Below are just some live blogging notes and my stream of thoughts. Not organized at all but I highlighted a few key items I found interesting. Sorry if I noted anything wrong as I was listening and typing.

Panel 1 – moodle.com

Presenters: Martin Dougiamas and others (I can’t remember their names)

Ask questions directly to the moodle HQ team in Perth. What are their development processes? Where does funding come from? Who is the best foosball player?

This was just a Q & A with Martin and others at the Moodle HQ. I noted a few questions. If you haven’t already checked out the replay check it out – if you’re registered!

Question I asked:

briefly exploring an installation of moodle 2.0 dev the navigation (docking) seems a bit different and something to get used to. have you done any user groups to see how “regular” teachers will react and adapt? as an admin i witness a lot of frustration with “change” after they get used to something..

Their Response: One of Tomaz Lasic’s first jobs will be testing/working with this. They rely on people like “me” and the Moodle Tracker to help them out.

My After Thoughts: “Techy” or people like me are different than regular teachers. Regular teachers won’t go on the tracker, they don’t even know what it is. It’s the lower techy users that I’m worried about. I’m worried it will turn them away, make them frustrated. Is there any user groups strictly with teachers who are not that tech savy, users who don’t even know about the Moodle.org!

Question I asked:

will the journal module be in the core and will it be gradeable?

Their Response: The journal module will not be in the Moodle 2.0 core but still available for download if it’s kept up. The online assignment will replace it.

My After Thoughts: Isn’t there a difference between journal and online assignment? I think there are a few differences that a teacher would want in journal that isn’t in online assignment – like repeated journaling – not having a “one and done” assignment – something ongoing. I’ll have to look at this.

Question I asked:

are there major upgrades in blogs? will there be comments on blogs? also will there be an option to make the blogs a course module instead of everyone with shared courses seeing each others – lots of complaints about seeing user blog enteries they don’t care about

Their Response: There are comments on blogs already. RSS external blogs into blogs (like Wordpress). They said blogs = forums pretty much. There is a new forum type called blog forum type which looks more like a blog. Sounds interesting!

Question Asked:

In Forums: Is there any way to set a default for all users to not be subscribed to forums automatically? On that note, will Moodle 2.0 have a central place for users to control emails they get from a Moodle site? At the moment there are subscriptions (forums), message settings and settings in the profile.

Their Response: This is available at modules | forum | default you can change that.

My After Thoughts: I either heard wrong and they didn’t mean this or it will be in Moodle 2.0. I’m not sure, but I couldn’t find this in my Moodle 1.9.7 version.

Other Notes:

The Feedback module will NOT be in the Moodle 2.0 core which was planned before. They also talked about how the Questionnaire and Feedback module will somehow work together and merge into something new called “Survey”. This will combine the best features and allow Questionnaires and Feedback to transfer into a “Survey”.

I’m not sure if “Survey” will totally replace both modules and if so I’m not sure when.

B-04: Making Moodle Funky by Bending the Code!

Presenter: Lewis Carr

AWESOME session!

• quick edit – turn editing on – change weeks/topics, short code, more settings on the course homepage instead of having to go into the Course Settings – not on moodle.org plugins/modules – hard coded.
• Sweet Moodle user and course ajax search – very useful for admins – I would use this every day.
• Course Format: no weeks or topic number — “clear format” – modified weekly topics format and told it not to display the numbers
• moodle bar (like on the iMoote site) – will be publicly available soon – go to moodle tracker and his website
• iphone theme – iphone theme in own folder “We detected an iphone theme would you like to switch to iphone theme?
• iphone app/mobile will include all features..like quiz… use it as a “student response system”.. YES
• user agent switch – test in different browsers

Just a few recent links I found through Twitter, RSS feeds, etc.

• Around the Corner-MGuhlin – Installing Apache on Ubuntu for Moodle
• Around the Corner-MGuhlin – Reflections on Moodle Blogging Course
• Around the Corner-MGuhlin – Moodle Examples
• Global Classroom – Glogster meets Moodle
• Global Classroom – Tips and Tricks – Diving into Moodle Glossaries
• Lewis Carr – Moodle Task list enhances MyMoodle page

Please comment any other recent Moodle blog posts or links you have found this week!

Lewis Carr explains how he turned his Moodle site into a nice layout and format for the iPhone without having to change the core theme. Take a look at his slides showing this.

His hack is for his site only and would be useless to just copy and paste in yours. He replies to a comment:

The stylesheet I use is a modified CSS of my current theme, it would be useless for any other theme.  The hack relies on you modifiying your existing css to add the code.  However, I am createing a stand-alone iPhone theme to work on.. -Read more

Lewis Carr has many great Moodle developments, check out his (best I’ve ever seen) http://moodle.parklane.ac.uk/. You can also  follow him on Twitter or take a look at his site.