In my previous post I failed to detail how I hacked WPMU in order to include BDP RSS & Optimal in a static page and embed YouTube videos in posts. Sorry for this oversight, below you will find the play-by-play (soon to be ported over to bavawiki).
Integrating BDP RSS & Optimal into a WP Page
In a one-off WP install this would not be a hack because you could use the Exec-PHP plug-in to quickly and easily execute the requisite PHP code for BDP RSS and Optimal in a page or post. However, WPMU intentionally disables the Exec-PHP plugin, effectively forbidding the administrator from executing PHP in pages and posts. Therefore, we have to do some minor surgery. The way I got the PHP to work in a static page is by inserting it into a custom page template (one of several ways I am sure, and not necessarily the prettiest). Here’s how:
-
To create a new page template, copy the code from the page.php file in your theme directory. (Note: I am using K2 -this may be slightly different for other themes -but the logic should be similar.) Copy the code into a blank document in your favorite text editor and include the following line of code at the very beginning of your new template:
In the space that says “Name your template here” name the template. For example, “John Smith’s English 101”.
- Once you have done this, find the following lines of code in the file:
Most Recent Posts
And copy the BDP RSS php code on the line after this code. It should look like this for the K2 theme:
Most Recent Posts
Presto, that should paste the BDP RSS feeds into the page content, just save the file with the name of your choice with a *.php extension and copy it into your current themes directory. You can the select it from the “Page-Template” drop-down menu in the right-hand sidebar when creating a new page.
Please note that you have to customize your own BDP RSS settings according to your own output logic.
- I chose to put the Optimal plugin code in the sidebar, but have enabled the sidebar widgets, I can’t really customize this space as I would like, namely only have the optimal plugin display. So, I further hacked this template to only put the PHP code for the optimal plugin in the sidebar. Replace the code
in this template with the following code:
List of Class Blogs with posts
A couple of notes here, I am using blogbridge (thanks to Darcy) to publish the OPML file for each class.
Please note, once again, that you are going to have to customize your own link and settings for the optimal plugin.
- Finally, I understand that such a process may be a tad bit laborious for a large number of classes as it stands now. But this is a work-around until there is a safe, manageable way to execute PHP code with pages and posts in WPMU. Until then, think of this as a shortcut to keep the testing and experimenting real time.
Integrating YouTube into WPMU
- This one’s a little shorter, this hack was offered by the user malandry on the WPMU forums here. Warning: there are some potential security risks for allowing embed tags in a post, so if you don’t control who is using your blogs to some degree, I would highly recommend not including the YouTube hack for WPMU.
May the force be with you, and have fun!
One Tool to Rule them All: the BLOG!
I was listening to Darcy Norman on PSU’s ETS Talk 16 (props to Cole Camplese and company), and something he said really struck home with me. To very loosely paraphrase Darcy: ed tech folks need to concentrate on providing concrete examples of how the fundamental Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs and wikis, can forge compelling online communities for teaching and learning. That’s it, Darcy! -relatively simple and all too often overlooked. When working with faculty we need to consider how far we have come with what most would agree is the driving logic behind this new wave of teaching and learning technology: blogs. How compelling have our experiments been? Can we scale them? Are they easy? Do they really enhance teaching and learning?
