Monday, November 28, 2011

Moodle Monday: New Features Add to QuickMail Usability






QuickMail is one of several communication tools in Moodle; it can be added to your course from the blocks menu.





 Using QuickMail, your messages are sent from Moodle to student Gmail accounts here at Sauk.  Since the recent update, QuickMail messages can be configured to show the Course Name in the subject line of the email you received.  Faculty who want to see all email messages in one place could create a label for each class and create a filter to sort the mail for each class into the appropriate label.  



Quick Mail allows users to add multiple attachments to the message, up to 10MB.





In order for students to use QuickMail to send mail to you or to classmates, the instructor must go to the QuickMail tool settings and choose “yes” for “allow students to use QuickMail.”  In addition, the “add course shortname to subject” setting must be enabled to insert the course name into all email sent from a Moodle course.















Monday, November 21, 2011

Moodle Monday: Batch Download of Assignment Files

Batch downloading of assignment files is now possible.  This function will allow Moodle Instructors to download all files students have uploaded to an assignment into one folder.   Files are saved with student username and an assigment identifier in the file name. 

Files can be downloaded by clicking the link "Download Files" on the assignment page. 
 








Alternatively, you can click on the 'Assignments'  link in the Course menu block.














There you will be able to download from each assignment you have created.



Friday, November 18, 2011

Linky Thursday

It's Linky Thursday...a day late.  Um, well, you know, better late than never.
Here are our fabulous selections for this week:


www.pinterest.com
Virtual bulletin board with social networking features. Great for personal use. If you think of an educational use, leave a comment on the blog! 

www.visual.ly.com 
Free source of graphic representations of data covering many subjects 

Though aimed at K-12 teachers, this new youtube channel  allows teachers to create a playlist, and gives ideas for use of youtube instructional video in the classroom.

http://www.remind101.com/
Similar to broadtexter, this free service allows you to send text messages to students.
See a video here:  http://remind101.com/learn_more



Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Collaborative Mapping tool in Moodle

Mindmaps is a Moodle Activity that will allow you to create concept maps online.  They can also be setup for students to edit individually or collaboratively.

Mapping is a powerful instructional tool.  It requires many higher level thinking skills to sort, compare, contrast, and classify concepts.  Mapping can be used as an introductory brainstorming activity to activate learning, an activity during a lesson to organize concepts,  or as a review or summative activity.  Used in any of these modes Mindmaps increase learning as students interact with content.

Moodle's Mindmaps activity allows you to create maps that are editable by students.   This allows various learning opportunities such as:

  • create multiple blank Mindmap activities for individual students or groups.  Then ask students to compare or evaluate each other's maps. 
  • Create an incorrect or incomplete map and ask students to finish it or correct it. 
  • summarize content after a lesson.  Individuals or groups could be ask to summarize a day as a graded assignment.  
  • an optional activity for students who might benefit from visually organizing information. 
  • Create a timeline of events
  • organize a process/Cause-effect pattern
  • Generalization/Principle Patterns
For more information about graphic organizers refer to page 69 on this document (acutally page 76 of the pdf) "What works in Classroom Instruction."

Also read "Focus on effectiveness, Research based strategies, Non-linguistic representations."  http://www.netc.org/focus/strategies/nonl.php


To create a Mindmaps activity.
  1. Turn editing on.
  2. choose Mindmaps (it's toward the bottom)
  3. Name your Mindmap. 
  4. Choose editable if you want students to be able to edit the Mindmap. 
  5. If you are using groups, you have the option of separating the map by group. 
  6. Save and Display to begin creating a Map. 
  7. Use the toolbar to edit your map.  See the image below for control details.  Also read this page for directions. http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Mindmap_module
Click the image to see full size. 

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Linky Thursday


Linky Thursday – November 3, 2011

Hi all,
Every Thursday on the blog, Robin will share interesting links to resources or stories of interest to educators. Just click on a link to view a resource.

Pics4Learning    
A free image library for educational use by teachers and students.


Microsoft Labs Math Worksheet Generator
Creates multiple practice problems after you insert one sample problem


Tricider
Free online brainstorming tool for groups, allows the leader to ask a question, group members to propose solutions and vote on them.


Top 5 Android Apps for Busy Teachers
Blog post featuring cool apps for your Android smart phone

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Embed a Youtube Video.

Want to embed a Youtube video into a Moodle webpage?   Follow these simple steps.

1. GET THE EMBED CODE - On the page of the Youtube video you want to embed click the share button found under the video, then click the Embed button, then copy the embed code.

2. INSERT CODE INTO MOODLE WEBPAGE -  In Moodle create a new webpage or begin editing an existing page.   Toggle your view to see the HTML code.  Paste the embed code into your page where you want the video to appear.  (if you have never done this before, it may be best to embed  a video before you start adding other text or content to the page).   Toggle back to normal view, make sure to save.

3.  That is it!


Step 1: Get the Embed Code.

Click image to view full size.


Step 2:  Insert embed code into Moodle Webpage.

Click image to view full size.


Final Page.

Click image to view full size.

You may also view a short instructional video on this process here.