Kodu--Microsoft Gets it Wrong Again

I'm an educator, and like many others, was drawn to Moodle because it is such a valuable tool for schools, most of which don't have the money to deploy commercial, enterprise systems to meet many of their needs. Moodle is done exceptionally well and has provided incredible benefits to education.

Microsoft apparently has still not figured this out. I was excited when a colleague recently called my attention to Kodu, Microsoft's new platform to allow non-programmers to develop games for the Xbox. It really looks interesting and useful for getting people involved in game development.

At my institution, we've used a similar application, Alice from Carnegie Mellon University, to introduce students to programming. Alice is a GUI that allows students to construct 3d animations using drag and drop. Whether the student knows it or not, he or she is learning the basics of programming in the process. This has been very successful for us. This summer we are using the software with high school students, and they are having a blast while learning some things that will make it much easier to become proficient programmers later. Alice is well supported and easy to use. It is another extremely useful educational tool like Moodle.

Microsoft, however, doesn't seem to be able to achieve what volunteers seem to be able to do regularly. Kodu looks great, but there are just enough annoying hitches to keep it from being really useful.

First, the announcement claims that Kodu will run on either the Xbox or a pc, but I can't find a pc download anywhere. The Xbox version is available, but since my labs--like almost all school labs--are full of computers, not Xboxes, this isn't very helpful.

Secondly, Microsoft charges $5 for the software. Yep, that's five dollars. The company that has produced so much wealth for so many apparently needs $5 for a program amateurs will use to mess around with game development.

I find it even more annoying that as a subscriber to MSDNAA, a Microsoft subscription program that discounts applications for schools, I can't download the application for use in my labs from the MSDNAA site.

Moodle, Alice, and a host of other open source and free applications have contributed so much to education because they got it right. Make good software, provide a community where users can support each other, and educators will enthusiastically adopt your applications.

Microsoft, on the other hand, still doesn't get it. Place just enough obstacles in front of us, and we'll ignore the application. In the end, this doesn't do anyone any good.

It doesn't make sense--Microsoft doesn't stand to make any, or at least much, money on Kodu. If they are trying to, doesn't it make more sense to adopt a model like the Apple iPhone Store where the technology for development is free, but the applications that are produced are charged? Microsoft could provide an Xbox store where Kodu developers could post games and keep a percentage of sales for providing the service. I'm not a corporate accountant, but this model seems to be working for Apple.

Kodu could be a valuable tool for introducing students to game design and then teaching them more sophisticated technologies like Microsoft's game development platform, but that is unlikely to happen until Microsoft finally gets it right.

The Perfect Server--Moodle

If you're new to installing Moodle on Linux, Falko has long maintained a great howto on setting up Ubuntu as a LAMP server at http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-ubuntu8.04-lts. I've used this for several production Moodle servers with success. Just don't do the parts you don't need. I'd recommend steps 1-11 except for 9 for everyone. Then, php, mysql, ftp, and whatever else you'd like.

Alternatively, just do a basic Ubuntu install and let the installer create the LAMP stack. I just like to know what've I've actually done so I can retrace things later if problems occur.

Once your LAMP server is working, do a default install of Moodle.

Falko updates this for new Ubuntu releases but I tend to want stability over the latest and greatest, so this is a good place to start if you're not yet a Linux enthusiast.

Desktop Sharing in DimDim

A final DimDim post. A brief demonstration of sharing the presenter's desktop in DimDim.

I never did get the grass cut and it's getting dark. Oh well. . .

Keep moodling!

Whiteboard in DimDim

Another DimDim screencast. This time, sharing the whiteboard with meeting participants.

Co-browsing in DimDim

Here's another DimDim screencast. It's a brief demo of the co-browsing feature that allows the presenter to share out a website to the participants.

I need to quit this and cut the grass.

Keep moodling!

Share a Document in DimDim

DimDim is a web conferencing tool that offers open source, free hosted, and paid versions. The folks at DimDim were nice enough to integrate DimDim with Moodle to provide a live classroom capability for Moodle.

