Free Technology Tutorials

Why do I like Marc (net-buoy)? Below is an example…hard to find that kind of integrity around moodle-land these days. Most of the free thinkers have left and it’s a place dominated by disciples–some so obvious they even change their names to things like “Moodleman”

Oh dear Julien….. yet another back-handed remark from the evangelistas?

Ian, what I find untenable is that during the discussion on moodle.org of the specifics of the possible enforcement by Moodle HQ of any rights to the use of logo, trademark etc., you and others remained mum. I can;t just blame it on Brits as people on this side of the pond seem to have turned their backs on Mr. Emerson and seem to be most willing to duck, duck… until they are the goose, at which point they appear to whine inordinately….  Read more... (244 words, estimated 59 secs reading time)

Now there’s a question all Moodle users should be keen to know the answer to. I think the end of life for Moodle as you know it is around the corner and the end of life of Moodle as a viable LMS may well come before the end of life support for 1.9. When you have a userbase so afraid of your newest and greatest release, that they want to know how many years they can just keep using the old stuff, then you should start seeing the writing on the wall  Read more... (261 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

I have so many Moodle 2 nightmare stories bookmarked, it’s becoming difficult for me to find the time to blog about all of them, but the following post from yet another new moodle user caught my eye. This type review from those who are seeing Moodle for the first time is quite common these days…could it be that expectations for what constitutes a true 21st century web app has changed over the past few years?  Read more... (889 words, estimated 3:33 mins reading time)

http://iandavidwild.blogspot.com/2011/02/is-moodle-partner-programme.html

Have you been hiding under a rock for the past 5 years Ian?

I know you have been around Moodle for a while, so why the interest all the sudden? Get rejected as one of the chosen few and now don’t like “the program”?

Here is a little history lesson on the subject for you. Moodle.com doesn’t only try to control who uses their logo (which is understandable) they try to corner the market to a point of attempting to prevent anyone from even using the plain text word Moodle to advertise that they offer moodle services.  Read more... (193 words, 2 images, estimated 46 secs reading time)

A lot of people are posting and tweeting about the following video being a message from Instructure to Blackboard, but seems to me it’s a message to all of the “last decade”, entrenched LMS’s out there. The message may be, your old “kludgy”, closed, ridged systems are on the way out. Students live in a connected, web 2.0 world and Canvas intends to embrace that world.  Read more... (286 words, estimated 1:09 mins reading time)

This could be the sign of a real competitor for Moodle in the open source LMS market. I’ve reviewed their Canvas LMS and it’s light years ahead of Moodle in virtually every area. It remains to be seen how “open source” they really become…not all open source is equal. But, for anyone out there looking for a viable alternative to Moodle’s tired old 1990′s look, feel, and functionality, you should take  a look at Canvas to see what a web 2.0 LMS looks like.  Read more... (356 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Saw an interesting post in moodle-land today. Actually, it was a reply in a long, interesting thread about Moodle 2.0 backups and how broken that entire process really is now. The part of the reply that is very interesting, is quoted below:

True enough… and of course we are already backing up the Moodle data area and the database, though now that the database and the Moodle data area are so closely linked, it’s unclear how to get consistent backups.

Source: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=167471#p735217  Read more... (298 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

Sometimes a fresh set of eyes can spot the ugliness that others seem to have learned to live with and can no longer see.

For a demonstration of just how true this really is, see the post about a new Moodle admins experience with moodle 2.0…he hasn’t been jaded by the nightmare of an upgrade…he just installed a fresh copy of 2.0 and is looking at it in its natural glory. As of now, no one has replied in moodle-land…but I’m sure it won’t be long before the disciples descend and attempt to explain in painstaking detail why that ugliness is so beautiful to them.  Read more... (346 words, 1 image, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

No elaboration needed here…this from one of the most loyal Moodle disciples in moodle-land and an official Moodle business partner.

I would like to be able to placate you in some way but, unfortunately, although I might not put it so strongly you make some compelling points. The documentation for Moodle 2.0 is currently lacking, plain wrong or non-existent. The new file manager is proving to be a source of confusion for many and I strongly suspect bitter experience will result in some rework in future versions.

