We were determined to try and succeed this year and indeed did. The route we planned to take was the same as last year, but as we have both undertaken a number of rides or about 60 to 80 km during the year, we thought that we would be able to go further and camp at the Deua River Camp ground which is, in terms of distance, most of the way to Moruya.

The first day’s journey would be about 145 km long and would take us through Queanbeyan on to Captain’s Flat road, but before reaching it we’d turn off again to Hoskinstown and Rossi, as that road has much less traffic. From there we’d ride through the Tallaganda State forest (where we got lost last time) and then through Harold’s Cross to Major’s Creek. We woudl to the steep descent to Araluen and the campp ground woudl be a couple dozen kilometers thereafter.

Day two would then consist of the remaining 30-odd kilometers of annoying up-and-down undulations along parallel to the Deua River.

We were on our bikes by 6 am (much earlier than last year) and made good time to Major’s Creek, only being unsure of our location a couple of times. We used the GPS (thank you smartphones) this time to verify that we were indeed where we though we were. No flat this time either, but Caroline’s bike rack rattled loose somewhere after Araluen, but we were able to continue riding with it as it was.

It rained a little on the Major’s Creek descent, but then the weather played nice until after we had set up the tent in the camp ground.

It poured all night, but the rain got very light when we started riding again. We made it to Moruya without encountering any more difficulties and about ten minutes after arriving it started raining again. We hid in a cafe to wait for Caroline’s parents to arrive with our car, to take us home.

We think we could do it in one day. There would be less equipment to carry, no tent, no sleeping bags, just food and a stove, and fewer clothes. We’ll try that next year.

Below are some words to explain how it was created. It does not require rooting, but two of the apps used cost money.

The key component of this custom lock screen is WidgetLocker, which you can get from the Android Market. It costs AU$ 1.89: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.widgetlocker
WidgetLocker lets you place any kind of widgets and shortcuts on the lock screen that you can usually only place on your home screen. Once WidgetLocker is installed it will replace your default lock screen that you may get with Sense or Touchwiz. If you have a PIN or pattern lock on the phone, you will still be prompted for it.

On the right hand side of my lock screen I use a 3×2 CalWidget to show any upcoming events in my various calendars. CalWidget is available for free from the Market: https://market.android.com/details?id=net.eggenstein.android.calwidget

The time, date, battery percentage and weather are displayed using Minimalistic Text, also available for free from the Market at https://market.android.com/details?id=de.devmil.minimaltext
Minimalistic Text is the part that took by far the most time to configure as it has a lot of options. Especially in combination with Tasker the possibilities are nearly endless, if you’re willing to spend the time configuring it.

Once the three apps are installed, start WidgetLocker and long press on the screen to add a widget, shortcut, application (icon) or custom slider.

WidgetLocker allows you to place iPhone and HTC Sense type sliders on your lock screen to unlock the phone. A vast number of custom sliders are available from the community at the XDA forums and the one I have used is ArrowSlider by toosurreal01: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11637091&postcount=12 (thread is NSFW!)

Once you’ve placed your slider in the desired spot, you can then add any other widgets that you like. Such as a 2×3 CalWidget. I’ve tweaked the colours so that the background is slightly tinted, whcih makes it easier to read the text, no matter what wallpaper I have.

There are lots of different dimensions to choose from for the Minimalistic Text widgets, and you may need to experiment a little to get this working properly. The clock, for instance, is a 1×2 widget with just one row of data: Hours first, then minutes, with custom font settings just for the element itself. You can also set up the Minimalistic Text widget to display the data top to bottom, which is what I have done with the date. Remember to select a 3×1 widget instead, if you do this, of course.

The Lifehacker article also mentioned that I am using Tasker (https://market.android.com/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm, AU$ 6.07) to get a new wallpaper.
Tasker is a powerful app that essentially lets you write little macros using a nice usable interface. The use of it is definitely more advanced than what I wrote above.

