Waffle Bytes

One of the easiest ways to get common links onto your site (and force them on every page) is creating a custom site menu.  Prior to Moodle 2, this meant either creating or customizing a Moodle theme with menus...an activity that required a steep learning curve unless you had prior experience working with HTML and CSS.  With Moodle 2, an area has been added where any site administrator can create a custom menu for the site simply using the web browser - no HTML or CSS knowledge required.  Here's the video (if you prefer written instructions, they are below): To create a custom menu for your site, login as the Moodle Administrator.  In the Site Administration area, click on Appearance link, then Themes, then Theme Settings.  Look about 3/4 of the way down the page - you will see a paragraph entry box on the page. Create your menu! Some items of note: for each item in your menu: the only required piece is the text that appears in the menu the first ...

If you have an existing account and would like to change it so it is not connected to a credit card, you can do this by accessing the payment information on the account.  To do this in iTunes: On a computer, go to the iTunes Store in iTunes Click on the account name in the upper right corner Select to display the account information Click on Edit Payment Information Select None Click Done at the bottom of the page

If you have an existing account and would like to change it so it is not connected to a credit card, you can do this by accessing the payment information on the account.  To do this on an iPad: Go to the App Store, scroll to the bottom of the screen Click on the left box showing the Apple ID, a pop-up should appear Click on View Account Click on Payment Information Click on Credit Card and choose None Click Done

Here are today's Five Friday Finds!  Have a great weekend :-) General 50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom : links to a variety of ideas, how-tos and examples of using Skype in Education. ELA 124 Sites for Free Children's Books Online : "[A] listing of 124 sites that legally offer free ebooks for children to read." Mathematics STEM Collaborative : "Make the math connection with four interactive online learning adventures for middle school classrooms." Science Nature Works Everywhere : "The Nature Conservancy and its 550 scientists have created [this] new initiative to help students learn the science behind how nature works for us…and how we can help keep nature running strong." Social Studies HIstory Engine : "[A]n educational tool that gives students the opportunity to learn history by doing the work—researching, writing, and publishing—of a historian."

I'm finally back to some of my Moodle work.  Currently I'm working on creating a video collection for Moodle 2 Administrators that will be housed in iTunes U.  This series is focused on all the customization that can be done on the web browser, so no server access is required.  It just makes sense to blog about the features at the same time I'm creating the videos... Theme Settings in Moodle 2 The theme settings can be used to set some limitations on your themes, as one would expect.  However there are a couple other items in this area that bear some noting as it is probably not intuitive to look for them here; I've colored them in orange below.  Here's a short run down of what is here and what it does (if you prefer the text version, I've included it below...). Theme List - too many themes on your server? or some themes not working correctly? Limit what themes are actually available to your users here.  List the theme names, separating th...

Coach's Eye (Currently $4.99) Basics : Coach's Eye is an app to use for recording video... but it takes your video way beyond simple playback.  What makes this app exceptional are what you can do to the video AFTER the recording.  You can: use a flywheel to inspect the video frame-by-frame add annotations in specific locations of the video add voice over share the video with others, either via YouTube or TechSmith's server space Educational Use : This app was developed for coaches - as in athletic coaches - to use with their athletes. However, the number of uses for educators is very large.  Just think of the material you can provide for students that are absent or need to see something multiple times.  OR think of the power of it in student's hands, where they can self-assess their own or each others work.  I see applications in all curriculum areas.  Here are my brainstorms on ways Coach's Eye could be used to record/anno...

Do you want to use an Apple account without a credit card (only going to use fee apps or apps redeemed from the volume purchase program)?  You can either create a new account OR modify an existing account so that no credit card is listed as a form of automatic payment. This can be useful if it is in the hands of children (it is how we set up the account we use on our own kids' iPod Touches) as there is no fear of them "accidentally" purchasing apps and charging it back to a credit card.  Set up a new Apple account not associated with a credit card: On a device,go to the iTunes Store and find a free app (this is while the device does not have any account signed in) Click on the free button next to the app Click on Install App Select Create New Apple ID Select your Country, then accept the User Agreement Fill out the information for the new account (name, password, birthday, etc) The next screen will have Billing Information.  If you click on Visa (the ...