Apr 18
Packt books have published Moodle Course Conversion: Beginner’s Guide by Ian Wild. This book promises to help teachers and trainers get “existing teaching material online quickly and easily”.
Getting your teaching material online quickly and easily depends on what material you want to put online, and how much of it you have. But you can certainly use Moodle Course Conversion to make the process quicker and easier.
Moodle Course Conversion is written in plain English. It’s laid out simply, and takes you through what you need to know on a step-by-step basis. It doesn’t get over-excited about the bells and whistles. It gets stuck in right at the start with what you need to know about Moodle and what you need to do to get your course online.
Chapter 1 covers the basics – Moodle history, logging on, editing your profile, deciding your role, and moodle themes.
From Chapter 2, you’re creating your courses. You learn about course structure and format, enrolling students and assigning teaching roles.
Chapter 3 focuses on adding documents and handouts, while chapter 4 deals with including multimedia content.
There’s lots more – with advice and practical tutorials on everything from how to communicate effectively online to setting and marking assignments.
The book is NOT aimed at techies who are setting Moodle up from scratch. It’s for teachers, trainers and lecturers who want to (or are being forced to) convert existing materials for Moodle.
Best way to get a handle on whether or not you like this book’s style is to read over the sample chapter pdf you can download from here: http://www.packtpub.com/files/moodle-course-conversion-beginner-guide-sample-chapter-5-moodle-makeover.pdf
You can also learn more about the book here: http://www.packtpub.com/moodle-course-conversion/book. Packt have other Moodle books – I can’t vouch for them, but you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/moodle-books to check them out for yourself.
Nov 07
Well yes. Of course it is. Working in a repetitive factory job or driving a taxi around London will change your brain. But it’s still interesting to read this news story on how the the Internet is not just changing the way people live – it’s also changing the way our brains work. If you search the Internet or text message, you’re making your brain better at filtering information and making snap decisions.
Gary Small, a neuroscientist at UCLA in California, argues that this is an evolutionary change. As with all evolutionary changes, there are winners and losers – the winners in the digital evolution will be those who are tech-savvy at the top of the new social order.
So the Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth? It’s not as simple as that. Technology can accelerate learning and boost creativity. But it also allows people to isolate themselves and ‘live’ online. But succeeding in the new ‘digital’ era will require a mix of traditional and technological social skills.
I know many people who can communicate and connect effectively through blogs, twitter, linkedin, facebook, myspace, podcasting etc etc etc. But not all these people can connect effectively in real life. Then there are those who are brilliant at traditional social skills. But can barely type an email or reply to a text.
I learned my traditional social skills in a variety of sometimes challenging situations – by having to attend funerals and weddings, by participating in cultural gatherings such as birthday parties, or through institutions like school and college. Mostly I was guided (or coerced) through these situations by an adult who taught me how to socialise. But I’ve been learning my technological social skills by trial and error.
Gary Small’s conclusion that tomorrow’s winners need to be comfortable in two worlds is hardly mind bending. But I like to think that those of us who straddle two worlds, who know how to sit on a bus with a complete stranger and talk about the weather for an hour as well as twitter our way through the US election, maybe we’ve got a headstart in this race 
