Logo for Moodle
Right. It’s been over a week. I’m not quite doing as well at this as I had hoped.
One reason I haven’t given any updates is that for the past week or so I have been trying to install Moodle on a new domain I registered recently.
I have a hosting package with the wonderful Blacknight. I cannot emphasise enough how amazing these guys (and girls!) are. Great support, almost instantaneous responses to even the most inane of questions. (Believe me, I know). So, a great big thank you to all of them.
For those of you who may not know, Moodle is “A free, open source course management system for online learning”. It is widely used by universities and schools to complement the traditional teaching methods.
Why would I want to use Moodle, I hear you ask? Well, I am currently a third year student in university, studying for a degree in Science Education. I am going to teach science at second level. So, I figured, I would like to be one of those progressive, forward-looking teachers. Since most, if not all, students at that age are online anyway, they may as well be learning something at the same time.
And that is what I have been doing for the past week or so. Yes, it took me that long to actually get it up and running. Since I don’t have a broadband connection at home, a lot of the work had to be done with the spare hour or two I could spend in the internet cafe in the nearest town.
The lack of broadband is not my fault. Ireland is remarkably bad for rolling out broadband access in the more remote regions. And, during the summer, I live in a pretty remote region. Not as bad, maybe, as some other parts of the country, but remote enough so that Eircom, who own the network, have absolutely no incentive to provide access for the perhaps three or four hundred homes who would like it. And there is not a lot we can do about it.
However, despite the slow connection and lack of time, I have slowly but surely been progressing with the installation. Until I receive an error message, which apparently are pretty common. Cue some reading of the manual, followed by searching the moodle support forums. And then the support tickets with Blacknight, who sorted out all my problems.
It may all have been a bit easier if I had a bit more experience with this kind of mallarkey, but how else am I going to learn, other than by trial and error?
But, the headache is now over. For the time being at least. Now that the installation is complete, I have only the small task of developing some content for the site. I’m thinking flash animations, interactive games and quizzes, and downloadable notes and slide shows. So, a whole raft of programs to learn how to use!
Should be fun! Stay tuned for more updates!