Moodle item of the week
Foucs on File Management. One of the most important “things” to remember when setting up a Moodle course is to practise the conventions of good file management. Create folders with names which make sense and make sure you use them. I have created a tutorial on how to do this in the staff training area of my school and have added it to my youtube channel – clareire. If you don’t put files into folders from the beginning you will end up with a scroll of death in your “Add files” area – further adding to the bigger issue of the “document graveyard”!!! Word of warning/caution – if you decide to go back and organise files later you will need to ensure you also change the link to the document in the front page of moodle – moving the file to another folder will change the location and so the original link is now broken!
Edu/Web2 Application
Focus on Publisher. The wonderful Irish Department at my school are taking on another project using ICT! Ar fheabas!! This time they are asking students to create a leaflet on a famous person with a connection to our school. I am reminded of how easy it is to create publisher documents using templates and have uploaded a short tutorial into the staff training area and my youtube channel.
I-phone Application of the week
Foucs on Voice Memo Ap. Recently, a group of student came to me to asking to record audio and I went down the road of uploading audacity and teaching students how to do this. I was curious as to how the rest of the class had managed and when I enquired I discovered that most of the class had used the Voice Memo application on their i-phone. I have used this, in the past, to create simple podcasts for staff and am reminded now of how easy it is to use. You may need to convert the file into mp3 format (to use the Moodle Podcast feature you will need to do this) there are plenty of free convertors available – I especially recommend http://dvdvideosoft.com/ as an area for all your file conversion needs.
Website of the week
Foucs on web2. http://mashable.com/2010/10/16/free-social-media-tools-for-teachers/ is one of the best posts I have seen on the use of web2 tools in education.
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