To Moodle or NOT to Moodle…..

That is the Question.

The initial impression I have of Moodle is the visual design and content hierarchy is very different than Blackboard, and this is something that concerns me as far as retraining faculty to migrate from BB to Moodle. I can hear my faculty now: “Just when we feel comfortable teaching on BB now we have to learn a whole new online course management system. Uhgg!” I like the messaging feature and the fact that I can turn content and various features on and off so students are not overwhelmed with initially seeing so much course content and options when they log in. I also like the wiki and blog features - I would like to see this in Blackboard. My first impression is not totally favorable based on the layout and design, but once I explore Moodle and get more familiar with it, I am sure my impressions will change.

Students can upload large files, multiple files, pictures and submit for marking by clicking a button for marking. They can also upload any type of file to include audio and video files.

The assignments feature is very different than blackboards and there are some things I like about it, yet it doesn’t seem very user friendly to me IF you and your students are using to Blackboard’s Assignment Manager. I want to play with the overall course design and see just how much I can make it visually more interesting with a better visual hierarchy and various focal points that leads the student around the key areas of the Moodle interface.

Check out my Distance Learning Blog for more information about visual hierarchies - see Module II linked at the top of the Blog. I suppose what it all boils down to is COST. Since Blackboard is getting more and more expensive “open source” course management systems like Moodle are going to become more and more appealing to college administrator’s. If $$ is no object then I would stick with BB because I am very familiar with it and I like its functionality, interface and overall design AND it does what I want it to do as an instructor. If you are creative you can incorporate more “right brained” methodologies (strategies) into your course blackboard. It is like anything else…many online instructors will go with the defaults throughout the course management system and I don’t think it really matter what CMS you are using IF you are an innovative (creative) online teacher. A proactive online instuctor who knows his/her content and how to teach it in the online environment will be able to use any CMS and be successful.

I have some real concerns about the discussion board, although the groups feature is pretty cool. I think it all goes back to what you are used to. I need to spend some serious time with Moodle to see if it is a viable option for me and CCC.

I want to import my Art Appreciation class into Moodle and truly scrutinize this learning platform - this is the only way I will be able to give it a true assessment - all I am able to do right now is get a visual snap shot of its features and what applications and options it has - I don’t have a feel for its functionality especially with 25 students interacting with me.

The Moodle gradebook at first glance seems as sophisticated as BB with possibly even more viable options for grading and giving feedback to students. You also have lots of options in the discussion board as far as viewing, evaluating and grading student posts. So the more I am exposed to Moodle the more impressed I am with it - it just goes back to getting familiar with a new system and getting our faculty and students acclimated to it.

I spoke with Randall from WCC and I am going to set-up a section of Art Appreciation on Moodle as a test pilot and teach it for him sometime in the future when they are ready to move forward with this initiative.

The bottom line to all this is $$$$$$$$$ - it is that simple. The conversation at lunch revolved around how Blackboard is pricing itself out of our Community College market and we as DL Directors and Administrators are going to have to come up with alternatives and back-up plans if and when the time comes to completely rethink how we are going to offer our online courses.

As this workshop evolves I am seeing just how flexible Moodle is as far as changing the visual LOOK and DESIGN of the pages. That was a big concern for me being a visual person.

Day 2 Moodle Workshop

I initially attempted to export my Blackboard into a Moodle Template that I created and it didn’t work. It may have been because my Art Appreciation Blackboard was too big, however I looked at the instructor next to me and hers didn’t translate well at all so she decided to start from scratch moving the content. Blackboard’s interface is so different that I don’t see how exporting courses is going to work - it is going to take the same amount of man hours to literally copy and paste the content over to Moodle.This is what I am doing now, however I am having difficulty getting my mind wrapped around this new content management system - the visual hierarchy is very different that Blackboard and I am so used to BB it is a matter for me of completely RETHINKING how I teach my online classes. I felt excited about Moodle when I left the workshop yesterday but now I am a bit frustrated and am exploring how to reconfigure and redesign my class.

After 2 hours this morning of essentially playing with Moodle and going back and forth between my Blackboard Art Appreciation course and the one I was trying to build in Moodle I finally experienced a low level epiphany and started getting my mind around this course management interface. I am not ready to say whether I like it or not yet, however I feel as though I can make it work for ma and teach on it - in fact…I plan to teach a section of Art Appreciation for Randall at WCC this fall. With that said I need to go ahead and finish moving all my content over while Moodle is still relatively familiar to me.

Observations after the Moodle Workshop.

1. It is nothing like Blackboard that’s for sure.

2. It is NOT going to be easy for blackboard users to migrate their courses over to Moodle. I suggest copy and pasting the content over as raw html - this keeps the links and formatting intact for the most part although you still have to tweak your pages.

