It's admirable that the Moodle development team wants to require a description for each assignment. The description field provides instructions to the student. It makes it easier to browse all the assignments for a course. However, I work with a lot of teachers who want to post as quickly as possible and who are not accustomed to a completely electronic, web-based course format. The solution? Make the description field optional, so that they are not required to enter something into this field for Moodle to accept the submission.

Open mod/assignment/mod_form.php
Comment out line 41, as follows:
// $mform->addRule('description', get_string('required'), 'required', null, 'client');

I assume you can modify other assignments in a similar manner.

We run Moodle 1.9.1

On a related note, I have heard of a school that has written their own Moodle modules. I am currently wondering how to blend teachers' requests for a school-wide major assignments calendar with Moodle's default categories of personal, course, and global events. Creating a new assignment or calendar type called "major assignment," or adding such a flag to the relevant assignment types, may be the way to do it.

tags: moodle, opensource

Open-source web applications continue to mature. This week, I successfully updated Moodle to version 1.9.1, Drupal to 5.7, and Gallery to 2.2.5. The process went very smoothly, except for one hiccup. The Moodle updater stopped partway through, somehow causing an runaway loop that caused the sessions2 table to balloon by gigabytes. Notwithstanding the fact that this brought the web server to a halt, the installer ran fine once I emptied the sessions2 table and ran it a second time. We discovered that we stored the database on the system volume, so now we will move it to the data volume.



I appreciate that all three applications ask that you install a completely fresh codebase. Old code and modifications go away, giving the application a clean start. In the case of Moodle, we had only tried two modules, iPodcast and Speex. Both were not successful and are now gone (except for some traces in the database). Drupal is modular by design, but it took less time than I had anticipated to install the 20 additional modules we currently use. Settings were already present in the database, so Drupal only needed the new code.

Gallery-Drupal integration required some additional work. It didn't work at all at first, when I had not yet updated Gallery to the latest version. Unlike with Moodle in the past, Drupal developers are keeping Drupal-Gallery integration 100% up-to-date. Just use the latest Gallery with the Drupal integration module. Following suggestions, I also moved Gallery to within the Drupal directory -- that only required one setting change.

I am also taking some time to clean up both installations, responding to user requests and making them easier to use. I modified all occurrences of Moodle's use of "enrol" in the English language pack, since I still have no figured out how to force U.S. English language use on existing courses. I trust that new courses will inherit the U.S. setting. For the most part, people don't notice the language difference, the notable exception being the use of "enrol!" I also simplified the default blocks layout for new courses to make the page less busy.

Finally, I succeeded in the installation of NanoGong. I have wanted in-browser audio recording for some time, especially for language classes. It looks like the good people at the Gong Project have really come through with a solution nicely customized for Moodle but able to run anywhere.

In Drupal, I configured Video to play movies within the node, eliminating the need for an additional click.

tags: moodle, drupal, gallery, opensource, web20

This year, we have made two survey systems available to our users, Zoomerang and an internally-developed tool. Yesterday, I got a call from a user who was experiencing page load wait times of up to two minutes. We weren't experiencing similar issues with other web sites.



She called Zoomerang, who promptly blamed us for the issue. Not helpful! Unable to produce the survey using Zoomerang, the user turned to our internal tool and had the entire survey up within minutes.



Although I have abused Zoomerang before, I will acknowledge that it is a perfectly fine survey tool. I am just surprised that a successful company would not provide better customer service. Whether or not the problem resided at their end was not really the issue. A "valued customer" with the "pro" membership was experiencing a problem isolated to their tool.

Today, Zoomerang is running normally. Go figure.



tags: survey, zoomerang

Check out PayPal Storefront, a little Flash widget that you configure on PayPal's site and then embed on your web site. It's very elegant and quick. I am using it to sell a benefit recording of the Maru-a-Pula Marimba Band. The widget even allows any user to copy the widget code for their own site, making possible the viral distribution of a mini-store!



tags: ecommerce, marimba

This week, I learned the next step: embedding a Google map with our data on our own (password protected) site. Twice in the past two years, I have created maps of students and employees in schools using BatchGeocode and Google Earth.

