[Moodle] Moodle on Netspace

Chris Ellis ellis.christopher.l at edumail.vic.gov.au
Wed Dec 20 18:48:58 EST 2006 

Hi Keith,

The reason it looks so different is that the school website is no longer a
moodle site. By start of term our moodle it will be accessible by
www.lornep12.vic.edu.au/moodle. Currently it's in-house on another server
and I haven't found the time to migrate it to our webserver.

For the main website I am using Expression Engine (EE) from
www.pmachine.com. Expression Engine is an open source/commercial hybrid.
There is a free EECore and a licensed full version (about $150 for 12 months
with free upgrades and access to professional support as well as forum
support).

My year 11 son, Narada, has built the site for me so far. The school agreed
to pay him for his hours. He's a self-taught wiz with php (and he was one of
only 5 students in the state to get a 50 study score for VET Multimedia so
I'm a very proud Dad!)

EE runs with php and mySQL. It's a blogging engine with a difference. You
can have as many blogs as you like with all the usual things like
categories, comments, user administration, antispam, lots of third party
plugins and extensions (you can also write your own). The EE functions are
php files which are invoked within html by the use of simple tags and
parameters. You can create your own html from scratch or use templates and
style with css. On the school site Narada has created the html and css from
scratch based on a five column layout grid.

EE blogs are functionally data containers for content management. You can
use them like blogs or you can think of them as content. You can store the
html for static pages in a blog. EE is therefore very flexible and powerful.
The pro version comes with a built in Gallery and wiki and you can purchase
a forum module. If you check out some of the showcase site linked at
pmachine you will find some amazing examples. It has it's limitations (like
all these things) but I heartily endorse it. And if there's something
missing you can roll your extensions and plugins because it's all open
source.

If you check out the pMachine forums, you will find pro web-developers using
it for most of their commercial work with comments like "I can do in a day
what used to take a week, and provide almost anything a client wants and
quickly."

If you have any questions for Narada, I'm sure he'd be happy to answer and I
can provide his email address.

As much as I love Moodle, I wasn't entirely satisfied with it as a school
portal so I looked at other options. To learn how EE worked, I created a
website for the band I play in www.highandlonesome.com. I've managed to get
the RSS feeds happening, both in and out of the site, plus podcasting and
links to iTunes, so I'm pretty happy with its flexibility.

As with Moodle, it will take a few years to build the culture within the
school and community to really bring the school website to life. I want as
many staff and students involved with it as possible so that content is
always changing. Being in Lorne, we're looking at plugging in a digital
weather station and eventually a surf-cam - all part of trying to create a
site that people will come back to again and again.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season and new year.

Cheers

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: moodle-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:moodle-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Keith Richardson
Sent: Wednesday, 20 December 2006 3:53 PM
To: The Moodle Users' in Schools Mailing List
Subject: RE: [Moodle] Moodle on Netspace

Chris - I just visited "www.lornep12.vic.edu.au." and have one question
- HOW DID YOU CODE THE PAGE HEADER? I am used to doing coding, and I do
extensive work in Moodle, but I want a quick and straightforward access
point to adjusting the Moodle appearance please. Can you provide me with
a pointer or two?
Cheers, Keith




