Pixel Surfers » education

How to replace standard Moodle icons with Tango icons

Elaine — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:41:31 +0000

One of the things that I liked about different Moodle themes are their icon sets, because IMO the standard Moodle icons are ugly and uninspiring. However, what if I wanted to use a better icon set with all of my themes? Was there a way to replace the standard icons? And what would you replace them with?

I found a nice icon set based on Tango icons on the Moodle site, and apparently someone went to the trouble of organizing and naming them so they will work with Moodle.

Here is the link to the .zip of Tango-based icons.

In order to replace the standard icons, you copy everything out of the pix folder in the zip archive and paste it into the pix folder in the root directory of your Moodle installation. They copy (or cut) the icons in the “mod” folder now in your pix folder and paste them in the “mod” folder in the root directory as well. Make sure you choose to have everything overwritten when you copy/paste.

That’s it! Your icons are now cool new Tango icons and you no longer have to be tortured with bad design when you use Moodle – at least from your icons in any case. I don’t know of a down side to doing this, but if you find one let me know.

Edit: There may be icons included in the mod folder for modules you do not yet have installed. This will cause an error. The fix is to delete those folders in “mod” that do not have a module installed (you can tell which ones from the error message: “The “Books” module is not accessible. Check permissions.” etc.)

Another Moodle Competitor?

Elaine — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:53:43 +0000

Google has just launched an open-source course/learning software solution called Cloudcourse that may rival Moodle. The more I use Moodle, the more I don’t want to use it, so I guess any alternative is welcome, but…

Oh man, at first glance this looks really sweet. I live my life on Google already and the idea of having a tool that fully integrates with Calendar is very appealing. The only problem is that I don’t have a clue how to use Google’s app engine much less Python, so it’s out of reach for me for the time being. I sure would like to try it, though.

Here is the Google blog article on the subject: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/05/cloudcourse-enterprise-application-in.html

Update: It seems that all it really consists of is a calendar/scheduler. While useful, especially if you are already using Google Apps for your enterprise, it’s not anything that you can’t do with Drupal with a little configuration…except the automatic integration with Google Calendar of course. You can try it here.

Learning from the students

Elaine — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:17:07 +0000

I’ve been meaning to revive this blog for some time. At one point I found it essential for tracking the progress I was making in web design, the problems I was having with coding, content management systems, hosting and other related things. I don’t have a “readership” and I really don’t want one. This blog was for me, to track my progress, albeit publicly.

However, blogging is hard work. It’s a hard habit to maintain. I sometimes rail against this idea that everything must be tracked in some way. In some ways I think that all that really matters is the experience; who really cares about my work, the work that will eventually fade into eternity like my memories and my bones. (This kind of thinking keeps me far away from Twitter at times.)

Yet I’ve enjoyed the conversations I’ve had here with people. I know some have found a few of my posts helpful. I’ve even used my own posts to help me remember some technical issue I’ve solved but long since forgotten how. In the end, I believe the effort is worth it. I think that one of the most valuable things a budding web designer/coder can do is keep a blog…a living diary of creative attempts, gray hairs, and successes to enjoy and learn from. Maybe you will even help someone else out along way.

I’m making this post in honor of the students in the summer session of my XHTML class…as some of them said in the intro forum: maintaining a blog is hard work. Well, that class is hard work! Hard, but worth it.

How blogs invigorate learning and extend the conversation

Elaine — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:56:50 +0000

I don’t have any experience teaching, but I have been learning the ins and outs of web design over the last seven years or so. So far, I have had the experience of learning both in online classes and, more recently, through online communities. These online communities are comprised of a loose-knit combination of bloggers, commenters, forum posters, IRC and other chat users, and even pod- and video-casters. I have personally been involved in communities that talk about coding, open-source software, digital photography, and even religion, both as a passive reader/listener/viewer and an active participant. To say that this informal discourse is helpful and facilitates learning is an understatement! In fact, especially in the arena of software development, information technology, and web design, I would say that it is absolutely essential.

So, how can these new discourse communities be used to inspire new techniques in the online classroom? Well, first let me share what developing and maintaining my own blog has given me:

I had to learn to use a new technology, i.e., blogging and content management systems.
A place to keep my discoveries, be they techniques, websites, tools, or even my own insights. I have found myself referring back to certain posts more than once because they contain information I use again and again.
A way to track my progress.
The lovely surprise of meeting people who are interested in the same things I am, and were willing to help me!

I felt that something fundamental changed once I started my own “conversation” with the wider world, although it’s difficult to describe what exactly that was. I do think it had something to do with the fact that I had gained the immediate benefits of social capital, which as defined by Wikipedia means that I gained an “advantage created by a person’s location in a structure of relationships” by defining my location in the first place. It is important in that it is public, it is fresh, it is uncensored, it’s my little corner of this brave new world. It is also difficult to maintain, but is worth the effort.

So, back to my original question: How can I, as an educator, encourage the development of social capital in my students? Well, the first thing is to be a good example. I can share my own blog, encourage comments and participation, and continue to interact with the world at large through the blog. I can also encourage (but probably not require) students to start their own blogs as they begin their educational journey; as I will be teaching students primarily interested in web design at some point having a blog really becomes a professional necessity. Starting this kind of public conversation sooner rather than later is a good thing to do. And I can definitely share with them all the resources, in terms of other blogs, podcasts, and personalities, that I have found absolutely essential to my own professional development. My motto to them would be: Get out there, say something!

This habit, like that of life-long learning, is one well worth fostering in students. Like being able to think logically and analyze information from different resources, it’s a survival skill.