A Compelling Reason Why You Should Go Open Source

I came across a blog post listing things the author can do in Linux but cannot do on Windows. The post is pretty much straightforward and practical. But what hit me as very insightful is the following two paragraphs:

When you learn closed-source proprietary software like Photoshop or Office, you have spent your time indenturing yourself to a lifetime of spending $700 every so many years. And the same goes for every company you work for that you insist you need Office or Photoshop. And if you don't think that your company's expenses affect your salary, think again.

Conversely, if you take the time to learn open and free systems like Linux, Gimp, or OpenOffice, you now have given yourself a lifetime of perpetually free software. The value of that is quite profound. No more worrying about installing Office on more than one computer and running into activation issues. I have OpenOffice installed on all 5 computers I own, and my flash drive where I can run it on any computer I wish.

Of course, proprietary software shops will not agree. It is alright with me but only as long as they churn out good, reasonably-priced, standards-compliant software. And that they do not use their market position to edge out competitors.

Summer Classes

It has been a while since my last post. I am busy with my two classes this summer, both BMAT2 (Math of Investment). I have been "operationalizing" what I have in mind as regards my teaching. In fact, I will be bringing my classes tomorrow to the eClassroom for their quizzes.

The items were originally encoded in OpenOffice.org Writer. I then created the Moodle "questions" in my laptop-based Moodle installation, doing mostly cutting and pasting between the two applications. I then exported the Moodle questions to the GIFT format, saved the file in my USB drive, and, once inside the campus, imported the GIFT file back into the College's Moodle system. Perfect!

And today, I was able to upgrade my office PC to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn and was rewarded with something I did not expect from an old machine -- I got Beryl running! I feel like showing the exciting effects to everyone :-) If you are in DLS-CSB, you can drop by the office for a visual treat. (Offer is good until May 15, 2007 only).

Notes on My Screencasts Project

This morning, I explored the screencast producer I have in mind (Camtasia). Although the latest version is 4.0, what we have in the College is just version 1.1. But I think it will do. Here are my exploration notes:

1. 5 Steps in Recording: (1) Open Camtasia Recorder > (2) Select input (Do you want the whole screen? Just a window? A region? A fixed region?) > (3) Record (Just press F9) > (4) End recording (Press F10) > (5) Save video.
2. 800x600 is a good size for a screencast. Set the screen resolution system-wide to this value before you start recording.
3. If you have a not-so-powerful machine, turn off hardware acceleration to get better videos.
4. Configure Camtasia Recorder's Annotation, Audio and Cursor settings to get something other than what the default values give.
5. Generating a Flash file from the original video is a good idea. Flash files can be viewed on many platforms. And my 1,111 kb .avi test file was converted to just a 202 kb .swf file.
6. It is advised to make multiple short recordings instead of one large recording. These short recordings can be stitched together later if you need to have it that way.
7. It is good practice to prepare a script and documentation for each project.

From Kuhala Bay Resort

I just came back from a two-day planning activity held in Kuhala Bay Resort, Cardona, Rizal. It is a nice place, with a nice view of Laguna Lake. Here is nice picture of the lake and a portion of the venue from the many pictures I took:



I was with my colleagues from the Math and Science Area. I also brought along my wife and our five kids since she will be leaving for Japan tomorrow (April 11). She will be there until July 9. We did not see another opportunity to be together with the children anymore before she leaves other than them joining me in this two-day activity. So, the whole gang went. As usual, Mareng Annie made sure we had a good time.

We essentially had four groupings -- NATSCI (Area?), ALGEBRA, BMAT2 and ELEMSTA. On the first day, the groups reported on their accomplishments in relation to last year's operational plan, citing strengths and weaknesses of the plan, and giving recommendations to address the weaknesses or enhance the strengths. This morning, plans for the coming school year were also presented.

I gave inputs to two groups -- ELEMSTA and BMAT2. I also volunteered to share teaching techniques (how am I able to attain 100% coverage of the syllabi?) and materials (in particular, the ones which enable me to cover what are in the syllabi). I am sure that the others have some techniques and resources to share as well. We will no doubt benefit from such sharing activities, something like an area kapihan. For example, I proposed that we create screencasts on the use of Microsoft Excel's Analysis ToolPak. This add-in is usually the one used in introducing students to the concept of technology-based tools which they can use when working on Statistics problems. I hope to present one prototype later for my colleagues' comments and suggestions. Their inputs will give me ideas on how to produce the remainder of the set. Once finished, the screencasts can be used by anyone teaching ELEMSTA as additional resources.

I also suggested the production of video clips of problem solving for distribution to students and using, for example, Moodle in their expressed desire to create test item banks. (More on these in future posts.)

To be useful, these and other ideas must be translated to something concrete and working. It will be busy days ahead.

Installing Moodle In A PC

Moodle usually runs on servers. Why would anyone want to install Moodle in a desktop or laptop PC? Well, it is great for testing features! Trying to figure out how various configurations affect quizzes or how the Lesson module works? Having his own Moodle installation allows anyone to test these and other features to his heart's delight.

I will outline here the steps one needs to take to install Moodle in his Windows PC:

Step 1: Download and install WAMP5

• Get the executable file from http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php (As of this writing, the latest is 1.7.0)
• Run the executable file (wamp5_1.7.0.exe) and follow the instructions
  
• Once running, WAMP5's icon can be seen in the Window's notification area; clicking on it will give you access to various settings
  

Step 2: Install the GD library

• Click on WAMP5's icon in the notification area
• Go to PHP settings > PHP extensions and choose php_gd2
  

Step 3: Create a database for Moodle

• Open a web browser and go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/
• Type moodle in the Create new database field
• Click on the Create button
• Close the browser
  

Step 4: Download and install Moodle

• Get the zip file from http://download.moodle.org (As of this writing, the latest is 1.8)
• Extract the file (moodle-1.8.zip) inside c:\wamp\www
• Open a web browser and go to: http://localhost/moodle
• Follow the instructions
• Note: When in the Configuring the database part, type root in the User field

If installation is successful, you will see this screen:



You can now do personal and frequent testing on Moodle! Just point your browser to http://localhost/moodle whenever you like.