The central task I created to get a new wallpaper from APOD is called “Get apod Wallpaper”. I have set it to fire once at 3pm every day. It is based on some of the instructions found at XDA and in the Tasker wiki.

1. copy the existing apod wallpaper (if there is one) from /apod.jpeg to /apod_old.jpeg. I have done this because I sometimes don’t like the wallpaper I get and so I can easily revert to yesterday’s.
2. turn on WiFi (one doesn’t really need this)
3. wait
4. fetch the page that is at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod
5. split the received page %HTTPD at <IMG SRC=” and then delete itbecause the result will be in %HTTPD1 and %HTTPD2
6. split %HTTPD2 at ” and delete base, because the URL of the image will now be in %HTTPD21 and some garbage will be in %HTTPD22
7. do another HTTP GET for apod.nasa.gov/apod/%HTTPD21, save the resilt as /apod.jpeg
8. set wallpaper /apod.jpeg. Now you’ve got a new wallpaper for both the home and lock screen.
9. Set a notification that the wallpaper has been updated. I do this so that when I don’t like the wallpaper I can tap the notification and tell it to revert to yesterday’s (see step 1). This notification is called “Apod updated” so that I can call another task when I tap it (see below).

	<class cl="Task" sr="task12">
		<nme>Get apod Wallpaper</nme>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act1">
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg0">
				<val>1</val>
			</class>
			<code>425</code>
		</class>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act0">
			<code>404</code>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg1" ve="2">
				<val>external_sd/apod/apod_old.jpeg</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>external_sd/apod/apod.jpeg</val>
			</class>
		</class>
		<class cl="AppIcon" sr="icn" ve="2">
			<icn>17301567</icn>
		</class>
		<id>12</id>
		<pri>10</pri>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act8">
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg4">
				<val>1</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg3">
			</class>
			<class cl="AppIcon" sr="arg2" ve="2">
				<icn>17301567</icn>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg1" ve="2">
				<val>Keep or revert?</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>Apod updated</val>
			</class>
			<code>523</code>
		</class>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act6">
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg5" ve="2">
				<val>external_sd/apod/apod.jpeg</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg4" ve="2">
				<val>image/jpeg</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg3">
				<val>10</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg2" ve="2">
				<val></val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg1" ve="2">
				<val></val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>apod.nasa.gov/apod/%HTTPD21</val>
			</class>
			<code>118</code>
		</class>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act7">
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>external_sd/apod/apod.jpeg</val>
			</class>
			<code>109</code>
		</class>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act4">
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg2">
				<val>1</val>
			</class>
			<code>590</code>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg1" ve="2">
				<val>&lt;IMG SRC="</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>%HTTPD</val>
			</class>
		</class>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act5">
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg2">
				<val>1</val>
			</class>
			<code>590</code>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg1" ve="2">
				<val>"</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>%HTTPD2</val>
			</class>
		</class>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act2">
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg4">
			</class>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg3">
			</class>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg2">
			</class>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg1">
				<val>10</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg0">
			</class>
			<code>30</code>
		</class>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act3">
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg5" ve="2">
				<val></val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg4" ve="2">
				<val>text/html</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg3">
				<val>10</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg2" ve="2">
				<val></val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg1" ve="2">
				<val></val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>apod.nasa.gov/apod</val>
			</class>
			<code>118</code>
		</class>
	</class>

The Task that fires when one clicks on the “Apod updated” task shows a dialog with a choice of two sub-tasks: “Keep New Apod Wallpaper” and “Revert To Old Apod” (both below)

	<class cl="Task" sr="task23">
		<nme>Apod dialog</nme>
		<id>23</id>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act1">
			<code>779</code>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg1">
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>Apod updated</val>
			</class>
		</class>
		<pri>10</pri>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act0">
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg5" ve="2">
				<val></val>
			</class>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg4">
				<val>18</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg3">
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg2" ve="2">
				<val>Keep New Apod Wallpaper</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg1" ve="2">
				<val>Revert To Old Apod</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>Happy With New Apod Wallpaper?</val>
			</class>
			<code>565</code>
		</class>
	</class>