3. From what I have seen so far each online instructor is going to have to modify (change, alter, rethink) his/her teaching methodology to coincide with the Moodle interface.

4. I certainly don’t see this as a seamless migration and faculty and students alike coming from a Blackboard environment are going to experience some initial frustrations as they climb the Moodle learning curve.

5. Moodle is a different kind of Course Management animal and doesn’t seem very intuitive to me, however I will suspend my judgment until I can complete the process of moving my course over and teaching a section in the Fall.

6. Distance Learning coordinators and directors be prepared for lots of griping, frustration, resentment and anxiety on the part of your online faculty and students) who are experienced (veteran) Blackboard users.

Check out my DL Blog for my future thoughts on this and other instructional design and DL Issues.
CCC DL BLOG

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On Seeing…

Photo by Murry

I took my students on a photo field trip last Wednesday to a local boat yard. I’ve been taking my portfolio students to this particular boat yard in Beaufort for probably 15 years and it amazes me how I can continue to find unique and interesting photographs in the midst of dry docked boats, strewn multi-colored nets, old rusted rigging and scattered paint cans.

Rust and Net

I try to teach my students about the Art of Seeing. Yes…it is an art to be able to frame and isolate interesting, unique, visually dynamic compositions in any environment and/or situation. It’s all about developing a heightened awareness of our surroundings and becoming more sensitive to the little details around us. So many people walk around and miss experiencing the nuances of the world around us and as photographers we must learn to develop an EYE for the subtleties…the magical little details that can be framed and made into wonderful abstract compositions. As I mentioned in my last Blog - its a matter of breaking external reality down into the interrelationship of lines, shapes, colors, textures and values and not be to caught up on the subject itself.

I can always go back to the boat year and extract and isolate unique compositions because there are literally thousands of them waiting to be framed and captured. Its just a matter of SEEING Photographically - SEEING the details and being more HYPER AWARE of the world around us.

Click here for Slide Show of Boat Yard Photographs

Check out this guy’s Blog from India. He has a great post about Photography and What Makes a Great Shot.

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On Photography…..

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been seriously making photographs since 1973. I began my photographic journey in 1973 when I was a junior at New York Institute of Technology on Long Island, New York.  I was a Communication Arts major specializing in Television / Radio Broadcasting when I took a photography course my junior year.  The first time I shot a roll of Black and White film and developed it, I was hooked.  I knew, at that moment I would pursue some aspect of photography in my life. Once I got Dektol and D-76  in my blood, I began taking photographs and practicing my craft.

Here I am over thirty years after taking my first photographs for that college elective course and my passion and enthusiasm for photography has not waned and now I am the photography instructor and have been for almost 25 years since leaving the US Army as a photojournalist.

The medium of photography has undergone some incredible changes in my lifetime. It has only been a decade or so that digital technology has transformed the industry and the way we make and process our photographs.

The arts of painting, sculpture, drawing and ceramics have been with us for thousands of years. Photography on the other hand was invented approximately 175 years ago so it is still in its embryonic state compared to the other art mediums. I believe in its short span of existence as an art form it has constantly evolved and continues to reinvent itself. Even before the digital revolution in the mid-ninties photography went through a variety of technical and conceptual stages.

When you think about the History and Roots of Photography”> and its humble beginnings you just have to be amazed at how so many disparate events and people had to come together at a given point in time to take photography from a theoretical concept to a technical and practical reality.

Robert Leggat states on his History of Photography web site,

“There are two distinct scientific processes that combine to make photography possible. It is somewhat surprising that photography was not invented earlier than the 1830s, because these processes had been known for quite some time. It was not until the two distinct scientific processes had been put together that photography came into being.

The first of these processes was optical. The Camera Obscura (dark room) had been in existence for at least four hundred years. There is a drawing, dated 1519, of a Camera Obscura by Leonardo da Vinci; about this same period its use as an aid to drawing was being advocated.

The second process was chemical. For hundreds of years before photography was invented, people had been aware, for example, that some colours are bleached in the sun, but they had made little distinction between heat, air and light.”

From its initial conception in ancient time to present day photography has evolved, adapted, and reinvented itself in a variety of ways.
History of Photography Timeline

I think that is what I love about it. Even though the principles and compositional techniques of making creative, unique and dynamic photographs has not really changed over the years the technical process has continues to evolve as the technology becomes more technically sophisticated throughout the years. Its all about SEEING!.

Seeing, in the finest and broadest sense means using your senses, your intellect and your emotions.

The photographer best expresses a theme or idea by using good composition (visual design) to support the subject matter being photographed.

Good seeing begins with careful observation of what’s around you. Always strive to look at the world in a new way. As you photograph it’s important to continually change camera position, focus and depth of field.

This is when you will stop looking…and begin seeing…lines…shapes…textures…patterns…and colors you hadn’t thought possible.

