I’m getting excited.

My recommendation?  Pick one of these 4 keynote/panel presentations which are all easily accessible through the embedded mp3 (or subscribe via iTunes and listen on a long run or trip to do some errands): http://2010.imoot.org/mod/podcast/view.php?id=1035.

Options include:

1. A panel of Moodle.com developers
2. Martin Dougiamas’ keynote which featured Moodle 2.0
3. Julian Ridden and Shane Elliot talking about pulling the 1st ever iMoot together
4. Helen Foster sharing stories from the Moodle community
5. Teresa Gibbison leading a panel of administrators discussing user and course management

Listen to them all!

Direct link: http://2010.imoot.org/mod/podcast/view.php?id=1035

The 2011 iMoot is fast approaching and to the delight of registrant procrastinators Early Bird registration has been extended until March 11th, 2011.  Early bird registration is only $50AUD and provides access to all live presentations AND archives as they become available in case you miss a live session due to the jam packed schedule they’re providing or the time difference.

If you haven’t already, go register: http://2011.imoot.org/mod/book/view.php?id=31&chapterid=9

Additionally, the call for presentations is still open for Moodlers with great information and ideas to share.  Consider presenting a case study of your own classroom, showcasing a cool use of Moodle or extension you built or some nifty tips and tricks that teachers around the world can benefit from.  Nothing is off limits!  For more information about registration visit http://2011.imoot.org/mod/data/view.php?id=10.

The first Moodlenews subscriber to submit a proposal and let me know (via comments) will get prize (ooooh it’s a nice one too).

Let’s make this year’s event even more successful than the last.

Personally I don’t think that the iMoot coordinating committee could have done a better job.  As previously mentioned, the software and support they provided were top notch (often remedying issues withing minutes of the forum post, email or twittered message).  I’m not sure if Julian Ridden (aka @moodleman) ever slept since Thursday.  It’s understood that the members of Moodle.org and Pukunui (http://moodle.com.au) were available 24/7 throughout the conference.  Well done.

There have been a few recaps, reflections and takeaways from attendees and presenters which provide some valuable insight into what went right, wrong, etc. with the conference this year, and perhaps what can be improved upon in the future.

From David Mudrak’s blog, a post about presenting:

Invest time into preparing the slides or demonstration – these kind people come to your session and they are going to spend an hour just listening to you – paying their attention to what you say. Give them clear sign that their presence is important to you and that you were preparing for it. Tim Hunt had a great idea using questions in the new Quiz module as a way to show his slides. It was clear he was carefully thinking about what to say and how to explain it in advance. (David Mudrak @ http://blog.mudrak.name)

A keen thought about the session replays (it was mandatory that sessions ran live the first time, but after presenters could simply attend the replays for quick Q&A.  Note that my 1st presentation was at 2:30PM, but the subsequent replays and Q&A sessions were schedule for 8:30PM and 2:30AM.).

Whilst it is unreasonable to ask presenters to deliver the same presentation three times, the recorded session don’t have the same vibe as the live ones, especially you can’t ask ‘live’ questions. (Nitin Parmar @ http://colligo.wordpress.com/)

Additionally the conversation has spilled to the k-12 forum on Moodle.org.  There Colin Matheson is working to figure out how best to introduce Moodle to more teachers (http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=143218):

Just finished the session led by Tomaz [Lasic] at the iMoot about how teachers use (or don’t use Moodle) and how to encourage use (especially constructivist use).

Would love to hear:

-ideas about how you promote Moodle use at your school
-examples of good Moodle use
-types of training/professional development
-amount of admin support
-what your students think about your Moodle

Two tips I will share to kick off the discussion:

1 Use the feedback module to create survey your kids on how they like/use Moodle. Then publish results to teachers.

2Email “the top Moodle sites” every once and a while to staff to highlight active courses and creative uses. (Front Page Admin Block->Reports->Course Overview)

Looking forward to more stories and tips.

Perhaps that’s a good topic for next year?

Irregardless, if you attended you certainly came away with new ideas and tricks for your Moodle (and if you didn’t, check any of these create presentations: Enabling Accessible Multimedia for Moodle, SCORM you’ll write home about, Funny things happened when I learned to use the forum, or Forum: The Heart Beat of Moodle.  I’m still thinking about Lewis Carr’s Making Moodle Funky.  Really excellent stuff.  Check out the video below for a teaser (note that you’ll see shots of a real working Moodle site with some amazing modifications, some of which are available to download for FREE):

For the official iMoot videos check out http://www.youtube.com/user/imoot2010.

More to come on iMoot for sure.

