bodmas blog

• Moodle 1.4.1 has apparently a problem with saving a blank config.php file and not displaying profile images on some combinations of Apache, PHP and MySQL (including the bodmas server apparently)
• Trying a download of Moodle 1.3.5 – older release
• C’est la Vie
• Enough of v 1.4.1 is working to evaluate the pedagogy and see how usable the teacher accounts are

• Seems to be working OK
• 14 Mb of the 25 Mb of script files are actually language packs. Missed most of them out.
• Only problem so far is that I can’t get the thumbnails to display properly in the user profile – probably an image processing module missing on the bodmas server
• Once files uploaded, and the database created, installation was fairly simple and took about 20 min

• 25Mb of scripts to upload
• College connection is a bit lumpy
• WS-FTP LE complains now and again so have to upload folder by folder
• lang and mods are big folders

The ILT category has just a few ideas that have worked for me. The emphasis is on

• things that require little preparation other than the teaching plan
• 30 minutes a week rule
• ideas that increase interaction between students in the classroom
• ideas that keep students in touch with teachers, peer group or the material in the periods between class meetings

You can use a simple guestbook script (such as Big Sam) to post links and a brief description of what was covered each week for students, especially evening students who come to College once a week and who will inevitably need to miss lessons now and again.

The best strategy is to use a script in a directory for a specific class you teach and then spend 20 min or so putting a link to a Web page that is specific to the previous week’s teaching. I also add a sentence or so just describing what we did in the lesson, and where we got to in the scheme of work. Students who were at the lesson can use the link to help with homework or to reinforce their learning. Students who missed the lesson can find out what went on.

The golden rules are

• keep the Web address of the guestbook as simple as possible, use notlong if you need to
• add something new each week
• provide a short summary of what was covered with textbook references
• provide a link to a carefully chosen Web site

The Big Sam guestbook script is written in php and it is pretty easy to hack to provide rudimentary protection against spam posts – I’ll post my hacks here soon. Big Sam also has an ‘admin’ mode so that previous entries can be deleted or re-edited. By default the script shows the 20 most recent entries on the first page then provides links to earlier entries. The script does not need a database on the server – it creates a simple flat file to store the entries in. Big Sam works fine on a server running PHP in ‘safe mode’ as long as you set the permissions the directory you put the script in to 777 to allow the script to write to the text file.

• hacked WordPress templates to match the very plain style used in the rest of the site
• not xhtml compliant and currently no DTD specified
• removed the comments link
• removed all the trackback gubbins

• Moved bodmas.org to server space that should allow Moodle install
• 24 Mb of php files in the Moodle folder so will upload from fast connection at college
• Control panel not usable thru’ firewall so will have to configure from home