Pages

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Having Fun With PhotoMosaic - Malaysia Moodle Boleh Facebook Fanpage

Here's an Andrea Photomosaic I created of the "Malaysia Moodle Boleh" Facebook fanpage. It's a mosaic of 500 tiles created using with just 29(!) member icons of the small but steadily-growing Facebook group dedicated to Malaysian (and expatriate) Moodlers.


For the full image, click here.
If you want to create your own Photomosaic, you can't go wrong with this free tool.

A long weekend beckons. Time to get creative.
Frankie Kam

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Before I die I want to .... (Virtual Moodle Reflection Wall)

Art imitates life. Specifically, simulating a "Before I die" physical wall with a Wonderwall. I don't think that this has ever been done before - combining a Facebook-like Wall with a forum discussion topic. Well, there's a first time for everything. I am 'dying' to see what you will say...I mean type....

You can access the Wonderwall here:
Username: studentscm
Password: studentscm



Think, reflect and type in your thoughts. You can also copy and paste a http://url that ends with a gif, jpg or png file to embed an image. Or you can also paste a http://youtubeUrl if you want to. Have fun with the wall! 

And here's another example of the use of the Wall. This time with larger fonts (as specified in the file wall.css).

You can access the Wonderwall here:
Username: studentscm
Password: studentscm


Regards
Frankie Kam

APPENDIX

How did I do this? 

I discovered how to add a background image to the Wonderwall.
You can do it too! Here's the embed code. You can put it inside a forum discussion topic.

<h1>Reflection Wall</h1><br /><center><iframe width="200%" allowtransparency="true" name="main" style="opacity: 1; background-image: url(http://www.moodurian.com/mod/forum/bricks.jpg); " scrolling="auto" height="1000px" frameborder="0" align="left" src="http://www.moodurian.com/wall_resource/index.php?CourseId=37&Id=1&Desc=Before I die I want to ..." marginheight="5px" marginwidth="5px"></iframe></center>

You also have to upload the image file bricks.jpg to your /mod/forum folder. The rest is magic!

To get your own wall for Moodle 1.9 or Moodle 2.x, click here.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Wallify your Moodle 2.x Coursepage

The Wonderwall now works in Moodle 2.2!



Clicking on the Course Wall



It's written for Moodle 2.x.
More to come soon. Wait for it!

Demo site:
http://moodurian.com/m2/course/view.php?id=3
Username: student
Password: student
-or-

Username: me
Password: me
-or-
Username: Create your own
Password: Create your own



Live Wall





VARIOUS WAYS OF USING THE WALL FOR LEARNING!

1. Embed a simple non-hyperlink text.
Hello World!



2. Embed a simple URL hyperlink
www.google.com
Note: for many of the embed input below, omitting the "http" part will transform the input into a hyperlink that when clicked, opens the link in a new browser tab.



3. Embed an image from a URL
http://media.themalaysianinsider.com/images/uploads/css/tmi-qr-logo-244-80x78.gif


4. Embed a Voicethread
https://voicethread.com/share/1484117/


5. Embed a slideshare presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/14807466



6. Embed a Youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOToL-SSkKI&feature=fvst
or
http://youtu.be/xOToL-SSkKI



7. Embed a Scribd document
http://www.scribd.com/doc/106792255


8. Embed a Vimeo video
http://vimeo.com/36707211


9. Embed a TED.com video - presentations at their best
http://www.ted.com/talks/kent_larson_brilliant_designs_to_fit_more_people_in_every_city.html


10. Embed a TeacherTube video - education
http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=159879


11. Embed a Chatbotmaker interactive video URL http://www.chatbotmaker.com/videofiles/01/mp4/index.html
-or-
http://www.labodanglais.com/videofiles/01/mp4/index.html







12. Embed a Chatbotmaker interactive MP3 session URL
http://www.chatbotmaker.com/voicefiles/01/index.html
-or-
http://www.labodanglais.com/voicefiles/job/01/index.html

13. Embed a manual checklist



14. Embed a program's source code (etc. C++ or Java) - maintains indentation and whitespace!





Is your favourite Web2.0 social media embed code missing? Let me know!


Buy
Summary
Moodle 1.9 code (zip file) for USD$49
Moodle 2.x code (zip file) for USD$49
Code comes with basic setup instructions.
After payment is made, the code will be sent to you within 48hours.
Installation fees add another USD$49.

Frankie Kam
E-mail me at: boonsengkam@gmail.com


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The Wonder of the Moodle PhotoMosaic

Hope you like this one.

How many faces can you recognise?



Secondly, thank you Martin for creating a wonderful LMS in Moodle!



If you want to know how I did this, the Moodle logo and Martin montages consist of 500 individual Moodle.org account avatars. I painstakingly downloaded all of them and then used Andrea Mosaic to create the montage. Can you find Martin's icon in the montage above?
To know more, you can send me an E-mail. I'll be glad to indulge you on the details. Or, you could always view this Slideshare:



Regards
Frankie Kam

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Moodle, meet Facebook.


Hi All
How would you like your Moodle 1.9 coursepage to be more like Facebook? Well it can now become a reality!
My vision is for Moodle to have better usability features and factors that will encourage student and teacher engagement around the globe. Enter the Moodle wall based on Srinivas Tamada's Facebook Wall Script 3.0 (FBWS3.0). I've spent hours working on this one. Hope you like it as I think it's a Moodle first of sorts.
I've adapted Srinivas' FBWS3.0 code so that you can have a single separate wall for each coursepage, and within each coursepage, a separate wall for each and every resource (label, webpage, book, etc.).
Here's my latest work for Moodle 1.9. Now your Moodle site can have multiple walls. One for each resource (label, webpage, book, etc.).



