The K-12 Open Source Classroom

Bringing Open Source (Free and Free) into the Classroom

Posts Tagged content management systems

K-12 Online Conference

Sep 5

Posted by admin in OSS Applications, Professional Development, open source | 1 Comment

K-12 Online

K-12 Online Conference--Free!

With school in session, conference season will start ramping up again as well.  With the economy, fewer people attend conferences, but they still need the expertise and ideas they would find at a conference.  Right here is where the K-12 Online Conference (http://k12onlineconference.org/) can help.  We reviewed this conference last year (http://www.k12opensourceclassroom.org/?p=117), but basically, people from around the country and world get together for a few weeks to provide asynchronous and synchronous sessions on a variety of technology items.

The greatest thing about the conference is that EVERYONE in the field participates.  From hands-on to keynotes, everyone comes, and you can learn a lot!   Lots of sessions on all the buzz items, such as Moodle, Mahara, and other course/content management systems, open source apps, and I am guessing this year we’ll see more with Apple and Android apps. You can even earn CEUs, if needed, although check that out ahead of time.  Visit the conference and share with your friends!

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Evergreen–Open Source Media/Circulation

Aug 8

Posted by admin in OSS Applications, open source | 1 Comment

Evergreen

Open Source in the Library? Yes, With Evergreen!

Part of my professional responsibilities as CTO include working with Media Coordinators in our district.  Over the past few years, we have seen the need to upgrade our ILS applications.  These applications serve each library.  They allow for the inventory of books and media, cataloging of said materials, and other features needed in libraries.  With the opening of a new school a few years ago, they received the newest and greatest in Media Software, Destiny.  Destiny, from Follett, is like the Cadillac of library software.  It does EVERYTHING.  So obviously, we wanted that across the district.  We currently spend about $12,000 per year on support contracts for 14 schools on the older software from Follett.  To upgrade, we were looking at a minimum of $50,000, which we did not have, plus the $12,000 per year.  Ouch!

With my views, obviously, I wanted to move to open source, and I began looking at some open source applications.  Surprised, I found a few, including Evergreen and Koha.  Open source Integrated Library Systems!  Wow!  Providing the same functionality, for free.  Obviously we would continue service contracts, but if we could move to something for free, then pay for support and upgrades-wow!  I began to investigate and found that some of the services offered included migrating the existing data, getting the Evergreen box up and running, and even optional hosting of the ILS.  Wow.  Again, wow!

So when upgrading to Windows Server 2008, we discovered a new problem.  The older Follett version will go unsupported under Server 2008.  Oops.  Looks like we will give Evergreen (http://www.open-ils.org/) a very serious look now.  Stay tuned…

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Joomla! Your Open Content Management System

Aug 2

Posted by admin in OSS Applications, Professional Development, open source | 1 Comment

Joomla!

Our New K-12 Open Source Classroom Joomla! Sandbox

I serve as CTO of a school systems with 15 schools.  Right now, our Public Information Officer handles the district website.  While he does an amazing job keeping it up to date, he would be the first to tell you he would like additional functionality like photo albums, an integrated calendar, and video posting.  He runs the site using Kompozer, a great HTML WYSIWYG editor, but does not do much with CSS, advanced HTML, or other technologies.  Our schools each run their own site.  Obviously, you would see a hodge podge of web content.

About a year ago, he came to me, wanting to look at some consistency, that would also give us advanced functionality.  At the time, with some of my background, I thought of Joomla!, but really did not want to manage another CMS, after spending considerable time supporting Moodle and exploring Mahara.  We looked at some of the proprietary products out there, the eChalk/Schoolwire types, but those cost money, and even with eRate discounts, we would be on the hook for $10,000 per year or more, that we just could not afford.

This summer, the PIO will go back into the classroom and a new one will be hired.  I finally decided to seize upon the opportunity and develop Joomla!.  Joomla!, an open source content management system (http://www.joomla.org/), allows for a lot of flexibility and scalability, for school districts and other entities.  It will give us the flexibility we need, while also giving us advanced capabilities, like video and photo albums.  It will also give us the opportunity to brand our schools, keeping everything, the look, the navigation, consistent across the district.

I recently put up a demo here at K12OSC, that you can find here.  As in the picture above, I am still stuck on the template, but I hope this will become a sandbox to explore.  I also will implement another sandbox at work on a virtual machine, to just explore and construct a site.  Again, this demonstrates why open source rules.  You download and install an application, pay a support contract, if necessary, and work with a community that wants to solve the same problems you face.  Joomla!, like Moodle, comes with many built in modules and many you can install later to expand the functionality.  Great things!  So, while we embark on this project, knowing it will last the whole school year, I am excited in finding another open source solution to our problems.

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NCTIES Conference, Day 1

Mar 4

Posted by admin in Professional Development, open source | No Comments

Raleigh's Shimmer Wall

Raleigh Convention Center's Shimmer Wall, CC licensed by flickr user mcw026

Today and tomorrow finds me at our annual NCTIES ed-technology conference.  Great time to meet and mingle with Plurk users, educators, technologists, and more.  They even focus some on open source.  Today I already sat in a session on Word Press MU.  Tomorrow will be a Linux in the Classroom session.  Lots of Google sessions as well.  I will share more upcoming!

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FolioSpaces

Feb 23

Posted by admin in OSS Applications, open source | No Comments

foliospaces

Hosted e-Portfolios With FolioSpaces

With a focus on assessments, and especially those of the authentic variety, more and more we look at portfolios for student assessment.  These truly can assess a student’s knowledge over time.  The one shot test, no, not so much.  So in the 21st Century, we need a portfolio system that a school/school system can implement online.  We use Moodle in our district, and took a look at Mahara.  Moodle is the course management system, that could be used for portfolios, but definitely excels for online professional development.  Mahara is for portfolios, an open source application, that integrates with Moodle.  What I like about it, it is distinctly for portfolios.  Not like some others, where that is part of the functionality, that IS the functionality of Mahara.

So what about FolioSpaces?  FolioSpaces (foliospaces.com) actually uses Mahara for its application.  So what FolioSpaces does is provide the user with the platform, without the need to worry about updating a server, security on that server, or other technical concerns.  They also market it as a solution not only for education, but also for professional and personal reasons.  That makes a lot of sense.  If you want to create a professional portfolio, which I would suggest you do, you do not want to apply for other jobs if you have it hosted on your current employer’s site, whether a school or business.  As they say on their site:

FolioSpaces is your personal space; it moves with you

So what does FolioSpaces provide?  You receive all the functionality of Mahara: electronic portfolio, weblog, resume builder, and social networking system.  Of course, a big difference as opposed to a self-hosted Mahara would be a larger pool from which to create a social network.  Possibly a positive, if needing employment.  For schools, that also translates into lesser security, if that is a concern for your district.

Ok, so did I hook you?  Now is the time for the bloated cost, right?  A $100 a year for hosting?  $25.00 a month for support?  Nope.  As their website states, they are the world-leading FREE fully featured tool.  They do offer Premium accounts, but for just your plain jane account–free!  Definitely good for the personal side, and also good for evaluating Mahara before going through the trouble of setting up a server.  Check it out and provide an authentic way to assess your students!

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