After listening to these sage words, I re-visited a project I have been working on for the past three weeks or so with Gardner Campbell. I am going to scoop him just a little (I’ve been know!), but all for the greater good of humanity. Gardner and I had tested Lyceum last Summer in an attempt to integrate Multi-user blogging into a couple of courses. We had some success, but he left for the University of Richmond and I started experimenting with wordpress.com. Upon his return, he mentioned that he was interested in playing with WordPress Multi-User for a class or two, and with no further adieu it was setup and the experiment was re-kindled. We installed WPMU 1.0 for the English Linguistics and Speech department and created the ELS Blogs Multi-User space for the department as a test run. His Film/Text/Culture class has been the first to adopt the blogs and boy have they gone ballistic. Including YouTube videos, screen shots, deep and reflective examinations of the texts, and a larger community of sharing and thinking -kinda like the compelling examples Darcy mentions. And while ELS Blogs has not been opened up to the entire ELS department, students started creating blogs for other classes in the space, in particular independent studies -imagining no better space to track their independent work on a topic over the course of a semester. Then it hit me, this is it -between Gardner’s unbelievable work with his own class and the unsolicited initiative of a few students, the compelling examples for a larger infrastructure of departmental (or even university-wide) multi-user blogging spaces. The trick has always been how do we organize the students personal blogs around courses? -for with this model the student is the primary unit of focus and the course a unifying secondary layer, the complete opposite of BlackBoard and their ilk. Well, after being inspired by Darcy’s comments I revisited the ELS Blogs space and slapped in two plugins I had already talked about on this blog, BDP RSS and Optimal, in order to feed the students’ blogs into a separate course space. You can see an example of these two plugins working to create a class portal of sorts feeding from WPMU here. Wham, bam, thank you WordPress!
The question then arises, can each student have this one blog space for several classes each semester and feed to different course receptacles using category feeds? I think it is possible, and that will be my next experiment. In fact, Gardner had already suggested to me in conversation that each student should have one blog that they use each semester (almost like a five-ring binder), wherein they feed their respective comments, thoughts and ideas for each course using agreed upon tags, or category feeds, or what have you. Well, with WordPress Multi-User and/or Lyceum we are there. And what I love about it all, is that it remains focused on the one fundamental tool: the blog. More particularly, this tool, as it is packaged by WordPress, is a cinch to use and can integrate all the other tools like podcasting and vodcasting seamlessly. I think we are coming real close to those concrete. compelling examples that Darcy mentions and, better yet, they are becoming increasingly more scalable every day.
Posted in WordPress Tagged blogging, Hacking a Virtual Learning Space, instructional technology, rss, web 2.0 12 CommentsOhhhhhhhhh Canada!
It’s been official for a couple of days now, I am going to Northern Voice. I have been relatively quiet because I have had to do some fancy footwork to make the arrangements, for I really didn’t believe my half-baked post would result in the fame and fortune I am now faced with. I’d like to thank all the kind folks at Northern Voice for taking my post in good fun and offering me an unbelievably cool opportunity. In particular, thanks go to Brian and Cyprien for encouraging me to apply. Also, thanks go to the folks at UMW, particularly Martha Burtis and Chip German, for aiding and abetting a known blogging outlaw. Seems like I won’t be sleeping in the MacKenzie brothers’ beer van after all! Although, even if I didn’t get all this support, I had another plan that I was dreaming up -take a look at the video below to see my inspiration.
Update: after reading this published post it sounds like I am recieving an academy award, I love how nuts I have become.
I am all fired up!Simile Timeline WordPress Plugin
You may have been experiencing some strangely empty rss feeds from bavatuesdays, but all in the name of progress! Check out the latest, a WordPress plugin using MIT’s Simile timeline for your blog posts. See a quasi-working example for bavatuesdays here. So, sorry for the tests, but what the hell -I always deliver in the end!
Next step, how to integrate this for a historical timeline within a museum exhibit using WordPress as the CMS. Can we simply manipulate the dates of the relevant posts for a particular category to make the timeline retro-fit the historical events? Hmmmm, interesting dilemma.
wordTube: I know you know
I am beside myself with glee, this is the second coming of all video plugins for WordPress. I can’t even begin to describe its genius. In a sentence, it builds in a rudimentary digital asset management system for mp3 and flv files -sick! This may be bigger than radio, or at least shortwave. But, as usual, don’t listen to me, download it and drive it around the block. Necessity truly is the mother of invention, the kicker is that you and I didn’t have to invent this one! Link.