Like what you see? Here's another view:

Live demo site
http://www.moodurian.com/course/view.php?id=38
Username: studentscm
Password: studentscm

Try entering text with http:// links. Youtube and TED.com video urls with the http:// prefix will embed a video window within the wall.


I'm in a dilemma. Should I give the code away for free, and benefit, what, thousands of educators and students to advance education in institutions that use Moodle 1.9? Or resell the code at a profit, with permission from the original author who gets a cut of the profits, or just charge for installation work for educators and teachers who are just too busy to set it up on their Moodle sites? Maybe you can suggest something here. Login as studentscm and use the password studentscm.

If you would like to have the Wonderwall installed on your Moodle 1.9.x site, just send me an E-mail. If you're a for-profit big corporation, I'll charge by the hour. If you're a K-12 school or an institution that's really cash strapped, I might just send it to you for free - and install it for free too. Just contact me: boonsengkam@gmail.com.

Frankie Kam

http://moodurian.blogspot.com

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Where's Wally? Add a Facebook-like wall to your Moodle 1.9 coursepage!

My latest project.

A Facebook-like wall on your Moodle front coursepage. Here's what it looks like on my Moodle 1.9.15 production site.



WHY build one for your Moodle site?
  1. It's FUN!
  2. It's more PERSONAL!
  3. It's great for scrolling on MOBILE DEVICES like smartphones and tablets
  4. It's like Facebook and I haven't yet met a student who didn't like Facebook
  5. It can function as a forum discussion thread
  6. It allows students to collaborate asynchronously
  7. It brings a Web 2.0 dimension into good-ole'- clunky-Moodle1.9-2.x
  8. It allows you to enbed videos fro Youtube and Vimeo (yeah!)
  9. It allows auto URL linking
  10. WHY NOT?????
In case you and your students find the wall too distracting, you can also configure the Wall as a collapsible Accordian resource object. For example, on my production site, I can click the green cube icon to expand the Wall. See the image below. Goodbye distracting wall, hello clickable green icon.



Here it is!



HOW TO BUILD IT

Your starting point to build a Facebook-like wall is here at Srivinas Tamada's website with the stock zip file here. If you follow the installation instuctions, you will end up with a Wall that looks like this.


The problem with the wall above is that I could only display my own updates, and not updates from others. In addition, the Wall requires me to hardcode my Google email address into a file so that the Wall can retrieve my Gravatar icon. The script has room to create a separate login.php file that allows the user to login in with a username and password. But that would mean that the user has to first login with his or her Moodle username and password, and then login with another set of username-password data to use the wall.

The good news is that I've modified Srivinas' Facebook wall script 3.0  for instant login with your Moodle login account. Plus a few other features which you won't find in the stock zip file. In other words I've spent N hours customising it for Moodle 1.9 use. In another post, I'll tackle a Moodle 2.x version of the code. Since Srivinas' code is written for a generic LAMP website, I am sure that it can be coded to run in a Moodle 2.x environment. For Moodle 2.x it'll may take more than a few tweaks since the user table name may differ.

Working demo:
Username: studentscm
Password: studentscm
http://www.moodurian.com/course/view.php?id=39

Discussion on this Wall's development: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=197229
For a pedagogical and an interesting academic discussion of the use of a Wall and Facebook with a Moodle site: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=212705




IN closing, here's a list of features that I have added on to Srinivas' Facebook Wall Script 3.0:
  1. The wall is ready to be integrated into your Moodle production site.
  2. The wall is now multi-user. Any number of coursepage participants can post on the same wall.
  3. You can paste in TED video links and they will expand
  4. No more double Youtube video bug (solved that pesky bug)
  5. Shows Firstname and Lastname instead of userid
  6. Compatible with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome - no more CSS issues (on my PC at least!)
  7. Wiggly icons!!! Nice effect that one.
  8. You can add some text before the Youtube http link and both the text and youtube embed video will  be posted on the wall.
  9. Videos embedded in the wall can be viewed by iOS and Android devices.
  10. The Moodle course administrator can delete others' posts and comments directly off the wall
  11. I have managed to allow the single Wall to be shared among any number of coursepages. With each coursepage loading a different view or subset of the wall. We're talking about a single comments table and a single messages table being used by N number of coursepages. Each coursepage displays only the messages and comments posted by participants of the coursepage.
  12. Using an iframe embed code, I can add a wall as any type of Moodle resource. A label, a webpage resource, an Accordian resource.
  13. The user's name is a live link that shows the Moodle user's profile tab when clicked.
Plans for the future:
  1. Allow users with teacher roles to delete messages and comments of students and users.
  2. Integrate the impressive-looking Facebook Wall Script version 5.0 (commercial version) with Moodle integration code so that what I have done with Version 3.0, I can duplicate the same made-for-Moodle features,
  3. Adapt the code for Moodle 2.3 and above!
  4. To tell you the truth, I think that it's very possible to even create separate walls not just for separate coursepages, but for separate resources within separate coursepages. I believe that this is possible because each resource in Moodle (be it a forum, book, label etc) has its own id=value. So just like where you can have various forums in each coursepage, you can actually (I believe strongly) have separate (virtual) walls for each coursepage. ALL THIS FROM JUST ONE messages TABLE AND JUST ONE comments TABLE!
Interested to know more? Email me at boonsengkam@gmail.com

regards
Frankie Kam

Ratings and Recommendations by outbrain