Vanilla is a simple and rather basic forum script that runs on a Web server and needs a MySQL database and PHP (MySQL 3.23+ and PHP 4.1+). I had an instance working in about 5 minutes. The very basic functionality can be extended using plug-ins. In particular the rather ace autolinks plug in will automatically link to any Web addresses copied into posts. The plug in can display images inline, and will embed YouTube videos if you copy the URL (not the ‘embed’ code) to a post. I’ll try the Web address of an MP3 file in a bit.
A colleague of mine wanted a forum for his students to ask questions and to ‘talk back’ and Vanilla has the right level of functionality. The big forums like phpBB are just overkill for about 30 people, and I was not looking forward to explaining the administration of a large forum to my colleague. Vanilla has simple administration, and provides ‘linear’ discussions (‘turns taking’), there is no discussion threading. It is a flat model, you have categories which contain discussions. There are no subcategories. You can make the whole forum readable by members only, so my colleagues’ students won’t be overshadowed by worries that all and sundry can read their questions or answers.
Vanilla was coded by Mark O’Sullivan who is hard at work on Vanilla 2.
Linux allows you to use old hardware with a current, relatively secure operating system and the usual applications. I’ve put Ubuntu 9.04 on the Linux partition of my old Dell laptop mainly because of the Network Manager that has appeared in Ubuntu since 8.10. Networking Just Works with a range of WiFi cards and, importantly for me, G3 data modems over which I’m posting this. The Netgear USB WiFi adapter seems to be very slow on the laptop (works fine on desktop).
I originally installed Xubuntu on the Dell over the previous Debian Etch installation and found sluggish performance and a lot of hard drive activity compared to Debian with XCFE. After some discussion on the Ubuntu support forums, I added lxde as the window manager and that change cut the fresh boot RAM use from 130Mb to around 70Mb, so much less swapping. With 384Mb or 512Mb, Xubuntu becomes much nicer, but laptops of this age have a maximum RAM of 256 Mb usually. The fans work properly, and hibernate to swap partition works, but I need to load an applet to trigger the hibernation when I close the lid.
Nothing amazing, just some practice questions for Level 2 Access Maths students. Covers areas of rectangles, triangles and composite shapes, together with circumference of a circle, and area of a circle. The worksheet also has a couple of those problems like “a bicycle has wheels 90cm in diameter, how many times to the wheels turn when the bicycle travels 1.6Km”. Those questions bring in units conversions, although I think map scales might be more useful for that.
The slideshare presentation above is my attempt at explaining how to add fractions to a group of students taking the Level 1 Adult Numeracy Certificate. This particular group is aiming at joining an Access to Higher Education course next year, and so I’m using a more ‘academic’ style to the lessons than I would with, say, a Skills for Life group.
This presentation follows a ‘traditional’ way of explaining fraction addition. I’m thinking of producing an alternative based on ‘fraction wall’ illustrations for those with a more visual orientation, and there is always the quick and dirty method for adding two fractions by cross multiplication.
Above is Bob Brussack’s slideshare on the same topic. I like aspects of his style, but I think the way information disappears from the slides so the students can’t see all of an example might be problematic. I shall try both and see what the students think.
“Apart from Bowman, I can think of only two Google employees I could stand to be around for longer than an elevator ride. ” Joe Clark
Superb rant from Joe Clark, via daringfireball. I want to read that Susan Pinker book. I think I may have ‘male brain’ tendencies, but I know two people who box the whole range (from grasshopper mind to steam locomotive thought).
Uploaded the screencast about tree diagrams to MoleTV as a test of their system and embedding. I just uploaded the original .mov file I made using iShowU on my iBook. I’ll try a .mov converted from an .ogg file recorded on Ubuntu later, shame there is no direct support for .ogg files. MoleTV converts to .wma, .mp4 for iPod and .avi and you can set files as downloadable.
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and a wifi connection, you can try this using the MoleNet TV server.
I can reassure the BlackCover blog people that an Alwych notebook will last. The notebooks above cover around 7 years of random notes, including one that got drenched in a North Sea storm and another that got dropped in a river. The paper is thick enough not to ‘show through’ with the heaviest of gel pens although in White Van Driver tradition, I use a Bic biro with mine. These are working notebooks, not for literary folk. Warning: Watch out for comment spam on the BlackCover blog.
Want an elastic band to keep the book closed? Plenty of red elastic bands around in the UK.