WordPress 2.1 and K2 0.95
WordPress 2.1 and K2 version 0.95 are on the shelves. In WordPress 2.1 I really like the fact that comments has its own tab and you can batch delete links, finally! My favorite, however, is the following feature for it reinforces the fact that the folks at WordPress understand their application as a CMS, and will be developing it accordingly: “you can set any ‘page’ to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system.” Below is a more comprehensive list of new features:
- Autosave makes sure you never lose a post again.
- Our new tabbed editor allows you to switch between WYSIWYG and code editing instantly while writing a post.
- The lossless XML import and export makes it easy for you to move your content between WordPress blogs.
- Our completely redone visual editor also now includes spell checking.
- New search engine privacy option allows you take you to indicate your blog shouldn’t ping or be indexed by search engines like Google.
- Much more efficient database code, faster than previous versions. Domas Mituzas from MySQL went over all our queries with a fine-toothed comb.
- Links in your blogroll now support sub-categories and you can add categories on the fly.
- Redesigned login screen from the Shuttle project.
- More AJAX to make custom fields, moderation, deletions, and more all faster. My favorite is the comments page, which now lets you approve or unapprove things instantly.
- Pages can now be drafts, or private.
- Our admin has been refreshed to load faster and be more visually consistent.
- The dashboard now instantly updates and brings RSS feeds asynchronously in the background.
- Comment feeds now include all the comments, not just the last 10.
- Better internationalization and support for right-to-left languages.
- The upload manager lets you easily manage all your uploads pictures, video, and audio.
- A new version of the Akismet plugin is bundled.
K2 0.95 has further developed the customized header by allowing you to upload an image of any size and then crop it appropriately to the header height and width, very useful! Also, the update options layout has changed. Finally, this version is compatible with WP 2.1. Simultaneous releases like this illustrate that WordPress and K2 are working collaboratively to deliver a blogging CMS that is both easy and extensible which is powered daily by the most active community base of any open source application of its kind. Bravo WordPress and K2, you keep making my job that much easier! Now all I have to do is update my blog…
More Than Just a Game
More on ELI 2007:
Tuesday afternoon, after the accessibility presentation, I attended a session directed by Bryan Alexander on the educational implications of gaming. The format of this session was designated as a “learning circle,” which is loosely defined as “a collaborative session in which a member discusses the ‘next big thing’ they plan to pursue and seeks feedback from the participants.” I liked this format because it afforded an informal space to speak, think and propose ways to approach gaming in the classroom.Now gaming in the classroom is still on the fringes at most colleges and universities, and the questions surrounding using gaming in instruction is a complex one. What I liked about this session is that it didn’t pretend to offer clear-cut answers, but rather opened up a dialogue about gaming more generally. Bryan began with an appropriate question, “What games do you play?” After this question the session took on an organic flow that meandered through the games we all play, the “ethics” of cheat codes, the possibilities of virtual exploration, and the questions of narrative. This notion of cheating is quite interesting in relationship to gaming. Do these features of video games represent a breakdown in their educational value? Does the ability to advance through a narrative using a few codes change one’s relationship to hard work and dedication?
I think these are some key questions that need to be re-conceptualized. How do we understand the art of cheating in a more social, collaborative nexus of learners. The example I offered during the session was that a number of gamers often play the game through early upon its release then write a detailed narrative (a walk-through or FAQ) to help the novice, stuck, or lazy gamer move on to the next ‘big thing.’ Personally, I had a walk-through by my side during my whole trip through Half-Life 2. Not only because I might get stuck, but mostly because the author had framed a guide that helped me see things in this world that otherwise I might miss (a teacher of sorts). I think the distinction between collaboration and cheating is becoming increasingly blurred in the world of gaming, and re-framing this distinction in new ways may make the idea of gaming in the classroom that much more palatable.
