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Alex Büchner Ironman

Posted by Joel Kerr on 30 Jul
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Synergy Learning’s Technical Director, Alex Büchner, has many strings to his bow, and now he can add the ‘Ironman’ title to his signature having completed the grueling Roth Challenge on the 18th July 2010. The race consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a marathon which he finished in 11 hours and 35 minutes.  Here are a few snapshots of the highlights…

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Cheering on the competitors at 6am – the crowd on the famous bridge

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100m to go

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KM 50 and “Still feeling good”

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In the Stadium with 50m to go

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Well done boss.



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The latest with Moodle Test Drives

Posted by Joel Kerr on 10 Jun
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The good news is our studio has been very busy for the past few weeks; the bad news is designing the Moodle Test Drive site was put on the back burner!

Our Senior Designer, Laura Sweeney, has been working on the site in whatever free time she can get.  I got a sneak preview of what it looks like this morning and I am thinking it has been worth the wait.

Here’s what it looks like so far…

This is entirely unrecognisable from the results I got using my basic Moodle skills (click here for screen shots) and is what you can achieve if you know your way around Moodle software.

Thankfully for me Laura understands the technology and pedagogical requirements of an elearning site, meaning I could give her minimal material and she could turn it into a site that is engaging and easy to navigate.

There is still work to be done on the lessons and quizzes so it’s not ready for release yet.  Laura is a busy girl!

I’ll keep you updated with the progress…

Joel


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Moodle and ZiLink: Keeping Parents Informed

Posted by Joel Kerr on 04 Jun
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As the sole UK Moodle Partner appointed to sell ZiLink, Synergy Learning is a keen advocate of online reporting and parental engagement in the education process.

Reports commissioned by BECTA conclude parents want schools to keep them better informed of their child’s progress, finding 82% of parents felt ‘left in the dark’ about their child’s education.  BECTA’s research also found that a lack of communication with parents hampered a student’s progress.

Online reporting enables parents to get closer to and support their child’s learning, enabling them to work with schools to improve the learning outcomes of their child.

For schools that use Moodle, ZiLink makes this achievable through the effective interoperability of their management information systems and their Moodle.

ZiLink is an affordable, sustainable and scaleable addition to Moodle.  As a Moodle ‘super-block’ ZiLink enables online reporting and parental access to information on their child’s attainment, targets, progress, attendance, behaviour, SEN status.

By incorporating ZiLink in Moodle, parents also have direct access to their child’s currently assigned work, their targets, timetable and one-click access to comments and feedback from their child’s teachers.

ZiLink has entered the market at a time when many schools are aiming to meet former Minister of State for Schools and Learners, Jim Knight’s targets for all secondary schools to provide parents with online reports by September 2010 and all primary schools to do the same by September 2012.

For more information on how your school can meet those targets, or to find out more about our ZiLink services email info@synergy-learning.com.


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Synergy Learning Ladies | Race for Life

Posted by Joel Kerr on 02 Jun
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Congratulations to the Synergy Learning Ladies Race for Life team who have raised £470 so far for Cancer Research UK.

Here is a photo of Laura, Caroline, Andrea, Marie and Donna sporting their medals after breezing past the finishing line on Sunday 30th May.

If you want to add to the donations so far visit www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/synergylearningladies


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ICT for Education Conference | Belfast

Posted by Joel Kerr on 21 May
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Synergy Learning will be exhibiting at the ICT for Education Conference 2010:

THE INFLUENCE OF ICT ON BEHAVIOUR | FRIDAY 4TH JUNE 2010: HILTON BELFAST HOTEL

The ICT for Education Conference 2010 in Belfast will address the issues facing those responsible for using ICT to achieve the highest educational standards and most effective educational environment in UK schools.

The event is aimed at those responsible for the selecting and purchasing the ICT for your school or education authority or advise those who buy ICT for education – Head teachers, Heads of ICT, ICT managers, ICT co-ordinators, ICT consultants, LEA purchasers and Network managers.

The ICT for Education Belfast Conference Speakers are:

• Jimmy Stewart Director, C2K

• Richard Hanna Director, CCEA

• David Knox Principal, Ballyclare High School

• Ian Glasscock Director, Games for Life

• Grahame Ward Director of Capital Programmes, Kent County Council

An open floor question time will allow the delegates to question all speakers.

For more information on the ICT for Education Conference in Belfast click here.


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Moodle Test Drives – Update

Posted by Joel Kerr on 29 Apr
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Our Creative Director, Jonny McAllister, is working away on our Moodle Test Drive site, fitting it into his busy schedule (apologies Jonny for adding to your workload!)

Here is a quick look at where we are at presently.  There are no images added as of yet, and there are a lot of Moodle tweaks to be made, but already you can see an incredible difference between this and what I could create with my basic Moodle knowledge.

