Moodle in Primary Schools

Posted by Joel Kerr on 18 Aug
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This is an excellent video I found on the Guardian website, showcasing how Moodle has benefited all those involved with Great Corby School.  Students, Teachers, Parents and Governors all actively use the Moodle site and the footage explains how it adds to the education process.  Well worth a watch.

As always – if you should require any further information on Synergy Learning’s Moodle Services please feel free to contact us on info@synergy-learning.com or by calling +44 (0) 28 9042 2000.

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Mount Orange // Moodle Demo Site

Posted by Joel Kerr on 12 Aug
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For anyone looking a demo of Moodle you could do a whole lot worse than visit Mount Orange, the pretend school set up by Moodle HQ to give the visitor an idea of how Moodle would work in an educational establishment.

Aimed at people who are completely new to Moodle all the way up to experts who want to try out the newest features, Mount Orange gives visitors the opportunity to play with the software without fear of reprisal as the site is completely restored every hour on the hour.

You will also have the opportunity to collaborate on course creation with other visitors and test out those courses from a Manager, Teacher, Student and Parents viewpoint.

There is a useful video introduction available on Moodle HQ youTube site which you can visit by clicking on the image below

And if you would like to visit Mount Orange itself click on the following image

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If you are interested in finding out more information on Moodle, Moodle 2 or the Moodle Services offered by Synergy Learning please feel free to email us at info@synergy-learning.com or call us on +44 (0) 28 9042 2000

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The Moodle 2.1 Administration Map

Posted by Joel Kerr on 20 Jul
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Moodle 2.1 is here and now… so is the Moodle 2.1 Administration Map!  Such was the success of the original version we couldn’t go without updating the map to include the new features of 2.1, most notably the addition of Mobile devices.  Click on the image below to download an A4 version of the map.

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We were delighted to hear how useful it has proved in the past and hope that continues.

If you are interested in reading Alex’s account of how he arrived at this novel interpretation of Moodle 2 Administration (and it is worth a read) you can do so by visiting the original post (click here).

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Moodle 2.1

Posted by Joel Kerr on 07 Jul
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Moodle 2.1 is here and would you believe it’s bang on time! Moodle HQ’s new release policy is to put the emphasis on meeting the deadline other than the features wish list. As a result there are a few features missing, but still plenty to get excited about.

There are a number of new features, all of which can be viewed by visiting the Moodle 2.1 release notes . The main ones according to Martin Dougiamas are:

  1. Question Engine
    A new question engine that, “makes questions more robust and enables developers to create all kinds of interesting question types in the future”.
  2. Restoring of Moodle 1.9 backups is now possible
    A number of Moodlers will breath a huge sigh of relief at this development, “a very complex thing to build due to the many changes between 1.9 and 2.x.”
  3. Mobile Apps
    Brilliant news! “Moodle 2.1 now directly supports mobile apps for some functions.” Moodle HQ’s new Moodle app for iPhone will be released soon, closely followed by an Android version. “In addition, there is direct support for mobile-specific Moodle Themes and automatic detection of mobile browsers.”

It doesn’t need to be said that the release of Moodle 2 attracted a lot of attention and excitement, but 2.1 has been the milestone schools, universities and businesses have been waiting for before taking the big step.

Now it’s here we have a number of ‘Route to Moodle 2’ options that will help you on your way. For more information visit our Moodle 2 page, contact me via email or by calling +44 (0) 28 9042 2000.

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Our new home in Holywood

Posted by Joel Kerr on 01 Jul
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I’ve been promising to post some photos of our new offices for a while now, and although I haven’t been granted access all areas I have managed to interrupt operations for a few minutes to get one or two snaps of the team…

Introducing Donna, who is the longest serving member of our team (and the real boss in the office!)

This is where all our meetings and some training sessions are now taking place. Please feel free to comment on the curtains.

Planning and strategy room where all the finer details are agreed upon. Potential to be called the Green Room.

Design Studio

Our lovely new studio. My photography skills don’t do it justice I’m afraid.

Developers

Yair and Thomas. PHP Development in action (I didn’t even ask them to pose!)

Caroline Design

Caroline. Designer in action (my camera may have outstayed it’s welcome by this stage)

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As of yet my camera and I haven’t covered the home of the Technical team (who are very camera shy) the Directors offices (too exclusive), the kitchen (probably won’t happen) or the office of yours truly (that would have to be a self take!)… maybe in time ☺

It’s safe to say we are very happy in our new home in Holywood. If you ever want to come and pay us a visit you will be more than welcome!

