Check out these exclusive images of the iPad app, mBook …sweet : )

Mobile Moodle is already a hot topic and I see it only getting more steam as more and more developers work on projects. Student response systems? Psh, give me a classroom set of iPod touches or a few iPads, an LCD projector and a Moodle course!

Related:

• Moodlenews.com
• Twitter – @moodlenews

Packt Publishing, a technical and IT book store, has recently started offering attractive discounts for customers who wish to buy books in bulk. Customers who purchase 2-4 books will receive an 18% discount, while customers who purchase 5-10 books will receive a 20% discount off the books’ cover prices! If you wish to purchase more than 10 books a larger discount is possible.

If you’re not familiar with Packt Publishing, it’s a great place to find quality books about IT and open source topics. Personally, I have read (off the top of my head) 4+ Packt Pub Moodle books and I have more on my “to read” list.

These new discount offers are perfect for Moodlers because of the quality and quantity of books about Moodle they have to offer (and more to come). Whether it’s 2-4 books or if you’re ambitious and would like to purchase 5-10. Another great idea is to request at your workplace a bulk purchase of books for professional development! I actually did this last winter at the old school district I used to work at, too bad this offer wasn’t available back then!

Happy reading!

Related

• Packt Publishing
• New discounts launched on purchases of multiple books
• Follow @PacktPub on Twitter

Check out my review of Moodle 1.9 Theme Design on Moodle News.

• Follow @moodlenews on Twitter
• Follow @packtpub on Twitter

I’m very excited to read and review two books from Packt Publishing.

Moodle 1.9 Theme Design: Beginner’s Guide

• Create your own Moodle theme from the graphic design stage right through to the finished complete Moodle theme
• Offers design examples and ways to create appropriate themes for different student age groups and styles
• Effective planning for creating and modifying new themes, customizing existing themes, and enhancing them further
• Clear focus on beginners with ample screenshots and clear explanations to facilitate learning

Moodle 1.9 Extension Development

• Develop your own blocks, activities, filters, and organize your content with secure code
• Thoroughly covers key libraries of Moodle and best practices to use them
• Explore the Moodle architectural concepts, how it is structured, and how it works
• Detailed examples and screenshots for easy learning

These two books are probably the most exciting to me to begin reading out of all the Packt Publishing books I’ve read. I’m currently into the 3rd chapter of the Theme Design book, which I will be reviewing on MoodleNews.com. It should be posted on Moodle News within a few weeks and the Extension book I will be reviewing on this blog.

Back in January Helen Foster wrote a blog post telling about all of the “official” Moodle Twitter accounts. I just wanted to remind users of them!

• @moodle – The official Moodle.org Twitter account
• @moodleplugins – Tweets about newly added modules and plugins to the database
• @moodlethemes – Tweets about newly added themes to the database and other Moodle theme news
• @moodledev – Tweets about the CVS
• @moodlesecurity – Security announcements
• @moodlejobs – Job offerings and wanted job that are Moodle-related

If you don’t already use Moodle, I highly recommend joining and following the above Twitter accounts and check out this awesome WeFollow – Moodle site, where it lists the top Moodlers on Twitter. That link is the place to start when trying to find good Moodlers on Twitter.

As I mentioned before I wrote a series of blog posts on Moodle Monthly recently and now it’s been put together into a book! Joseph Thibault (creator of Moodle Monthly) was kind enough to put together the posts and publish “Once Upon a Moodle Install” on LuLu.com. Big thanks to him and Moodle Monthly!

This is the full account of a Moodle implementation in a large school district in the USA. The guide writes about the planning, development, roll-out, training and important tips and tricks of managing a successful learning management system integration.

I wanted to take a little time out to talk about this pretty cool company that I’m consulting and working with– IT4Educators. IT4Educators is a site that provides educators with affordable online technology integration courses for college credit. In courses, learning is applied by creating classroom content:

Start with your own curriculum, and add Atomic Learning video clips on the most  innovative technology tools available—from Twitter to blogs, Moodle® to SMART™ Notebook.

And since they use Moodle it’s..

Online and self-paced.
The interactive courses are created and delivered in Moodle by highly-trained practicing educators in the field to help you stay ahead of each new generation of digital learners.

And that’s also where I come in. I work with and maintain their Moodle install along with starting up their IT4Educators Blog which will consist of quality posts about tech integration. I’ll also be writing “Moodle Moments” for the blog every so often which I will refer to in future Moodlerific blog posts.

I’m very excited to work with IT4Educators and I think it’s a great way for educators to get credits needed. I’m also excited about helping with their online web presence and getting their blog up and off the ground. The instructors at IT4Educators are some great tech leaders and will be providing useful resources and posts on the blog.

A recent piece of exciting news is that IT4Educators has joined forces with Atomic Learning

IT4Educators collaborates with Atomic Learning to offer teachers technology integration courses for college credit
The online, anytime, anywhere format you enjoy with Atomic Learning is now available in courses for college credit in cooperation with IT4Educators. Founded by an experienced technology educator, IT4Educators offers affordable 1-, 2-, and 3-credit courses that are all aligned with ISTE’s National Technology Standards.

Check out IT4Educators course listing – some courses include Google™ Integration, Using Technology to Implement Theme-Based Activities, Digital Storytelling in the Classroom, Twitter in Education, SMART Notebook Software in the Classroom and many more!

If you’re not interested in taking any classes check out the IT4Educators Blog for tech integration resources, ideas, tools and thoughts. Like I said, I will also be providing the blog with some “Moodle Moments” (name pending ha) posts and cross referencing that blog with Moodlerific.

Related

• IT4Educators Official Site
• IT4Educators Blog
• Follow @it4educators on Twitter!
• Atomic Learning

I’ve recently taken an interest in a few Moodle.org Moodle courses. The first is Teaching and Learning with Moodle which is facilitated by Tomaz Lasic.

An organised, curated point for educators, new and experienced Moodle users alike to find out about Moodle, find quality links to sources of further information, collaborate on projects and share their best practices in teaching of children and adults in a range of settings.

This is a new course but long overdue! I’m very excited to learn and share here. One cool thing that Tomaz created in the course was a clever little resource called “Moodle Recipes for Educators – a community cookbook” where people can add examples of how they’re using Moodle in education. I haven’t added anything yet but plan to : )

The other course I’m going to mention is Moodle for Business Uses facilitated by Ralf Hilgenstock and Stuart Mealor. I just found this course today through a Linkedin Moodle group. I haven’t fully explored this course but I hope to get something out of it as I work with a business that uses Moodle for their courses.

This course is for discussing and sharing ideas about using Moodle for

* paid courses – where entrepreneurial businesses provide courses to customers in return for payment
* corporate education – where companies are implementing a site for internal courses

Take a look at all of the courses on Moodle.org.