One of the features of DimDim is that it allows a presenter to share PowerPoint or .pdf documents with participants. I've produced a quick screencast that demonstrates the document sharing tool in DimDim.

Create a DimDim Meeting in Moodle

Some time spent floating around the lake has kept me from the blog, but done much to renew mind and spirit.

So, on my return, I'm getting back into the swing of things by producing some screencasts about using DimDim with Moodle. I've posted the first one, and I'll be creating others.

Keep moodling!

Congratulations, Patrick Malley

Helen Foster of moodle.org announced today that Patrick Malley, owner of New School Learning, and a true Moodle theme artist, has been named Theme Manager at moodle.org.

This is great news! Patrick has developed some outstanding themes for Moodle at New School Learning and has contributed a tremendous amount of work to the Moodle community. He is a frequent guest at Moodlemoots and conferences.

Congratulations, Patrick.

Edit Moodle Terms

There are times when I'd like to change the standard terms displayed in Moodle. For example, my students are often unfamiliar with the term Surname which is used in the default language pack, English (en), rather than Last Name.

One easy way to change Moodle's standard terms is to edit the file called moodle.php located in: /moodleroot/lang/enutf8. The file contains a long list of string definitions like this:

$string['activity'] = 'Activity';
$string['activityclipboard'] = 'Moving this activity: $a';
$string['activityiscurrentlyhidden'] = 'Sorry, this activity is currently hidden';
$string['activitymodule'] = 'Activity module';
$string['activityreport'] = 'Activity report';
$string['activityreports'] = 'Activity reports';

To change the text displayed for any of these variables, edit the string following the equal (=) sign. For example, to change the string above called $string['activity'], change the text following the = sign and contained between the single quotation marks. We might change ='Activity' to ='Task'.

In the future, Moodle will display the word Task anywhere it displayed Activity in the past.

Hope this is useful. Keep Moodling!

Finally, Moodle and DimDim

Like many others, I was excited when Dimdim announced its open source web conferencing tool in 2006. I was even happier when DimDim integrated its product with Moodle. However, my early experiences with DimDim standalone and the integration with Moodle weren't good.

Initially, I tried to install the community edition of DimDim on Ubuntu, and despite lots of discussions with the folks at DimDim, I never got it off the ground. In their defense, I was using an early version of the DimDim alpha, and DimDim did a great deal to try to help me. And, I know some others did succeed. Also, there is a virtual machine edition of DimDim running on CentOS, but I work in an Ubuntu shop and was stubbornly determined to use my preferred distribution.

Given these problems, I started to use the free edition of DimDim hosted by DimDim. This worked better. In fact, it worked very well and DimDim kept making improvements to its application and added many new features that make it a product competitive with pricey options such as Wimba or Elluminate.

However, when I installed the Moodle integration pack v 1.6, things fell apart again. There were two serious bugs: first, only administrators could create and start a meeting; second, there was a problem with the conference keys being inconsistent, so students could not seemlessly join a meeting.

I continued to use the standalone version with excellent results. Recently, I installed the new integration pack (v4.5), and to my delight, everything works. The interface DimDim provides in Moodle for creating classes is not very attractive and should probably have some sensible default values set, but overall, things work very well.

If you'd like to install the integration pack, don't download it from Moodle.org. The integration pack version available there is out of date. There is an issue posted in the Moodle bug tracker about this, but it hasn't been updated in some time. Instead, try this link to the DimDim forums to get the new integration pack:

http://forums.dimdim.com/forum/attachment.php?s=70e373b51a02e1a1908a07571830d931&attachmentid=38&d=1230898136

There's also a nice, quick introduction to DimDim available on youTube.

Keep Moodling.

Beginning

Hello. I was lucky to have a colleague discover Moodle in 2002. Since then, I've done a great deal of work with the application and have become a Moodle evangelist. In this space, I'll share what I learn as I go along.

Look forward to discussing Moodle with you in the future.