Back again-with a vengence

I have been away for a long time, but not idle. At school they have changed from Moodle 1.9 ( which caused me some frustrations) to Moodle 2.2.3 I have had to re-learn some of the things that I thought I knew... All in all, though, it has been a good experience. Since my last post I have done many things. 1. I have put together an Google sites page that features grammar with explanations and links to screencasts and videos and then I have reworked it to make it more visual and easier to use. This site plugs into Moodle and allows me to feature content that I will not have to redo every time I change classes. 2. I have made my Moodle front page and homework pages much more visual and standard so that the students won't get too confused from week to week. 3. I have discovered how to make a short answer self-correcting quiz in Moodle that I am very proud of. It took me a day and a half of talking to teachers, watching YouTube How To videos and the reading Moodle docs on moodle.org to figure it out. I am anxious to include some visuals of what I have done as a record and for you to see the reslults of my work. I will do so in the next post. I am also looking at some new programs that will allow me to screencast with no time limit and that will also allow me to use my web cam in this endeavour... More later.

New Sight.

I have decided to include a web site in my Moodle where I will stock all the PowerPoints, Help sheets, and web links that I come across. Subsequently I will reorganize and label the links and other to be more helpful to the students. I like the layout options that I get with GOOGLE SITES. Here is a link to my site. https://sites.google.com/site/intunebasicenglishgrammarhelp/

Booo!

I made a quiz on Engrade and discovered that I could not get an embed code and put it into Moodle. Disappointed. The search continues.

Quizzical

I have wanted to put some self-correcting quizzes on my site but until now I have not found a satisfactory program or app that will easlily allow me to do that. I recently came across a site called ENGRADE which bills itself as a competitor to Moodle that contains a quiz-making program that I can easily master and then it offers me an embed code that | can use to put it into my Moodle page. I will go ahead and do that and blog about it later. Prior to that I tried a Powerpoint add-on program called i-Spring Quizmaker which looked great but there were two problems. 1- the free trial program left a big watermark on the quiz and 2- the program costs 288$ on special! Untouchable for me right now. Engrade bears more investigation as it has other interesting features and it is free! The site called EDMODO is another site that promises to offer Moodle-like features. More on this later. Soldiering on!

Show Me!

So, I think pictures speak louder than words. Here is what one of my Moodle pages looks like and what I can do with it. Comments welcome!

More...

I am starting to feel more comfortable with Moodle. I have been able to simulate coloured backgrounds and give my pages a better look due to PowerPoint 2010. It allows me to take text boxes, add a background colour and then put pictures on top. If I use the "group" feature it turns into a single entity. Then I can save as picture and upload it to Moodle. I can create many interesting visual effects using this feature. It gives the page a more polished look. I also found some nice pre-made PowerPoint templates on some e-learning sites that allow me to give my page a modern look. Audioboo allows me to record short messages and embed them in the page. I found a program called Photobabble which will allow me to make pictures "talk", but have not used it yet... More later....

Breadcrumbs...

I am building some MOODLE 1.9 classes for my English 100 and 101 courses for the first time. I want a more visual experience and 1.9 doesn't really lend itself to it easily. I found that by going to www.screenr.com and looking at the top of the page, I could access an e-blog that specializes in building e-leaning sites. This site generously allows me to download cool PowerPoint templates and has many interesting articles explaining the principles and the how-to of course building. It also allows me to follow a trail of education blogs that are listed in some of these articles. It's like following the breadcrumbs that Hansel and Gretel have left to return home!

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year to all you searchers and finders. I endeavor to continue on my way to Grammar's House. I have come across many interesting posts and apps that I need to "digest" before I bring them to you. I have created part of a Moodle course that disappeared at the new year when my admin erased it (I think). Onwards and upwards!