I will tell you what I’m honestly telling most people… unless you have a compelling reason to move from 1.9 – don’t  Read more... (112 words, estimated 27 secs reading time)

Been busy working on real projects for the past few days and haven’t had time to check the forums over in moodle-land for a while. Looked in today and everything seems to be the same….lots of ticked off people feeling like they are being used as beta testers for Moodle 2.0 “stable”, lots of angry, naive admins who trusted they could upgrade to 2.0 “stable” only to see their sites get destroyed in the process. The following “frustrated, confused, and angry” person caught my eye.

Keep up the great work Moodle…seems to me you’re on the right path  Read more... (100 words, estimated 24 secs reading time)

If I recognize the name on the post quoted below, this is from a long time moodle disciple. When you get that kind of review from your biggest fans, then you know you’re in trouble. Listening yet, moodle devs?  Read more... (173 words, estimated 42 secs reading time)

I usually only highlight one moodle 2.0 upgrade disaster from the forums each day that I decide to visit moodle-land, but after my previous post today, I saw another one that I just couldn’t pass up. It’s posted below and pretty much speaks for itself. I notice no disciple over in moodle-land has offered assistance yet, so I’ll tell the poster what they seem to be too “shy” to tell him in the forums.

How do you feel about starting over? Because if you don’t have a local backup of your db and moodledata directory, then you are toast!  Read more... (331 words, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)

Saw an interesting post today in moodle-land where the moodle admin/user is experiencing frustration with a Moodle 2 upgrade and the famously ‘redesigned’ file system. The entire post is quoted at the bottom of this blog post, but I just love this part:

I am not inexperienced with CMS/LMS systems and can write C, Pascal, PHP, HTML and other assorted languages, but I am starting to lose it…

Any clues would be gratefully accepted. To be honest, if this problem cannot be fixed, I will consider going back to a previous version of Moodle or switching CMLs altogether.  Read more... (639 words, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)

Very good advice in the post below among the sea of spin over in moodle-land…ignore it at your own moodle demise.

I’d have to argue that anyone with a Moodle 1.9 has a significant chance of losing everything by upgrading to Moodle 2 without have a detailed picture of why M2 is crashing on upgrade and a clear and concise recitation of the actual steps one must take to possibly avoid any disaster…..

Source: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=165805#p729010  Read more... (272 words, 1 image, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

Disciples over in moodle-land are continuing their old ways by blaming everyone and everything for the disaster they call Moodle 2.0 “stable”. Below is just one of todays crys in the wilderness for help after an attempted upgrade to moodle 2.0 “stable” destroyed the admins moodle site. I love the response: “Fantastico is doing funny things to Moodles these days..”

Talk about over promising and under-delivering…Moodle 2.0 is a prime example…  Read more... (182 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

I can just feel the pride and confidence oozing from the “expert” disciples over in moodle-land these days. Doesn’t the following just make you want to run out and upgrade to moodle 2.0 “stable” today?

The title of the post below on moodle.org is “Upgrading to Moodle 2.0 – Do’s & Don’ts”

I would suggest that title could be simplified to read:

“Upgrading to Moodle 2.0 – Don’t”

DO please READ Upgrading to Moodle 2.0 before attempting an UPGRADE, taking note of the advice given in that document.  Read more... (231 words, estimated 55 secs reading time)

The “new and improved” file system in Moodle 2.0 has been a point of confusion since users got first wind of it over a year ago in one of the 36 “pre-release” versions…yea, 2.0 never actually made it to beta, but that’s a blog post for another day. But, for some mysterious reason, the moodle devs pushed ahead with their amatuer attempt at copying the Angel file system and today what moodle 2.0 users have is an overly complicated and confusing system that most see as a huge step backward. Below is a comment by today’s dissatisfied moodle 2.0 customer…good luck on the simplification…  Read more... (216 words, 1 image, estimated 52 secs reading time)