Moodle, Or Be Careful What You WIsh For...

Ever since I started at my school, I've been angling to get them to drop our current CMS, which I hate, and use Moodle. So test piloting it this year and guess who gets to be the administrator...?

Our tech guys loaded it on my laptop when school was out and OF COURSE I waited until now to start playing with it. Aack! I think it's going to be great, but it's not quite as intuitive as I thought.

Is anything ever??

Free Mac App Video Tutorials

Apple provides basic "how to get up and running" tutorials for many of its apps, but doesn't always explain some of the cool stuff. Macvideotutorial on YouTube hosts several how'to's for common Mac apps such as Keynote, Pages, iMovie09 and more.

I hate Excel with a fiery and long-burning passion, so I'm trying to learn Numbers instead, and the tutorials here have helped this severely math-challenged learner.

Boulder, Here I Come!

I'm off to the Google Teacher Academy next week. I'm very excited, to say the least! It looks like a diverse group of participants (and I think Wes Fryer, of Digital Storytelling fame, is one of them!?) and I'm sure there will be lots to learn. How we'll cram it all into one day, I don't know!

I will definitely blog it, of course. I've let all things educational take a dive this summer so I could have a real vacation, but it's time to get back to it. My garden looks great, though! Just harvested my one broccoli plant yesterday...

I finally got my school to start using Moodle, too, and I need to start playing with that since I'll be the one showing the teachers. Our tech guys are fuming that I haven't even started yet, since they put it on my laptop before school was out for the summer. Oh, well.

Need a Caffeine Buzz?

OK, so this has actually nothing to do with libraries or ed tech, but my ice-cream is a finalist in a Fine Cooking contest. Whoo-hoo! If you have a minute, vote here for NW Caffeine Buzz.

Move Over iTunes U

Last March, Google/YouTube launched their own version of iTunes university, called YouTube Edu. The search engine includes content from over 100 universities and colleges, and allows searching by university, most subscribed or most viewed, as well as the usual keyword.

Content ranges from complete courses such as UC Berkeley's Physics for Presidents to informational videos such as this funny little clip promoting the Indiana University Library.