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Mahara 1.4

Posted by Joel Kerr on 24 Jun
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Mahara 1.4 was released last week and comes with a host of new functionality that is taking the software to the next level.


The main new features according to Mahara.org are:

  1. New Google Apps and Image Gallery blocks
  2. Star ratings with comments
  3. Easier page for sharing content with others
  4. Ability to add comments on file artefacts
  5. Support for SSL-based SMTP and LDAP servers
  6. Administration interface for mail server configuration
  7. Remote avatar (Gravatar) support for HTTPS sites


Mahara.org also list other notable changes and bug fixes:

  1. “Views” are now “pages” and “blogs” are now “journals”
  2. Lots of small changes to make the interface more consistent
  3. Pages can now display more than one embedded video at a time
  4. Added a fullscreen button to the internal video player
  5. Added spellchecker and undo button to the WYSIWYG editor
  6. Spam checks now also performed on forum posts
  7. Support for new Youtube Iframe embed code
  8. Optional site-wide maximum quota
  9. Working start/stop overrides on pages
  10. Removal of the obsolete and broken Solr search plugin
  11. Removal of the httpswwwroot setting
  12. Removal of the .htaccess file

If Mahara is something you are interested in and you would like to find out more information on the benefits of working with Synergy Learning please call us on +44 (0) 28 9042 2000 or drop me an email joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com.

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Foyle Learning Community launch ‘Foyle Cloud’

Posted by Joel Kerr on 15 Jun
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Friday 17th June | 9.45am
City Hotel Derry

This Friday Foyle Learning Community (FLC) will launch their new ‘Foyle Cloud’, with the ultimate aim of being the first Learning Community in Northern Ireland to connect every educational establishment within their area  – with a little help from Moodle and Synergy Learning.

Introduction

Foyle Learning Community is one of 30 Learning Communities across Northern Ireland. It’s made up of 15 post-primary schools and an FE College with over 10,000 students.

The Learning Communities were set up to allow schools to collaborate in direct response to the Entitlement Framework, the governments 14-19 Strategy, stating that all young people, post 16, should have access to at least 27 subjects and 24 subjects at GCSE level.

As there is a considerable distance between each of the schools, Foyle Learning Community recognised the important role Virtual Learning Environments would play in meeting the objectives.

After careful consideration of all the relevant software available, one outright winner was chosen. Rosa McLaughlin who is project managing the rollout for FLC explains the decision:

For us Moodle was the best choice for what we required. It’s right up there in terms of features and functionality offered by online classrooms and the fact there is no annual license fee means a considerable saving for our Learning Community.

We were aware of Synergy Learning’s expertise and track record in this area and having them on hand to help rollout a project of this magnitude was certainly a deciding factor.

Objectives

The Foyle Learning Community aims to develop a VLE that will provide the member schools with the following:

  1. One central Moodle hub which all students can access, as well as a network of individual Moodle sites connecting each school and learning provider
  2. Access for pupils to online collaborative courses
  3. Collaborative teaching of courses
  4. Collaborative development by staff of resources and policy documents

Strategy

Synergy Learning is working closely with the Foyle Learning Community to execute the implementation in a manner that will optimise uptake for the new online classrooms.

In order to introduce the VLE effectively, a 3-phase approach is being taken:

  1. Phase 1 will be an initial pilot for 4 schools (3,500 users)
  2. Phase 2 will incorporate 7 schools (6,000 users)
  3. Phase 3 will include all 15 schools (11,000 users) and the FE college

Rosa is feeling optimistic:

It is vital that the rollout of the new VLE is well planned in order for it to be manageable for our team and well received by the schools.  Synergy Learning has experience in setting up large scale Moodle Networks so their advice has been invaluable.

We are just about to launch the initial pilot, with our teachers fully trained and ready to go! With a project as big as this there is always nerves, but there is a real peace of mind having Synergy Learning’s team available for ongoing support.

Jonathan McAlister, Synergy Learning’s Business Development Director and project lead at Synergy Learning for this project comments:

We are delighted to be working with Foyle Learning Community on a project that is breaking new ground in Northern Ireland’s education process.

Within our global client base we are used to dealing with clients who have big ambitions, so it is great to see a community closer to home that are setting their sights high and realising the potential Moodle offers.