I am a regular gamer, I usually play the old school coin-ops like Defender, Asteroids, Pac-Man, Galaxian, and Crush Roller, but I have played enough contemporary games to conceptualize a theme or two one might use to frame an entire class around. Below is the beginning of a mocked-up syllabus. It is less than perfect and desperately needs to be framed more specifically, but the topic might provide one way into gaming effectively in the classroom to think, learn and explore this immensely popular and important new media. So, here’s a rough sketch…
Popular Cinema and Gaming:
How do we define cinema? Wikipedia has to do a little disambiguation:
Cinema can refer to:
* Film, motion pictures or movies
* Movie theatre, a building in which films are shown
* Cinematography, the art of recording visual images
* Cinema 4D, high-end 3D graphics applicationThe rich and multi-layered term may offer a way into the questions surrounding format, space, recording visual images, as well as specific graphic applications of the narrative world of gaming. How do the interactive elements of narrative games intersect with popular film? How are narrative games cinematic in multiple ways? How do games augment the possibilities of spatializing (is this a word?), recording, and re-framing the filmic narrative? How are games impacting and informing the narrative and aesthetic choices of popular cinema? How are games colonizing popular cinematic genres?
Theoretical Readings:
- GAM3R 7H3ORY
- The Video Game Theory Reader
- What Video Games Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy
Required viewing/playing:
- Star Wars (1977)
- The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- The Empire Strikes Back (1982, Atari 2600)
- Star Wars (1983, Atari Coin-op Vector Game)
- Battle Front (2004)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982, Atari 2600)
Additional Games/Films to consider:- The Warriors (1979)
- The Warriors (2005, PS 2)
- Lord of the Rings (Film & Game)
- Half-Life 2 (2005)
Ok, so there is my meager attempt at an idea for teaching with and about games -what do you think? What else would you read, watch or play if you were teaching such a class? Would you even take this class?
How accessible is your campus CMS?
This is the first of a series of posts through which I will attempt to catch up on ELI 2007.
Mark Felix (Instructional Applications Support, The University of Arizona), Alan Foley (Learning Technology Liaison, University of Wisconsin System Administration) and Ken Petri (Director, OSU Web Accessibility Center, The Ohio State University) gave a really important presentation on web accessibility and campus course management systems. The title of the talk was “Improved Access to Learning for All: A Consortia’s Approach to LMS Accessibility,” and these three framed a discussion around the importance of developing a cross-campus consortia that begins to develop and define standards for campus web accessibility. Such a talk may seem to fall outside the logic of much of the “Sexier” teaching and learning technologies being presented at ELI this year such as gaming, 3d immersive worlds, podcasting, etc., yet the question of accessibility for all kinds of learners (whether for the learning impaired, hearing-impaired, visually-impaired, or economically disadvantaged) is a topic that is on many people’s minds these days (see here and here).
I think this idea of accessibility really struck home for me when Alan Foley suggested early on during his discussion that web accessibility is at its core a question of social justice. Wow, that’s it! Making all the unbelievably exciting virtual spaces we are exploring open and accessible is what makes this stuff exciting and relevant. Ken Petri went on to demonstrate the tremendous obstacles certain users face when doing something as seemingly simple as reading a web page. Using the screen reader JAWS to read a page in Ohio State’s CMS Carmen (powered by the Canadian-based company Desire2Learn), he illustrated what someone with a visual impairment would experience while browsing a page:
Computer voice reading: Navigation… space… navigation… space… frame…space.. navigation… home… frame… title… frame… (and just mutliple these words by about 20 or 30)
The demo was eye-opening -how can someone who is blind or has poor vision access the content of a course management system that spits out little more than undecipherable tags and titles? As the presenters noted, this talk was not intended as an indictment of Desire2Learn specifically (for the reps were there and seemed to be working closely with the consortia), but rather an expose of the shoddy architecture of accessibility that characterizes a majority of the Course Management Systems. Very few of these educational applications are using W3 standards, i.e., CSS-based styles and xhtml compliant code (shame, shame!), and with the prevalence of frame-based systems the content becomes that much harder for assistive technologies to read. Given the raison d’être for these web-based systems -wouldn’t making content accessible for all students be first and foremost on their list? That said, this is not simply an attempt to dump on proprietary CMSs, but rather a more complex series of relationships between a clear university policy on accessibility, vendor response, and a more-informed culture about the importance of accessibility on campus.