Given the flexibility of Google Earth, online resources cover a wide variety of ways to use the Google Maps API. Drupal's GMap module is best suited for user submission of locations as separate nodes or a RSS feed. BatchGeocode provides locations in a single KML file, which I learned is XML for maps. The Google Maps API can index a KML file directly, but I didn't want to submit our KML file to Google to index, and my tests of the strategy didn't work anyway. GMapEZ is a special set of scripts using the Maps API but requires you to format your placemarks as conventional HTML links. Ultimately, this article at XML.com provided the most successful strategy for me: embedding points directly into the page and then adding listeners to create the popup information boxes. Embedding all the points keeps the data within our password-protected space, too.

You can accomplish this basically in a one-liner per placemark:

var marker220 = new GMarker(new GLatLng(45.51584,-122.702752)); map.addOverlay(marker220); GEvent.addListener(marker220, "mouseover", function() {marker220.openInfoWindow("Richard Kassissieh");})

A student included me in this project to create a carpool site for the Catlin Gabel community. Families find each other using the map and then post offers and requests for rides.



tags: googlemaps, gmapapi

Today, I launch a new site, 3D Cell Explorer, a teaching tool for cell biology using visual representation. It provides 40 animations of cellular structures and processes, accompanied by audio narration. Anyone may comment on a page or copy the embed code to display animations on one's own web site.

Many students learn best from what they can see -- visual learners often struggle in science classes in which the vast majority of instruction is text-based. This site complements the textual materials an individual may already have. Text is kept to a minimum, so as to not distract from one's attention to the visual model. Three of the animations provide a simple level of interactivity.

The site is pretty much Web 1.0 -- lots of good content ready for consumption. The learning theory is primarily cognitivist. I want to help students of cell biology better comprehend basic cellular processes. Still, I did throw in a little Web 2.0 goodness. Comments are enabled on all pages, making it possible for visitors to start a dialogue about the animations. Providing the embed code allows teachers (or students) to integrate the animations into their own teaching materials, for example on a Moodle site or other CMS.



In 1994, I began to create simple 3D animations to help explain biological and chemical processes to my students. Over the following three years, I created dozens, especially on the topic of cell biology. A colleague and I decided to package the cell biology animations on a CD-ROM, but by 1997, CD-ROMs were no longer so popular. Although I did ultimately release the package, it never caught on, as teachers moved toward web-based instructional content.

In our enthusiasm to embrace Web 2.0 tools, we have left behind some of the strengths of the CD-ROM era: visual richness, simulations, interaction with content, and vast, visual libraries. I of course love the ease of distribution and social qualities of Web 2.0, but we must not discard the successful educational innovations of the past in our rush toward the future.

After a ten-year hiatus, I am pleased to re-introduce 3D Cell Explorer. Please do let me know what works and what doesn't, and do spread the word to potentially interested teachers.

Here are some brief technical notes.

I created the original animations using Strata StudioPro and Adobe (Macromedia) Director. The project was saved by the continued support for Director by Macromedia and then Adobe. Director was the standard for authoring interactive media, but like CD-ROMs, it quietly disappeared as Flash produced smaller, faster-loading web files. I don't know whether the new Strata3D can read my old StudioPro files. It would be good to preserve the time and effort I put into those models and animations.

To make the project more web-friendly, I exported all of the old Director files to QuickTime and then used VisualHub to make them into Flash Video (FLV) files. I kept the three interactive animations in Director format using the built-in Shockwave converter. I installed Drupal 6 for the content management platform and then built out a page for each animation. The Amadou theme gave the site a clean, modern look -- I changed the background to black in order to match the animation backgrounds. I used JW FLV Media Player to deliver the Flash video files.