Synergy Learning will host FLC’s Moodle sites on our new platform that has been built in-house and optimised specifically for Moodle software.

The Future

This is an exciting project, not just for Foyle Learning Community but also for Synergy Learning as it has the potential to connect every educational establishment within Derry City Council, and inspire other similar projects in Learning Communities across Northern Ireland. Rosa comments:

Eventually we hope to connect learners of all ages, across all learning providers in the city, including our local university, primary schools and community learning providers.

We want to become a city of learners that are upskilling, not just through our access to a wider range of qualifications but also upskilling our digital skills through the use of our VLE. This Moodle network will play a vital part of the cityís bid to become ‘Digital Derry’.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated!

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Moodle Games

Posted by Joel Kerr on 10 Jun
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For those of you who missed Alex Büchner’s much lauded presentation at this year’s UK Moodle Moot here is your chance to see it again!

The title of the talk is ‘Course, Chat and Match – Creating a Moodle Course as a Game’, the aim is to create a game in Moodle using the Conditional Activities, Course Completion and Progress Tracking functionality.  As Alex says, Angry Birds it isn’t, but teachers and students could have a lot of fun with this.

To view the recording click on the image below and ‘launch playback’

If you do try it for yourself, let us know how you get on!

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We’re off to Holywood!

Posted by Joel Kerr on 26 May
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Green Credentials

Posted by Joel Kerr on 20 May
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Would it be irritating if I wrote this whole post in green?

I won’t bother, but it would be in keeping with our green credentials.

I read in last week’s Sunday Times how David Cameron’s plans for the “greenest government ever” were causing many business leaders to threaten closure of their British plants; they would be rendered uneconomic.

Well Mr. Cameron you can rest assured that Synergy Learning will be going nowhere.  Our data centres which house our servers and through which we supply our hosting have been confirmed to supply 100% green energy.

And here is a breakdown of how it is done:

  1. Free air cooling: We make use of the ambient air temperature to cool data centre equipment, which reduces the amount of power and water that is needed in artificial cooling. With temperatures averaging 18 degrees in Summer & 8 degrees in winter, it is no surprise that we have one of the best climates in the world to cool a data centre.
  2. Virtualisation: We have a strong commitment to maximise the use of virtualisation technology. Virtualisation software enables one piece of hardware to run multiple operating systems, decreasing the need for more physical servers, and ultimately power usage.
  3. High efficiency Air Conditioning Units: Air-conditioning units are monitored on the basis of maximising the Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER). This measurement of full-load efficiency; the higher the EER, the more efficient the unit.
  4. Low Loss Transformers: These are transformers designed to decrease the amount of energy that is lost through heat.
  5. Efficient Cabinet Layout: The data centre floor utilises front-to-front and back-to-back cabinet positioning; This minimises the energy required for cooling. The front of the cabinets face each other to become the cold aisle (heat disperses from front to back) and the hot air dissipates to the hot aisle to be routed back to efficient air-conditioning units. Each aisle in the data centre is measured and planned to ensure optimum cooling and heat dissipation.
  6. Waste heat re-used: Waste heat emanating from the data centre can be re-used to heat the adjoining office space.
  7. Solar Panel use: Water is heated through electricity that is generated directly from sunlight.
  8. LCD Screens: Network Operations Centre uses LCD screens, replacing projectors which traditionally consume high amount of power.
  9. Infrared presence/motion detectors: Presence & motion detectors ensure lighting is only activated when needed. Fluorescent lamps also provide a higher level of illumination at a lower level of energy.
  10. Energy Monitoring: Full end-to-end monitoring and management up to cabinet level, which allows the data centre team to monitor overall power usage, whilst also providing the ability to monitor power usage to optimise Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).
  11. High Efficiency UPS for non-linear loads: During testing a UPS for efficiency, static linear loads are often tested, which are not representative of customers’ actual loads. UPS efficiency appears to be much higher when powering linear loads. The UPS used is highly efficient even with fluctuating non-linear loads, which represent real world environments.
  12. Generators: All generators are sound-insulated to reduce noise level and minimise air pollution.

These approaches demonstrate how we can challenge the way things are done by simply using common sense. By investing in the right energy-saving technologies, we are on route to meeting our objectives to reduce not only our own carbon footprint, but that of our clients.

If you require any further information on our Moodle or Mahara hosting services please call the office on 028 9028 8830 or email me at joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com.

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