Here are some of the distilled resources:

• Pink Floyd music video: http://tubechop.com/watch/49562
• 5 Principles of Moodle/Moodle philosophy: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Philosophy
• Moodle’s progression of pedagogy: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Pedagogy#Progression
• What can Moodle do for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgSkE1K9g_E

Here’s the last video (created by Mary Cooch aka the @Moodlefairy) embedded:

I want to be sure to share my presentation as effectively as possible, so please find my presentation (in it’s entirety, however without audio) embedded below.  This is the presentation description:

Presenter: Joseph Thibault
Content: Moodle is a wonderful tool for administering classes, but how does it work, and how can you leverage it’s weaknesses and strengths to create robust courses and sell them through a Moodle site? This presentation will discuss the issues and benefits of using Moodle for enterprise and how you can easily create great, protected content to be sold to your audience. I’ll be discussing my experience working with two case studies,

1. asynchronous, certificate programs: I’ve worked for several years on a Moodle that provides professional certifications and continuing professional development to a niche market. Around 100 students have taken and completed the course series in order to receive their certification.
2. synchronous graduate-level professional development: I’ve also worked to develop and re-develop professional development courses for teachers. These courses are facilitated and incorporate much more student engagement through forums and facilitator feedback for grades.

These cases both successfully use Moodle to sell courses online. The presentation will highlight my experiences with working with Moodle and my advise and lessons learned for those who aim to do the same.

Feel free to share-alike.

Selling Courses with Moodle by Joseph Thibault is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at joseph.thibault@gmail.com.

Big changes are coming with the release of Moodle 2.0

• files will now be stored in the database instead of individual course folders – pros: this will create a more flexible file system and will allow the same files to be used across courses much more easily.  Cons: no more FTPing into a course
• the Navigation Dock: this is a very new addition to Moodle which creates a cool “dock” that keeps the Administration block and my courses links handy at all time.  The information/links available change dynamically as you navigate through Moodle, contingent on your role and what page/course you are located on.  Seems like a very good improvement to efficiency in navigating.
• adding Images: images can now more easily be uploaded and selected, what’s more available to embed in any text area are all images previously uploaded to the site and through a neat API, your Flickr account images as well.

• Repository API: Martin and his staff are aiming to connect Moodle to many existing content repositories, such as Google Docs, Youtube and more.  The coolest part is that Moodle can “push” content to Google Docs (so you can save online text, discussion posts, etc. to your Google Docs portfolio).

• expanded but simplified “add a resource“: instead of the current choices, the Add a Resource menu has been reduced to Folder, URL, File, Page, IMS-package, Label.
• major theme overhaul: the road-map for theme changes is updated frequently http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Theme_changes
• mobile Moodle: perhaps one of the most important aspects of Moodle2.0 is that it will be the first version to prompt a concerted effort by Moodle.org to create an iPhone application (for Moodle integration).  Unfortunately development will not begin before 2.0 is released.
• community hub: this is perhaps the most exciting development efforts of all, the community hub will connect Moodle sites, allow users to post their courses to a central site and provide a means to search, browse, grab and reuse previously created course information.

What isn’t changing?

• Basic UI and layouts.  All of the resources and activities will keep the familiar form driven choices (though some of those choices are changing in order to simplify and re-organize commands)

Here’s Martin’s entire presentation (hosted on Slideshare.net)

No?  What are you waiting for?  The cost to attend is only AU$45 (~US$40) and gives you amazing access to the presentations and keynotes.

From the site:

If you have not registered for iMoot2010 then your time is fast running out. With sessions now filling up we urge those still not registered to do so ASAP. Remember the iMoot only costs AU$45 and will give you access to the best speakers on Moodle from around the world. These include:

• Tomaz Lasic (Australia)
• Miles Berry (United Kingdom)
• Ludo Alier (Barcelona)
• Alex Buchner (Germany)
• David Muldrak (Czech Republic)
• Stuart Mealor (New Zealand)
• And many more…

Not to mention hearing Keynotes from:

• Martin Dougiamas , Founder and Project Lead of Moodle, who will be outlining Moodle’s Past, Present and Future (Did someone say Moodle 2?)
• Helen Foster, Moodle Community Manager, who will be sharing some of the many stories from the Moodle Community that promises to be a very insightful session.

Your entry fee gives you access to ALL sessions as well as recordings of these sessions for reference after the conference. That’s a lot of awesome Moodle resources and talent for just AUS$45. You also have access to our discussion forums and Twitter channel.

So if your not registered already you can find information at the following links.

• Conference Program
• REGISTER NOW link
• Contact US

Still not sure?  Come and learn how to develop synchronous or asynchronous courses that are sold on the web.  Moodle Monthly editor, Joseph Thibault will be discussing two case studies and his experience in helping businesses use Moodle to develop, sell and support courses online.  This session will take place on Thursday, February 4th at 2:30 PM PST (5:30 PM EST).

The block appears to be a simple way to add the posts of a specific Twitter user, or even a specific Twitter hashtag term as a search parameter.  It’s a great way to incorporate dynamic content and information pertinent to your course through the use of hashtags.  For example terms like #biology, #globalwarming, #moodle, and #google all provide an ongoing source of current events, comments and other information.  Teachers and students could even make their own hashtag in order to follow events or conferences on Moodle (#imoot2010 is one such example).

This is a screen shot of the block as showcased on Moodle.org:

For more information or to download visit: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=3326

A special thanks to Paul Vaughn for stopping by and letting us know about the new block.