EffectiveICT.co.uk forum

Web colour 'picker' / list

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:18:11 +0000

Came across this late tonight just as I was finishing off a resource - a great page for students to pull Hex-values (e.g. #00FF00) RGB (colour details - ideal if looking for specific colours and related codes.

http://cloford.com/resources/colours/500col.htm

Basic quiz in PowerPoint using Action settings

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:02:08 +0000

This is more of a quick reminder when I next come across the need to get this working. Sometimes students are asked to produce some sort of very basic quiz using PowerPoint and they usually go straight into the habit of creating 3 slides per question - one for the question, one for the correct answer and one for the incorrect answer.

The question is on one slide, with at least two hyperlinked answers or buttons. The correct answer is hyperlinked to the 'correct' slide, perhaps providing some specific feedback. The incorrect answer(s) is / are hyperlinked to the 'incorrect' slide that then sends them back to the question again.

This is a particularly inefficient way of doing a quiz and can end up getting too complex.

For a quick fix, you need to use action settings for your 'Wrong' slide. This will mean that actually only ever need one 'You're wrong - try again' slide as you can hyperlink that to 'Goto previously viewed slide' i.e. turning the hyperlink into a dynamic back button. Previously I've used a bit of VB code to make this happen, or a bit of javascript. With an action setting it is actually even easier.

On your 'Wrong' slide, select the grapic or text you'd like the user to click on and then use the 'Action' link from the ribbon options (PowerPoint 2007 and above). Then select 'Hyperlink to' and select 'Last Slide Viewed' from the drop-down options. Press OK and you've setup a dynamic 'wrong' slide. For every single incorrect answer in your quiz, regardless of the number of questions you have you can reuse the same slide.

I've also uploaded a basic working example of a simple quiz. This could be developed further to have a dynamic 'correct' answer too - or by adding some additional code. A good little template to get students working slightly more dynamically in PowerPoint.

Basic quiz.pptx (55.35K)
: 46

Upgrading my Moodle- without using Siteground's auto service

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:51:37 +0000

Hey.
I need to upgrade my moodle soon. Last tiime I upgraded using Siteground's Fantastico & ended up having to redo my whole site.
Well, I moved everything- added new games- BUT, I did install moodle using Fantastico again. I DO NOT want to do any more upgrades that way.
I've very gun-shy, especially since it took me WEEKS to get my site back.
Please give me some good info on how I should do my upgrade w/out Fantastico.
Thank you, in advanced!

By the way- I wonder if I'd be better off doing that thing where you download moodle on your computer- and then being able to upload themes or whatever- also, doesn't that make upgrades easier- or is it the same as using ftp access from my browser using siteground (which is what I've been trying to do today- but am failing miserable).
What is that called when you download a copy of moodle on your pc? And also, does it make a difference if I install it on a Windows 7 64-bit pc?

SchoolHistory.co.uk in .NET makeover

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:10:41 +0000

I was delighted to discover that my SchoolHistory.co.uk website was featured in the makeover section of .NET magazine this month. I submitted the site to the section a number of months ago, but then thought nothing of it. It seemed a little odd that nobody contacted me at all about it being featured - the magazine or the designer looking at it - but it was a great discovery once I did find out.

I've attached a copy of the article (which the editor has given me permission to do) but the full article can be seen on pages 98-99 of the current .NET magazine.
NET206.makeover.pdf (167.8K)
: 129

I was quite impressed by the approach - this wasn't just some designer spending ten minutes mocking up a new homepage. They clearly did explore the site, discover the issues for themselves and then proposed some very interesting and workable solutions. They were also very positive about the site which was great to read

They highlighted the issue of navigation of a vast array of content - this was (and is) my primary concern with the site. It has grown out of all proportion and sections need to be updated. They also felt like the forums were a 'hidden gem'. I agree completely and this was why I've been experimenting with some form of feed so the latest topics appear on the homepage much as they do on EffectiveICT.co.uk.

Where I think the design proposals have issues are in the areas that the designers didn't have experience in - the organisation of the resources into historical periods. They - quite rightly - highlighted how difficult it was to find resources and proposed a 'content discovery mechanism'. This would be brilliant. However, they proposed having different historical periods across the 'toolbar' on the site. I'm not convinced this would work as there are literally so many historical periods that schools cover - they ended up including the Primary school history topics, but I'm not sure how this would or could work for the range of topics at secondary level. I guess the suggestion was to have 'all' topics and then the navigation bar at the top dynamically changes.

Additionally, they felt the site had to choose its audience - teachers or students. This is an important point as they are correct - a divided audience for the site cannot be good for long term development. That said, the two forums coexist extremely well and the most popular parts of the site are also divided - the Teachers' forum is the most popular section on the site, followed by the 'games' section and then followed by the Students' forum. I think there is perhaps more of a role for the students' section rather than an 'add on' bootcamp.