By avoiding preconceived ideas about how to shoot specific subject matter you’ll truly begin to explore reality in ways that you have never experienced before. So go pick up a camera and start photographing!

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Regina’s Garden

I have always enjoyed working in the yard and to a very limited extent gardening. It has only been recently that I have gotten more interested in the art of gardening. My friend Regina is an artist and an incredible gardener. Her flower garden is as her father says, “her palette” and I must agree with him.

Pot Man

She has a real talent for taking an area of dirt and converting it to an explosion of color and texture. The light was beautiful after a thunderstorm yesterday so I took out my camera and photographically dissected the flower gardens in her back yard.

I have learned a great deal about gardening while just watching Regina at work in the dirt planting and arranging her various flowers and plants. I’ve got a long way to go to even come close to her virtuosity as a gardener. Here are some photos I took yesterday evening. I really had fun making these images because I challenged myself to come up with the best composition I could within the limitations of her back yard.

Click this Link then click the thumbnails along the left to view each image.

enjoy!

It’s Saturday morning…

and I’m sitting at the local Port City Java  waking up with a cup of house coffee. Nothing fancy…just a regular hot cup of jo. I had a fitful sleep last night battling these spring allergies. Mowed the grass yesterday afternoon and have been sniffling and breathing heavy ever since. I’m all caught up with my online course commitments so I’ll be able to take it easy today and enjoy some down time. There is a big screen TV across from me and the news flashes an endless flow of blather across the screen. I am oblivious to it because this once political junky has now sworn off the news and TV in general. I haven’t turned the television on in my house in months and don’t plan to. My stress level is lower ever since I’ve detached myself from constant bombardment of commercial, entertainment and political tripe. Instead, when I am not working or teaching online I read. That is now my new form of escape and even though it is still an escape from reality it is a healthier form in my opinion.

I just read a couple of John Grisham books (Rainmaker and The Brethren) and now I’m hooked. Never read him before, but now I will try and track down more of his books. The guy is a great writer! Ok…I guess I’ll try and find another one of his books today.

I still have to mow the front yard…I’ll probably procrastinate until later this afternoon.

cheers!

Andei’s Photography - Some Observations and Critique

I have to admit that I am impressed with my daughter Andei’s photography skills and shooting sensibility. She recently sent me some of her latest photographs and I thought I would post them here so more people could enjoy them. What really impresses me about her photographs is her persional vision - her eye. She is not afraid to look at external reality in a new and fresh way. This is what makes a good photographer. Someone who looks at things and frames pictures in new and innovative ways. I see this in Andei’s work and hopefully she will continue developing her personal style as a photographer and photographically investigate and explore the world around her in new and unique ways. Sicily has so many wonderful shooting opportunities for a young and talented photographer.

Iron Gate
In this first photograph of the gate notice the high vantage point she uses to lead you into the photograph and then the leading lines take you down the steps towards the meandering pathway. It has a great sense of depth and communicates a feeling of foreboding or maybe even excitement about the journey ahead.

Gnarly Tree

I really like Andei’s vantage point (camera angle) on this one of the gnarled tree looking down from above. Having the very top of the tree soft focus frames the tree and leads the viewers eye into the composition. There are great leading lines and what a wonderful window at the bottom of this picture with the metal grating over it and the circle above. Another very strong composition in my opinion. Sure…I am her Dad and a little biased, but I also have taught photography for 25 + years and am giving an honest critique of these images as best I can under the circumstances.

Flowers and Blue Shutters

This time Andei gets down low and shoots the flowers from below with the blue shutters of the house set-back and acting as a backdrop for this composition. Again…the key thing that impresses me is Andei’s intuitive sense NOT to photograph her subject matter from eye level. This is the first step in developing a unique personal style for any image maker.

Cathedral Interior

Wow! Here Andei manipulates this image by altering the color and solarizing it in such a way that it creates almost a surreal “otherworldly” mood that reinforces the symbolism of the church interior and gives it an etherial, spiritual mood.

Blue Fence

I’ll wrap of this mini critique with this image. This time it is the diagonal line that she creates in her tight composition of the fence that creates a sense of movement and tension in this abstract composition. I also love the texture of this as well - I can almost feel the tactile quality of the rust at the top of the fence and in the iron decorative elements that protrude from the top of the fence. The black backdrop creates a dramatic mood and helps focus all the attention directly into the picture. This shows me that Andei has the ability to SEE photographically - she pays attention to detail which is a very important atribute for any photographer.

I can’t wait to see more of Andei’s photographs. Since her Mom and I are both photographers it is exciting to see that our daughter has such innate talent at such a young age. It’s just a matter of continuing to develop and nurture your unique personal vision and photographic style Andei - that means taking lots of photographs.

Send more photos for me to post and discuss.