Ten years ago, I was amazed that an ordinary classroom teacher could access great-quality 3D animation tools. Still, it took three years of evening and weekends to produce these 40 animations. Today, I find it incredible that I could convert the entire thing to a web-based format in about two days' time. Experiences like this provide a visceral reminder of the exponential increases in computing power over time.

Update March 31, 2008

I came across this very modern cell visualization from Harvard -- quite interesting that it's set to music.

tags: cell, biology, cellbiology, animation, visualization, drupal, moodle, flv

I received a pleasantly unexpected call from Stephen in Botswana yesterday to discuss Maru-a-Pula IT matters. Throughout the call, I could hear what sounded very much like a cricket chirping. Was it an artifact of the Skype transmission? No, it really was a cricket that had snuck into Stephen's office! Good think he wasn't calling from home. They are a challenge to find and catch.

Botswana cricket via Skype (mp3)

tags: skype, globaled

I am listening to our middle school students podcasting from Costa Rica. What a treat! Listen in below. David is trying this for the second year in a row. This year's posts are more detailed, articulate, and to the point. I will try at some point to find out how David prepped the students for their posts.



Sending periodic updates back home adds a new dimension to international travel. Parents and other interested community members can follow the trip progress from home. Students can share their reflections on the trip as it is happening, which adds a new twist to the task of reporting back. The conversation is one way, so that no replies from listeners intrude on the students' foreign experience. The collection of all of the recordings will capture a record of the trip that others will be able to use afterward. Podcasting by phone requires very little production time on the parts of the trip participants and no special equipment. GCast doesn't even charge for the service!

At the same time, trip leader Spencer has brought along a set of digital audio recorders, so that students may each record daily audio journal entries and reflect on them upon return. I will be interested to see how they will compare the educative value of these two very different methods of capturing thoughts in audio format during the trip.



tags: globaled, audio, podcast

A year and a half after my first attempt, I took another look at the accessibility of news web sites for the vision-impaired. My blind colleague reported that the Yahoo! mobile site I had provided had stopped working for him. Sure enough, the link had moved without any redirection, so I had to find the new link and bookmark it for him a second time. Also, Yahoo! changed their mobile site to use brackets >> instead of numbers to delimit each news item and removed the keyboard shortcuts that used to exist, making it more difficult to select a news item. Also, his screen reader reads the brackets as "right angle bracket, right angle bracket," downright confusing to hear just before the news headline. However, Yahoo! Mobile is at the moment the best option I can provide for George.

The New York times has remained an extremely difficult site to use if you can't see it. They neglect to include keyboard shortcuts that would enable one to jump past the dozens of menu items to the lead articles. Worst of all, if you visit their mobile site in a computer web browser, it automatically redirects you to the regular web page! We want to view the mobile site, which includes a minimum of graphics and links, and allows George to jump directly to a list of top headlines. It doesn't seem possible on the New York Times site.

Have you found an accessible news site for the vision-impaired? What strategies do you use to provide access to such users?

tags: accessibility, visionimpaired

I am using EventBrite for the first time to organize online ticket sales for an African AIDS orphan fundraiser in New York. The event features the Maru-a-Pula Marimba Band, a world-class African marimba group. If you're interested in attending the April 14 event, buy tickets here!

I appreciate that EventBrite provides a prominent location for an event logo and keep their own advertising to a minimum. They also place ticket selection and event description on a single page, reducing the number of clicks to make a purchase.



It's interesting that EventBrite specializes just in ticket purchase -- they link to PayPal instead of providing an integrated payment gateway. The time-consuming part of the process has been to register a new account for our organization on PayPal. I was impressed to find out how much PayPal has changed over the years. They present a much more professional image than before and provide a full range of payment services. I am in the process of configuring automatic transfers to our organization's bank account. Eventually, I should be able to use PayPal as a payment gateway without sending users to the PayPal site. I plan to use this feature to move online giving from Network for Good (where it is currently broken) to our site.