“Keep New Apod Wallpaper” does absolutely nothing except remove the notification:

	<class cl="Task" sr="task24">
		<nme>Keep New Apod Wallpaper</nme>
		<id>24</id>
		<pri>10</pri>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act0">
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg0">
			</class>
			<code>25</code>
		</class>
	</class>

“Revert To Old Apod” removes the notification and copies the backup we took of the last apod back over the new one we didn’t like, and then sets the wallpaper again:

	<class cl="Task" sr="task22">
		<nme>Revert To Old Apod</nme>
		<id>22</id>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act1">
			<code>404</code>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg1" ve="2">
				<val>external_sd/apod/apod.jpeg</val>
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>external_sd/apod/apod_old.jpeg</val>
			</class>
		</class>
		<pri>10</pri>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act0">
			<code>406</code>
			<class cl="IntArg" sr="arg1">
			</class>
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>external_sd/apod/apod.jpeg</val>
			</class>
		</class>
		<class cl="Action" sr="act2">
			<class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
				<val>external_sd/apod/apod.jpeg</val>
			</class>
			<code>109</code>
		</class>
	</class>

In 1.9 a Lecturer or Tutor can leave notes for any student in one of their sites and any other Lecturer or Tutor can see them.
There are three kinds of notes:
- Moodle-Wide notes: If you’re a Lecturer (or Tutor) in any site where the the user with the note is a Student, you can see the note
- Site Note: If you’re a Lecturer o Tutor in the site where the note has been left about the student you can see it.
- Personal note: only the person (Lecturer/Tutor) who left the note on the student can see the note.

If the student has both the Lecturer/Tutor role and a Student role in any site, they can see the Moodle-wide notes about themselves. If they have both the L/T role and a Student role in the site where the note has been left about them, they can see that note.

Easy.

/Update: Notes behave in the same fashion in Moodle 2. (2.1)

But first something I have seem people do:

One could set up an Advanced Uploading of Files activity “Assignemnt 1”, where the students submit their assignments. When grading, one could then leave marks and feedback for each student.

One could then create a second Advanced Uploading of Files activity “Assignment 2” where one instructs the students to address the feedback left for them in Assignment 1.

I have seen people do this and it seems to work, however there is a problem: How does a teacher match the response to the feedback (ie. Assignment 2) to the feedback left in Assignment 1. In small classes, the teacher could just switch back to Assignment 1 and have a quick read, but in a class of 400 the students could just pretend to respond to anything and it would be too time consuming for the teacher to check.

So another proposed, yet untested option would be to (ab)use the Forum activity:

Go to Groups and use the Auto-create groups facility to create 400 groups with one student each. Add these groups to a Grouping “individual students“.

Now create a Forum activity, set to observe the new “individual students” Grouping you created, and in Separate Groups mode. Call it “Assignment”. Turn on ratings, out of 100, which just turns them into fake marks. In the description field of the forum, write your assignment question as you would have done in the File Upload activity.

Now unleash the students. Due to the Separate Groups setting and the single student groups, students will only ever be able to see their own posts, so the privacy is conserved. The teacher can see all students’ posts using the group selector.

Each student would submit one forum post as a response to the question – depending on the assignment it could have attachments. The teacher would then go to the forum activity, read/download the forum posts and leaves the feedback as a reply post to the student’s post. The teacher woudl rate the student’s post to give it a mark. When in the ‘All groups’ view, any discussion (assignment submission) without any replies is awaiting marking, any discussion with one reply has been marked and is awaiting student response to the feedback.

Now a second cycle woudl start where the students are asked to reply to the feedback post by the teacher. This would allow the teacher to track whether the student is responding to the right feedback, and there woudl be continuity to the student’s progress.

Unfortunately there is no facility to set a due dates here, so one would still have to communicate these to students. But the forum does track submission dates and marks (ratings).