My main issue was also with the Flash navigation - this was great (even if I say so myself) when I set it up in 2003 but is now outdated and unsupported by devices such as the iPhone. I wanted a better solution. The complete redesign of the site, I guess, means it wasn't even needed any more - which sort of solves the problem - but I'm not convinced the new design helps someone immediately jump to games, resources, links and so on. I did play around with a direct html / css solution for the navigation bar but didn't get very far: http://www.schoolhis...x_may2010.shtml

Finally, they wanted to encourage 'cross-over' between the forums. I cannot really do this - the student forum is exactly that, a carefully moderated and approved, topic-by-topic support site. The Teachers' forum is also quite tightly controlled - not by topics but new members are manually approved and expected to join with their real name or first name and initial. The student history help forum ( http://www.schoolhis...uk/historyhelp/ ) needs to be kept under careful control due to spammers and other troublemakers. The teachers' discussion forum approach also largely keeps scammers and issues that plague other forums largely at bay - http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/forum/. If both these were opened up to more cross-over and easier log-in we would lose the control over the forums. I hasten to add the control element isn't about limiting or trying to restrict what genuine colleagues and students are posting, but instead trying to make sure that the forums are kept positive and scammer-free.

Overall, the site design proposals are fantastic - a content discovery system would be perfect for the site and also allow a way for the resources discussion forum that I'm helping to host - http://www.historyshareforum.com to be integrated into the site too.

The article doesn't actually supply you with a new design though - it is a set of proposals and ideas. What I will try to do is take them and implement the proposals as best I can. I did investigate Joomla - http://www.joomla.org/ - as a tool to use as a content discovery system and it looked useful. I asked a joomla design agency to propose a solution for the site too - but they unfortunately focused on moving the forums to a joomla supported system rather than look at a higher-level integration of them. I really like the Invision board forums and feel they have been the area where SchoolHistory.co.uk continues to help and support colleagues and students. I don't want to lose them at all. What I need is a way of bringing the content together - exactly as the article suggests.

Finally, how genuinely nice of .NET - a magazine that is a high-end, design oriented and web savvy publication - to end their article with such positivity:

Quote

In essence, the only real problem with the site was that the best and most trusted resources had become difficult to find under a weight of content. By combining this wealth of information with a powerful search tool using predictive text, the site would become an even more valuable resource.

SchoolHistory.co.uk is a fantastic source of information and has obviously been created by Andrew Field as something of a labour of love. We wish we'd had teachers as committed as him when we were at school!

It was great to be featured in the magazine and it will be good to explore what can be developed. Thanks very much indeed .NET

(Not) Locking yourself out of Moodle 2.0

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 09:13:00 +0000

At least once a week, on the help forums of www.moodle.org, someone comes along in a real panic. Almost invariably their woes begin with something like I was just editing some roles and then when I tried to log in again I found I’d lost all my admin rights They usually believe they are the [...]

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BETT Awards back on despite cuts fears

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:07:04 +0000

The BETT Awards for 2011, which had been threated by the closure of Becta and withdrawal of sponsorship, are now open for nominations. And they look like being leaner, meaner and fairer.

Leaner because the lack of time to secure financial backing has led to the categories being pruned, and meaner because firms wishing to enter their products will now have to pay an administration fee. They are likely to be fairer because the overly bureaucratic judging and technical testing regime managed by Becta has been ditched. Teachers and educators will lead the judging and the criteria will be based on evidence of impact on learning.

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Books about Moodle

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:06:13 +0000

In the Beginning there was only One. Now – there are over 15! It’s a testament to the growing popularity of Moodle as a VLE/LMS that an increasing number of Moodle books are being written and published, primarily by Packt Publishing. The first one, and still the Bible , is Using Moodle by Jason Cole [...]

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Two new conferences fill coalition gap for BETT 2011

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:29:54 +0000

Organisers of the BETT educational technology show have stepped in to fill the vacuum left by the axing of the Learning and Technology World Forum, the victim of the coalition Government cuts and the demise of Becta.

World Leaders @ BETT, next January 11-12, will bring together government ministers, policy makers and influencers from around the world. It is one of two new conferences announced for BETT 2011. The other will be UK Education Leaders @ BETT, January 13-14 and aimed at UK educators and policy makers, which aims to provide a ?robust debate? on the coalition Government?s education strategies.

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Schools offered tech prizes to register SMART Boards

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:15:57 +0000

When a new interactive whiteboad goes into a school who should sign up for the warranty? A teacher. ICT co-ordinator, school secretary or headteacher? Who takes 'ownership'?

SMART Technologies is so perplexeded by the low number of guarantees requested for its whiteboards that it has launched free prize draws for school customers who register online for their free three-year on-site warranty which includes an additional two-year return-to-base promise.

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Course Completion in Moodle 2.0

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:33:52 +0000

Here is a screencast showing a couple of ways of using the new Course Completion feature in Moodle 2.0. If you enable Completion tracking in Site Administration>Advanced features then individual tasks in a course can be marked as complete either manually by the student or automatically based on certain criteria (a grade, a forum [...]

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