On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:33:14 +1100, "Chris Ellis"
<ellis.christopher.l at edumail.vic.gov.au> said:
> As a total beginner, my research suggested that Ubuntu was the rising
> star
> of Linux. I also like their ethos. And the desktop PC on a CD concept is
> fantastic and free!
> 
>  
> 
> So far Ubuntu has been good. The biggest challenge initially was working
> out
> Linux RAID and Logical Volume Management.
> 
>  
> 
> As I'm using it purely as a web/web app server I didn't want any GUI
> desktop
> stuff and the flashing white cursor took me back to early DOS days.
> 
>  
> 
> Meanwhile I've managed to upgrade the OS - took about 15 minutes (try
> that
> with Windows Server & IIS), installed Webmin to provide a gui interface
> for
> configuring etc.
> 
>  
> 
> The school web site is up and under construction using Expression Engine
> www.lornep12.vic.edu.au <http://www.lornep12.vic.edu.au/> . I've setup a
> couple of mediawiki sites for some yr 7/8 projects. I've figured out some
> apache aliases for organising the web root.
> 
>  
> 
> There is a way of using Webmin through normal port 80 using reverse
> proxy,
> but the documentation isn't clear so it's not working yet (all server
> work
> has to be done at school).
> 
>  
> 
> With report season etc, I haven't had the time to configure email and ftp
> services yet either. I'm planning to host a community arts project
> website
> that the school will be involved in so I guess that means setting up a
> virtual host in Apache and maybe a local DNS service using BIND if
> necessary.
> 
>  
> 
> Big learning curve, but I enjoy that kind of thing. It just takes time.
> Overall, the experience has been great. It's so easy to add, remove
> applications, upgrade etc - once you get the hang of how these things are
> done.
> 
>  
> 
> Maybe we need an Ubuntu list?
> 
>  
> 
> Cheers
> 
>  
> 
> Chris
> 
>  
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: moodle-bounces at edulists.com.au
> [mailto:moodle-bounces at edulists.com.au]
> On Behalf Of Roland Gesthuizen
> Sent: Tuesday, 12 December 2006 3:04 PM
> To: The Moodle Users' in Schools Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Moodle] Moodle on Netspace
> 
>  
> 
> Interesting Chris .. what do you think of the Ubuntu LAMP server?
> 
>  
> 
> I was fascinated to read why a Linux hard disk drive doesnt need to be
> fragmented and its technical advantage over a Windows NTFS formatted hard
> disk drive. I had suspected as much .. this page explains the details for
> lay users like me. :-) 
> 
>  
>
http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/index.php/2006/08/17/why_doesn_t_linux_need
> _defragmenting
> 
>  
> 
> Regards Roland
> 
>  
> 
> On 12/12/06, Chris Ellis <ellis.christopher.l at edumail.vic.gov.au> wrote: 
> 
> Hi Ian,
> 
> I was using the Netspace Netspace Virtual Classroom moodle for about a
> year.
> It was great to get going with. 
> 
> But as with the rest of Netspace, quality of service is not really good
> enough - we've had no less than half a dozen ACS/Filter proxy issues in
> the
> last week, and this has been going on for months.
> 
> Having invested all my coursework into the NVC moodle my classes were 
> stuffed when it was off the air - probably 3 days down time over the
> year. I
> also ended up with a forum posting issue that was never resolved. The NVC
> support process is take a ticket and we'll get back to you over the next 
> couple of days. Often time I had to put in a personal call to Mike
> D'Monte
> to get support action happening in a timely manner.
> 
> In frustration, I installed Moodle on the local file server using XAMPP
> under windows and it worked a charm, although only available on the LAN. 
> 
> Meanwhile I've bought an ACER 530 server, installed Ubuntu LAMP server,
> had
> DE&T allow it as a webserver and will be migrating Moodle to it before
> the
> end of the year (yikes). The webserver has 2 network connections - one
> for 
> the wide world, and the other for the LAN. There is a simple php config
> for
> Moodle which serves the Moodle locally over the LAN (to avoid IP traffic)
> and still allows web browsing from outside of VicSmart. Must remember to
> get
> 
> VicSmart to add out Moodle to the Edulist for free traffic for the admin
> network.
> 
> Under this setup, Moodle will still work regardless of having internet
> access functioning.
> 
> Hope this helps. The short answer is - if you don't have the tech 
> skills/support at school and Netspace aren't charging for it, give it a
> go
> while you introduce Moodle culture to your staff and students. The more
> dependent you become on it, the more you will need a more reliable
> service, 
> whether local or hosted commercially.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Chris Ellis
> ICT Coordinator
> Lorne-Aireys Inlet P-12 College
> 
> 
> 
> Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If
> received
> in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or
> using
> attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss,
> damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or
> not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files
> our
> liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any
> representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender,
> and not necessarily those of the Department of Education & Training. 
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
> Moodle Mailing List kindly supported by
> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment
> Authority
> and
> http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology
> Teachers
> Association Inc
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
> http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au
> 
> "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
> change
> the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
> _______________________________________________ 
> http://www.edulists.com.au  <http://www.edulists.com.au> - FAQ,
> resources,
> subscribe, unsubscribe 
> Moodle Mailing List kindly supported by 
> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au  <http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au> - Victorian
> Curriculum and Assessment Authority and 
> http://www.vitta.org.au  <http://www.vitta.org.au> - VITTA Victorian
> Information Technology Teachers Association Inc
> 
> 
> Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If
> received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before
> opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects.
> Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the
> negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from
> the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying any
> affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed are those
> of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the Department of
> Education & Training.
Keith Richardson
Leibler Yavneh College
Elsternwick Ph (03)9528 4911
keithcr at fastmail.fm

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Moodle Mailing List kindly supported by
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Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the Department of Education.

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