The idea of the Moodle Test Drives is to show people the possibilities within Moodle.  There are of course a number of benefits to choosing Moodle other than just the customisable software.  I have had a look over the Moodle case studies that have recently been added to the Synergy Learning website to compile a list of Moodle benefits that were highlighted by companies who are using the software package:

  1. Moodle has a low overall cost of ownership
  2. There is a long-term sustainability with Moodle
  3. With Moodle comes free support offered by the Open Source Community
  4. Moodle is suitable for large-scale installations
  5. Moodle can also be used for elearning networks that will allow one VLE to connect to another
  6. Moodle offers a more engaging way of learning

The integration of Moodle also offers the option of distance learning and with that comes a number of other positives:

  1. Cost savings on travel, resources etc.
  2. An increased user catchment area
  3. The opportunity for teachers and learners to increase ICT competence
  4. Learners can complete courses in their own time

If you are interested in implementing Moodle, or getting more from the Moodle you already have and there is anything you would like to see included in our Moodle Test Drive site, or have any questions or comments then you can join us on Facebook (click here) and get the conversation started.


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Moodle Test Drives

Posted by Joel Kerr on 22 Apr
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At Synergy Learning we have been creating a Moodle Test Drive site so that those new to Moodle can have the opportunity to try it out, and those who already have Moodle can get an idea of what it is capable off.

I was hoping our Creative Director, Jonny McAllister, was going to put the whole thing together himself but he had different ideas and decided this would be a good opportunity for me to get my hands dirty with Moodle.  I have sat in on a Synergy Learning Moodle Training session so I am well equipped to get started.

If you have any ideas for what you would like to see on our Moodle Test Drive site join us on Facebook www.facebook.com/synergylearning

My progress so far…

We are launching the site in May, which is Local Community and History Month, and as we are based in Belfast I have chosen the History of Belfast as the topic.


My new course (click to enlarge)…


…with 4 resources and a quiz.


A closer look at one of the resources (not the prettiest)…


…a closer look at the quiz (no cheating!)

The rest is over to Jonny…

As you can see it is not the prettiest looking Moodle site at the minute so stay posted to see how Jonny transforms it.

Joel


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Peter Hinds take on his first Moodlemoot

Posted by Joel Kerr on 16 Apr
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Peter Hinds has been Synergy Learning’s Senior Networks Engineer for a few months now – this week he attended his first Moodlemoot.  Below is a record of his experience.

MoodleMootUK 2010

“Having only joined Synergy Learning at the start of February the world of Moodle is still relatively new so I headed to MoodleMootUK full of anticipation but not really sure of what to expect. Being a Linux user for quite some years I’m a strong advocate of the open source community and was curious to see an OS gathering in action.

“The first keynote was delivered by Professor Sugata Mitra and was based around the Hole in the Wall education experiment which was cited as an inspiration behind the Slumdog Millionaire film. This was a fascinating presentation and demonstrated how much people can accomplish even when in a less than ideal situation. The progress some of the children had made was incredible especially considering the lack of formal teaching available.

“I attended the ‘enhancing Moodle with E-Portfolios’ workshop as well as the ‘moodle showcase’ in the afternoon. It was great to see how other people were using their Moodle applications and to gain an insight into features such as gaming that Moodle may be able to fully support in the future.

“On day two a live video link over Skype was established with the New Zealand MoodleMoot and Martin Dougiamas presented the road map for the future of Moodle. A beta release is slated for this summer  even if this means cutting features to meet this self imposed deadline. The main driver behind this appeared to be so that it could be thoroughly tested before the start of the next academic year in September. Although it’s been a long time in development there was still a significant buzz surrounding Moodle 2.0.

“The second day of workshops featured Tim Hunt’s impressive work on the Moodle Quiz. The most relevant presentation for me came from James Strong who presented enterprise hosting of Moodle. This was very interesting for me on a personal as well as a professional level.

“The final workshop was from Alex Büchner which focused on large scale Moodle networks. It was great to see how well Moodle scales with the correct configuration across multiple schools and colleges. It was also explained how the upcoming Moodle 2.0 hub feature would work and how beneficial this would be to a large scale Moodle network.

“Overall I very much enjoyed my first MoodleMoot and it was especially nice to put some faces to names from our client base.”

Peter Hinds (Synergy Learning Senior Networks Engineer)


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UK Moodlemoot 2010

Posted by Joel Kerr on 08 Apr
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‘Moving into the new Decade’

13th/14th April 2010, Senate House, University of London

MoodleMoot UK 2010 is almost upon us. Hosted for the first time by ULCC it boasts a great line-up of speakers, including Synergy Learning’s Technical Director Alex Büchner

Speaking about Large-Scale Moodle Networks, Alex will be explaining Moodle Networks and examples of different structures. Alex will present a case study and forthcoming networking and community hub functionality in Moodle 2.0.

On Day 2 Martin Dougiamas will be beamed live from down under to talk about the role of Moodle in future strategic developments and what the future holds (TBC).

Other Keynote Speakers include:

  1. Professor Sugata Mitra (Newcastle University)
  2. Dr Ross Mackenzie (Strategic Development Manager, The Open University)
  3. Philip Badmann, (Vice Principal Funding & Planning, Newham College)
  4. Philip Butler & James Ballard (ULCC)
  5. Geoff Rebbeck (Thanet College)

Moodlemoots are a great opportunity for teachers, developers and administrators with different levels of elearning experience to get together and learn from one another as well as discuss the advancement of the elearning agenda.

For more information on Moodlemoot UK 2010 visit moodlemootuk2010.org.uk


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