Moodle Sucka

More moodle work, this time with the auto teacher. One of the biggest uses so far of moodle across the department is posting web links, powerpoints, and information, which, admittedly, could be done with Frontpage, but there doesn't seem to be as much overhead.

Also, frontpage is very friendly, almost too much so, because moodle keeps you honest. You have to enter a description of what it is, a section for it to fall under. For a person like me with some downfalls in the organization department, it is really helpful.

Finally, for those of us using the quizzes on moodle, it has been an invaluable time saver, along with helping the students by giving them instant feedback.

The

The honeymoon period is drawing to a close, but the tablet and I are still very close. It took a great deal of personal grit to admit when it was time to transform the tablet back into a notebook, and vice-versa. The single most important thing to remember, is that there are indeed many things that a typical notebook does better than a tablet-style PC. For example, sometimes, I just need to do a significant amount of typing. Something that the tablet is not inclined to do.

Tabula Rasa: Tales of the Tablet PC: Episode 3

What an exciting weekend!

My new Epson projector was installed on Friday, so I got a chance to play with it a bit on Friday night, so I was ready come Monday. I love the ability to adjust the projector settings from the tablet. Today I was running a demonstration on my Computer repair PC, and I was able to change the screen back and forth between the tablet, where I was discussing news stories, to the installation to see progress.

Later, we were discussing the freeware program Skype, which is used for videoconferencing. I took the tablet around the room to show everyone the screen, and let students talk through it to other students who were connected across the room.

Other thoughts: Just as a design flaw, it seems silly that the SD card sticks out a bit when it is seated. Any time I put the tablet in it's case, it inevitably gets clicked out, and windows gets a bit angry. Silly gateway.

I am also setting up the PCs in the comp repair lab to use DRBL, or Diskless Remote Boot Loader. This is the method they use at Harper College. Essentially, a student boots up a computer, and it looks to the network for possible boot options. This could be windows 2000, XP, Windows Vista, or any number of linux variants. More on that as it develops.

Tabula Rasa, Tales of the Tablet PC: Episode 2

Day 1 of full classroom usage is now over, and it was very interesting. Electronics Tech 1 were more enthralled with it yesterday, as I walked around the room and had people draw circuits. Today, I hard wired it to the projector, and asked kids to come up and write on it. Students were much more reluctant today than they were yesterday, which is odd. I think when I came to them, they were less on the spot. I'm not sure how that will play out when I can walk to them and display it on the projector.

Tabula Rasa, Tales of the Tablet PC : Episode 1

Last Thursday, Mike B. asked if I would have use for a tablet pc in the classroom. I immediately said yes, because I had already thought through some ideas for it while other teachers were piloting the program.

We had a snow day on Friday, so I ended up getting it on Monday. The first night was just courting, as I got acclimated to it's functions, and set it up the way I like things to be.

I hit my first snag when I found that the button that switches screen orientation did nothing when pressed. And nothing when not pressed. So it was a fairly boring button. Looking through the options, I couldn't find anything that jumped out as an obvious solution. I asked Phil for help, and he showed me that it was under graphic options, hotkeys. Who'da thunk it? A button does not a hotkey make. Gateway should pick up a dictionary.

I'm taking the trial rather seriously, as I am a bit critical of how much the tablet itself is contributing to the educational value, as much as just having the laptop. I ask myself, what is it about the writable screen that is making this lesson better. Yesterday, I walked around the room, and had kids draw circuits on it, which stirred up some excitement. I suspect that when I can display it on the projector, it will work better as a learning aid.

So far it's clearest advantage for me has been teacher-centered. Being able to walk around with it in my hand makes it much easier to take notes on which students are working at what levels, who is getting lost on which topics, and how many times I'm getting to each student. There is definately a student benefit there, but again, no more than really a palm pilot could do.

One highlight of the experience was calling Dell technical support via a Voice Over IP service through the tablet, and walking around the room while the class asked him questions.

More on this as it develops!

It's been a long time (since I rock and rolled)

Well, it has been almost 2 weeks since the last post, because of finals, and then a three day week that I was out two days of.

Excuses aside, it's time to get back to bloggin!

Whilst I was gone, there were a number of interesting things that happened technically.

I had four separate people with issues pertaining to the the "Creating an assignment, then scanning the key" thing. It makes sense to me that the key can't be associated with those assignments, but it isn't immediately obvious. I think it will just take some getting used to. Unfortunately, teachers as a breed seem to be allergic to "getting used to" things.

Also whilst I was non-blogging, I set up Mr. Elza's Moodle site, and introduced him to RSS feeds. "Wait, you don't have to change them?" Welcome to the future, my friend.

I also got a tablet pc as part of the pilot program, but I am going to put in a separate post about that.