If I were already running the organization's web site in Drupal, I would have tried the Event and e-Commerce modules. However, this is still an old, static site, which I will find time to upgrade one day.

Riffly allows users to post browser-based video and audio comments on your blog. I was so excited about this new company that I immediately installed the Drupal version of the plug-in on our intranet. Today, Riffly went down, and with it our site! Fortunately, it was easy to disable in order to bring our site back up.



The advent of built-in video cameras eliminated the need to obtain, set up, use, and transfer from a video camera. Browser-based video recording eliminates the need run a video capture application such as iMovie, export the video to a different format, and upload the resulting file to a web site. With browser-based video upload, students may post video comments within seconds from school or home. This is a big deal for language classes and international exchanges! Teachers are extremely sensitive to the length of time technology adds to a student activity. When the time drops dramatically, teachers use the tool more frequently (or at all).

While I'm not thrilled about the idea of relying on an external site to host videos, this is far better to linking to YouTube, because the user never sees Riffly, and we don't have to provide the bandwidth. Of course, we will be putting our eggs in Riffly's basket, hoping that they will thrive and not change their revenue model. It may be a safe bet, considering that we should see competitors to Riffly appear over time.

At the moment, I'm waiting for a solution (or some time to investigate myself) to make the Riffly Drupal plugin actually insert the necessary code into the comment field. Get over that small hurdle, and we will be off and running! On recommendation, I disabled TinyMCE for the Drupal comment field, and then code insertion worked again! Unfortunately, now Riffly is experiencing a problem themselves, and Riffly is broken everywhere. We wait once more. I hope they will do whatever they can to ramp up again. They have a terrific product that could really take off.


tags: riffly, video, drupal

Too sad. Yahoo! Picks is closing its doors after 12 years. Nearly ten years ago, I mined the site for fresh graphic designs as I was just getting started in the field. More recently, as the web flooded with copycat sites, Yahoo! Picks has proven its staying power by reliably coming up with inspired, authentic, and funny sites. Luckily, we still have the archive.

Drupal's founder and lead, Dries Buytaert, has formed a company to provide Drupal services and raised $7m for the effort! In addition to the usual consulting and support services, he plans to develop pay versions of Drupal. Read his announcement and Acquia FAQ for more information. On the one hand, this makes me nervous. Dries' hopes for Acquia to become the "next Red Hat" is not necessarily great for those of us who anticipate using the free version indefinitely. On the other hand, it may be wonderful to see Drupal develop into a more robust, mature system with greater adoption and known legitimacy. We could definitely ride that wave.

Also of interest: Buytaert's site of Drupal sites -- some big names here.

Teacher 1: I believe your children know most of the words of their song materials; however, several asked for copies of the words. Please distribute these to your children in hard copy or by e-mail. I am all about saving paper.

Teacher 2: The children are doing well on the language songs and are reminded every time we meet them to check Moodle for the French , Spanish, and Chinese songs and Drupal for the Japanese songs to practice at home.

This exchange was a pleasant surprise to read. Our intranet has only existed for a year, yet all four lower school language teachers, including a full range of technology profiency, are posting text, audio, and video online. They saw a great fit between the technology and their teaching and learning objectives and jumped all over it. Good work!

I am building a list of school "front-door" web sites running on Drupal. We know that Drupal is practically indispensable for student and teacher publishing within school, but what about the school's public web presence?

Here's my short list of school main, public web sites running Drupal:

Lincoln High School, Portland, OR

Newberg Public Schools, Oregon

Lewis Elementary, Portland, Oregon

University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Communication and Information

Peralta Elementary School, Oakland, CA

Yale School of Architecture

UC Berkeley School of Information

University of Calgary

Harvard Science

University of Minnesota

Arizona State

Ohio State

Washington University (St. Louis)

Hamline Law School

Slane College, Bradley University

Bainbridge Island School District