I'm an Irish Web Awards 2009 Finalist!

I am delighted to announce that I have been shortlisted as a finalist for two categories in the 2009 Irish Web Awards sponsored by Realex Payments.

I’ve been nominated for the following categories:

Best Education and Third Level Website

• The E-Learning Curve Blog (you’re reading it now)

Best Podcaster

• E-Learning Curve’s Other Podcasts

The awards ceremony takes place in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Dublin on just under two weeks from now on Friday October 10th 2009.

Good luck to all the finalists in all the categories, and wish me luck…

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Distributing your podcast for e-learning

I've just about completed all the topics I want to cover regarding Podcasting for E-Learning (for the moment). It's time to move on to other learning and development-related subjects. So, over the next couple of days, I want to tie up some podcasting 'loose ends.'

Now read on…

Today, publishing your podcast. As Jack Herrington (2005) so memorably wrote, podcasting is "blogging out loud." If you've created and posted a blog, you've already used pretty much all the technology required to distribute a podcast. In essence, a podcast is just a media file (usually MP3 audio, but you may also use m4a, .mov, .mp4, .m4v, and .pdf file types), and the RSS 2.0 web feed format which is used to publish frequently updated works like podcasts and blogs.

An RSS document (usually called a "feed") includes full or summarized text and metadata such as publishing dates. Web feeds enable publishers syndicate content automatically, and they allow subscribers access updates from individual websites or aggregated from many sites. The standardized XML file format allows the feed information to be published once and viewed by many different applications.

There are many ways to create a podcast RSS feed, but I recommend the free-to-use PodcastBlaster service (see Figure 1) if you're new to podcasting and don't feel up to hand-crafting the code.

Figure 1. PodcastBlaster RSS Feed Generator
[Click to Enlarge]

The most common way to distribute a podcast is via a blogging service, or by using specialized software provided by your ISP. Refer to your hosting provider for specifics on the system they - and by extension you – should use.

New Podcast Episode: Django Reinhardt and the Sound of Swing

The great jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt was born in France in 1910.

The son of Gypsy parents, he grew up in a Manouche camp on the outskirts of Paris during the Great War. Django grew up in the world of the bohemian and the vagabond on the doorstep of a great city and it was here that he first learned to play the guitar.

This 15-minute podcast documentary follows the career of one of the great innovators in the guitar, through the 'Roaring Twenties,' the accident that nearly ruined his careers, his discovery of Jazz, and the emergence of the Swing style, epitomized in his work with the Stephane Grapelli and The Quintet of the Hot Club of France.

Click here to listen to the podcast (MP3, 13.5MB).

Click here to view the transcript (PDF, 81k).

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References:

Herrington, J. D. (2005). Podcasting hacks: tips & tools for blogging out loud. O’Reilly Media, Inc.

PodcastBlaster Internet: Available from: http://www.podcastblaster.com Accessed 20 September 2009 (Registration Required)

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A reliable and straightforward guide to using Moodle 1.9

I opened my copy of Moodle 1.9 E-Learning Course Development by William Rice with a high expectation that it would be an informative and practical reference text. Why? I was about to upgrade to Moodle 1.9. Did it meet my expectations?

Now read on...

Using open source software can be a daunting experience, regardless of your technical or business experience, and this text's purpose is to shorten users' path to competency in the application. Broadly speaking, the text covers four Moodle-related activities:

• Installing and configuring Moodle 1.9
• E-Learning course development and delivery
• E-Learning course management
• Moodle administration and maintenance

The author assumes zero previous knowledge of the application, and begins by describing Moodle’s Social-Constructionist approach to learning, before bringing the reader on a whistle-stop tour of Moodle 1.9’s features and functionality– a very good idea indeed, as this goes some way to providing an understanding of why Moodle 1.9 looks and works the way it does for newcomers, acts as a pertinent reminder for experienced Moodlers, and sets the context for the course creation sections later in the book.

The book is structured in a logical and linear fashion: the author aims to guide you through the full application implementation and course development process. The text seems to be aimed primarily at teachers and trainers and the author spends the majority of the manual discussing – in detail and very effectively - the processes, “how-to’s” and “gotchas” of using Moodle from a teaching and training perspective. I must point out that something strange must have happened during the editing process of the book, as there’s some glaring typos (and even a whole word omitted from the back cover of the text) which are a distraction, but do not deter from the usability of the manual.

Moodle at Michael Hanley Consulting

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, this book was my companion through a recent upgrade from Moodle 1.6 to 1.9, and it did not let me down. As an experienced Moodle user, I used the book very much as a “just enough, just in time” resource rather than as an end-to-end guide through the application. My experience was that the text works very well when used in this fashion. Some other positive aspects of my “user experience” of the text included the author’s accessible and direct writing style and use of web-based resources like a downloadable Moodle Project Plan. In my view this text is a straightforward and reliable companion for those who seek to find out more about – and use – Moodle 1.9.

As a taster for the text, click here to download a chapter from the book (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

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References:

Rice, W. (2008) Moodle 1.9 E-Learning Course Development Packt Publishing Ltd. Birmingham, UK.

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