This screencast talks about how to use “Google Sketchup” to represent a fenced yard so that students can visualize the scale of objects and shapes.  Hope that helps,

Cheers,

Doug

The topic of video and Moodle has been coming up frequently. How do I take a video that I’ve recorded with my cell phone and post it to my Moodle or Mahara page without using all of my server space or requiring the student to download a really large video. The following screencast shows how to take such a video, convert it using HandBrake (click for the site) and then upload it to moodle in a playable format.

As always, let me know if you have questions.

Cheers,
Doug

I’ve finally sequenced all of my Moodle videos into a coherent playlist.

Click here to view

Let me know if I’ve missed anything,

Cheers,

Doug

Below is the common geometric proof of pythagorean theorem. The idea is that since the sum of the areas of the triangles doesn’t change between these two squares, the total of the hatched areas does as well. Therefore The area of the square on the left – who’s side is represented by the hypotenuse of the 4 identical right triangles – must be the same as the area of the little square on the right (who’s one side is “a” units) plus the larger square on the right (who’s area is b units). In other words a^2+b^2=c^2.

The tutorial below shows how to create the diagram above using geogebra as an interactive simulation (changing the sliders changes the shape of the triangles, yet the property always stays the same):

The recording cut out at the end, but the only things I did after that part were purely asthetic.

Cheers,

Doug

I used this trick in a workshop I facilitated last week. Rather than using chart paper to collect ideas as a Venn Diagram I created a live Venn Diagram using Google Docs and linked to it via our moodle page. Here are the basic steps I used, but the screencast below takes you through the whole process:

1. Create a GMail account and use it to sign in to Google Docs 
   • Create a New Drawing in Google Docs
   • Draw 2 circles overlapping and use the paint function to make them partially transparent.
   • Use the text tool to label the circles
2. Click share and change the privacy settings to “Anyone with the link”
3. Copy the URL provided to your clipboard
4. Turn editing on in your Moodle classroom and select Add a resource -> URL
5. Give the link a description and paste in the URL you copied in step 3.

Here’s the whole process as a screencast. Enjoy.

Cheers,

Doug

As the semester is coming to a close it is time again to backup the latest version of your courses.  The following screencast shows how to backup your Moodle course for archiving:

Here are the steps:

1) Go to your course main page.

2) On the admin panel click “Backup”

3) If you are creating a template, uncheck the box that says “Include enrolled users” then click next.

4) Make sure all components that you want included in your archive are checked (they should be by default) then click next.

5) Click perform backup (this may take a while so this may be a good time to get coffee

6) Press continue, then click the download link next to the “Backup” file you created.

7) Save the file somewhere you can find it. 

Let me know if you have questions,

Doug

Short post today – without a screencast to watch (woohoo!). I found this excellent Mahara tutorial compliments of the American University of Beirut.

Follow this link to access it.

Cheers,

Doug

Hot Questions is a new Moodle Activity module used to collect burning questions from your students and proritize them. Students can either post their own questions or “like” questions posted by others. The most “liked” questions bubble to the top. Take a look at the screencast below for more details.

To add a Hot Question to your moodle page:

1. Turn editing on.
2. Select one of the “Activities” drop downs.
3. Choose Hot Question.

Cheers

Doug

Let me know if you have questions,

Doug