For my part, I am going to go back to UMW, catch my breath, and conduct a series of tests on Blackboard’s accessibility in relationship to other web-based teaching applications we are using such as WordPress, Drupal, and MediaWiki. I’d be interested to see where these open source solutions stand in relationship to the larger questions of accessibility and social justice. In my mind, if you are going to hack a virtual learning space, it better be accessible!
Posted in WordPress Tagged instructional technology, mediawiki, open source, web 2.0, web accessibility 1 Comment5 reasons why I want to go to Northern Voice
My plea for travel funds from Northern Voice at UBC:
More seriously, I have no more developmental funds from UMW left, and I think that Northern Voice is where I need to be. The structure of the conference, the caliber of people, and the possibility of figuring out what is in the water up North that makes them there Canadians so damn innovative. That said, if you have folks who are more needy please select them first.
Tagged blogging, general 10 CommentsWhere should the Locus of Control be?
Darcy Norman recently had a great post on current definitions of the digital native and spaghetti sauce. I love his metaphysical marriage of such unlikely bedfellows as learners and gravy. He adopts this conceit from Malcolm Gladwell’s 2004 TedTech Talk in order to talk about the varying modalities of teaching and learning in technology we need to be aware of. Darcy has a great list of considerations that may lead to richer approaches to the intersection of teaching and learning:
1. There is variabilty in preferences (whether in spaghetti sauces so learning styles) and that understanding that variation is not only expected but necessary for success.
2. People don’t know what they want. They might say they would prefer the Italian sauce, or pervasive ubiquitous online communication. But individuals either have difficulty identifying and communicating their actual preferences, or they may be truly unaware of them (whether as a result of cultural pressure or other factors).
3. We need to better understand the variables that affect our interactions with students. It’s not enough to say that students are “Digital Natives” or “Net Genners”. There is no One True Student. Individuals vary by learning style, experience/comfort with various strategies (online and offline), socioeconomic status, maturity, locus of control, etc… and we need to identify common clusters of these variables and develop strategies to support these groups (and the individuals that compose them).I am particularly interested in the third point. More specifically, this idea of the “locus of control,” and I am very interested in thinking through the implications of this phrase in more depth. But for now, a couple of questions occur to me -how do computers both facilitate new spaces of control for students that are simultaneously liberating and imprisoning? In other words, as we all work towards conceptualizing these tools for the future that avoid facile categorizations of generation-based learners, to what extent have we been tracing the potential questions surrounding the prison house of technological forms? (BlackBoard might be understood as one form we have been imprisoned within for the last ten years.) To what extent do we need to be moving towards proliferating the locus of control for one’s own “educational learning environment” (to quote a recent conversation with Dr Glu) that enables them to define the space within which they learn. “Spicy,” “Chunky,” and “Extra Chunky” Spaghetti sauces capture a lot more diversity that the prominent, proprietary LMSs we have out there today -but they’re still canned!
One key may very well be working towards a series of unique spaces (with shared tools) that students bring with them to their education experience. Hosting space is cheap enough these days to build it into tuition costs (or require it as a four-year text), and it would work towards allowing students to actively frame the virtual learning spaces they inhabit. Just think about, what if you have thousands and thousands of college students hacking, playing and working towards defining a truly distributed, collaborative, and loosely integrated learning network. This not only changes the dynamics of power, it also enables colleges and universities to re-position themselves at the cutting edge of teaching and learning technologies. This reclaiming of the locus of control from third-party vendors of proprietary software is key to fostering innovation and collaboration on one of the, if not the, most important fronts of 21st century education.
- I chose to put the Optimal plugin code in the sidebar, but have enabled the sidebar widgets, I can’t really customize this space as I would like, namely only have the optimal plugin display. So, I further hacked this template to only put the PHP code for the optimal plugin in the sidebar. Replace the code
