does that green-yellow-green-yellow-green-yellow blinking thing:

1. Plug in iPod shuffle (2nd generation).
2. You'll notice the "Podcasts" play list under your iPod volume.
3. Delete the "Podcasts" playlist.
4. ITunes will re-sync
5. Unmount the iPod Shuffle and everything should be fine.

For some reason (perhaps related to the recent update to the iPhone and iPod Touch), iTunes 7.7 will add the podcast playlist. Luckily, you really don't have to do the 5 steps to iPod restoration; you just need to delete one thing, and you're back on the road with your iPod shuffle.

Episode 18: Why edutopia might disappoint you

GLEF magazine "edutopia" bills has the tagline now of "What Works in Public Education" but is the publication headed in the right direction? Some contend that the publication is light on content and heavy on advertising; others say it is a nice resource and is offered free to educators.

Show notes: I think some of us were sort of excited to be getting a magazine from the George Lucas Educational Foundation (and in the summer of 1977, I was introduced to the "creative impulse" George Lucas via Star Wars...which saw in San Francisco at the Cornet theatre). In those early issues four years ago, it look like that Edutopia was going to be a magazine that was technologically savvy for the educator. And it was and it had a great website (especially the staff development section regarding of PBL). Then, about two years ago, I got bored and stopped reading the issue even though I was getting the subscription for free. The content got a bit light (even fashion for the teacher) and it seemed to lose its focus. Now, with the most recent issue, James Daily (editorial director) refocuses the publication to be relevant again.

Most of the discussion is centered on the first 10 pages of the most current of the June/July 2008 issue of Edutopia. Specifically, I make mention of James Daily's editor's note: "What Works in Public Education" (10). I also make a parting pot shot at the article about plagarism (in short, teachers need better writing engagements).

Download this episode (28:07) here, listen via the Talkshoe badge on this site, or download/listen/subscribe via iTunes.