(I haven’t looked at whether Moodle 2 has any facility to let students respond to feedback, these ideas are focussed on Moodle 1.9)

Today I was asked if it would be possible for me to recover some old documents that a lecturer had placed in their unit WebCT site in 2004 or 2005.
While we don’t promise to keep backups of sites for more than two years after the end of a semester, we actually try to keep snapshots for much longer, on consumer grade hard drives (no guarantees!).

WebCT backups at the time (before my time, and obviously before Moodle), were just kept as WebCT backup ZIP files without metadata – it was this important to know the title (or partial) of the site at the time, to be able to find it. Even back then, it was thus common practise to name a site by the unit number.

All I had to do is look through the University handbook to find what the unit number was back before the unit number revolution of 2006, and search the archive for backups with that number.

dir /S /B | find "1395"

The ZIP file that I found was of course a WebCT CE4.1 backup zip, which has a broken header. Using WinRAR or similar one can repair the archive and then extract it.

The backup drive will now be packed up again, and be locked back up until the next time someone needs it. Looking at the ‘stats’, with this being the first request to have anything restored from that long ago, this ‘next time’ should be about 2015.

it’s nice to see you again, it’s been a while. I think the last time we saw each other was when you were only seven. Now you’re eleven, you’ve grown!

You’ve changed a little, but I’m not sure I like everthing about you.

You’ve changed your taskbar, to look a bit more like your cousin Win7′s, which is a nice touch, I think. But why do you want to hide it all the time – be proud of it. Why do I have to argue with you for an hour before you accept that I like seeing it. It’s even worse than your cousin MacOS, and I’ve always disliked how unwilling she was to change for people.

It also seems that while you’re looking really fit and mobile, you’ve become more sedentary – on our first hike you completely exhausted the battery in two hours! (And I did warn you.) Your cousin Win7 was able to pace himself much better, we used to go for near on four hours. And before we even left you kept on complaining about missing the comfort of a full mouse, and refused to use the trackpad and emulate the three buttons. You never used to be like this in the past, you were such an avid hiker back then.

I would also have thought that by now you would have learned to do some of the more grown-up things: managing photos and music is something you’ll really need to learn. And if you continue like you did in the last week, I’ll be worried about your future career. Many workplaces use Exchange, and you don’t seem to want to make an effort with it. Your Evolution is way too slow and buggy. You have that Thunderbird party trick to make up for it (it’s fast), but your trick was only version three, and why did I have to teach you version five?

Thank you for helping me write this, though, Ubuntu. You really are very good at browsing the internet and dealing with file transfers. Without you the recovery of my hosting debacle would have taken even longer (but I’m not done yet, anyway).

Sorry

Last week Several weeks ago I attended the CCA_EDUCAUSE conference at the Sydney convention centre. and co-presented a session titled “Managing Relationships with External Learning Management System Providers”, which Allan Sieper form ANU in the lead. Also co-presenting were Alan Arnold from UC and Marina Lobastov from ANU.

The focus of our presentation was on how we managed our respective Moodle instances which are hosted by the external Moodle Hosting Partner, Netspot.

My bit of it focussed on how we communicate with our local teaching staff, IT area and the hosting partner (helpdesk and higher level support): The Teaching and Learning Centre, of which I am a part of, is the owner of the Moodle application and acts as a middle-man between internal IT and the external partner and the teachers.

I also outlined the processes of how we manage changes to our Moodle instance which are sometimes requested by teachers, sometimes initiated by the TLC, and sometimes found by the hosting partner.

Tom Worthington (ANU) mentioned our presentation at http://blog.tomw.net.au/2011/04/hi-tech-higher-education.html and so did Mark Drechsler (Netspot) at http://www.markdrechsler.com/?p=552

I very much enjoyed some of the resulting conversations with other institutions I had after the presentation. A number of collaboration efforts between other Moodle-using institutions will be kicket off in the next few weeks and months, which should let us address some of the wishes we Australian Unis have for Moodle.