Educator, Thinker, Consultant

Month: January 2024 (Page 1 of 2)

O Captain, My Captain

A man standing on a desk. An American flag is in the background along with a whiteboard.

The challenge for week 4 of the 52Frames Photography Challenge was to recreate a movie scene. I thought about a variety of movie scenes. All seemed either impossible or unreasonable to recreate. I then went through a few that were reasonable, but didn’t quite feel right.

After a bit of thinking, I decided upon the ending scene of Dead Poet’s Society. In that scene, the students stand on their desk, well, most of them do, in homage to their teacher.

I decided to ask a friend to stand on the desk. Quite frankly, I didn’t want to take too much of his time, so this was a quick shot.

I fulfilled the challenge, but I really didn’t push myself much. Partly, this was due to not wanting to take up much valuable time from someone else.

Moodle Login

More and more schools are transitioning to using Oauth for logins. Moodle allows for Oauth logins. However, by default, the Moodle Login box appears first, above the button to login using a service.

This causes lots of people to enter their credentials into the box. In our case, they are entering the “wrong” credentials (i.e. they enter their Google username and password instead of their district account username and password). This leads to frustration on the end user’s part. Signing in is a really bad place to frustrate users.

Knowing that Moodle is customizable, I know there has to be a way to fix this. A little bit of research leads to a couple of different options:

  • customize the CSS
  • use a Plugin

I start with the plugin (Login Splash Page). However, upon installing it, I realize that I need to redirect the login page. I decided that I’d rather not do that.

I found a couple of posts with ideas to customize the CSS. The best of which was a post by Steven A. Although the post says that you have to account for each section, my attempts didn’t support that.

I opened our Login page and right-clicked on it to select “Inspect”. This allowed me to verify the different elements present. (Plus, you can drag them around to change the order, which is useful and kind of cool). Anyway, I could now be sure what the name of each element was. Since the post indicated that you needed to account for all of the elements, I did so. However, the elements still didn’t appear in the order that I wanted. So, back to BBedit (where I had entered the appropriate code). I deleted everything but the two elements and Ta-Da!

In the end, I put the following code:

.loginform {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
}

login.login-form

{
order: 2;
}
.login-identifyproviders
{
order: 1;
}

into the SCSS Raw box in the theme that we. That is, in Moodle, I went to :

  • Site Administration | Themes | LearnR | Look
    then clicked on the SCSS tab. I entered the code above into the “Raw initial SCSS” box, scrolled down, and clicked “Save”. (*Note that this needs to be done for each Theme that you use if you use more than one. Or, if you change themes in the future, this must also be updated in that theme.) Now, end users will see the Login with Google Button first.

Whew!

Given the prevalence of utilizing Oauth, I hope that someone at Moodle will make this a checkbox preference in the future. However, at least for now, this is set for me.

Weekly Review 2024-02

Followers

I am but an imperfect vessel.

I’m afraid I got caught up in who if anyone was following my online scribbles. I don’t really think that there are many people who follow my writings, and I do write for me. I have found that future me really appreciates when present me documents some things that I’ve done.

Still, it is nice to get some feedback every once in a while. It’s nice to know that there is someone reading. So, I posted about asking for subscribers to my website. Thankfully, the wonderful Ben Werdmuller commented that some people follow on RSS. A bit of embarrassment for asking, and a reminder that I follow lots of people via RSS as well. I really should shoot some of them a note of appreciation.

Moodle

The version of Moodle that I installed turned out to have an issue with the Lesson Module. I use Lesson extensively. This was part of our Annual Training course, so I needed to fix that. A bit of research showed that the Lesson issue had been identified and resolved. So, I installed the lastest version. Except, either I didn’t uninstall a plugin correctly before updating or there was an issue with some plugins during the update process. In checking the Tracker, there was an issue with some plugins, which may or may not have partly my fault for not running the plugin update prior to the Moodle update. I’m not sure if I did or not, but I totally agree that I could’ve missed that step – lesson learned. Anyway, the update resulted in being stuck at the install level. I was able to troubleshoot and re-enable acces that site, but I couldn’t install new plugins. Thankfully, the issue was fully identified and resolved with the next weekly update. So, once again, Moodle is up and running. Everything has been restored. A lesson has been learned. A reminder that the Moodle community is awesome.

Weather

We’ve had some winter weather lately as well. We had a two hour delay to starting school on Thursday due to ice. Last Tuesday, the district scheduled an early release due to impending weather. Since notice went out early enough, I was able to work remotely. This allowed me to get a specific project completed.

52 Frames

So far, I’ve submitted something for each week of the 52Frames Photo Challenge. I still would like to spend more time on some of the submissions, but I’m taking the submissions themselves as a win. I also really appreciate some of the feedback that I’ve gotten on photos posted.

Lions

I’ve long been a Lions fan (which by definition also means I’ve been a long suffering Lions fan.) It has been quite the thrill to see them winning. They have been playing entertaining football and really seem to have found the right combination of leaders. So, Go Lions!!!

Mastodon and WordPress

First of all, I love that I can post to my blog and have that post automatically be posted to Mastodon as well. This has partially changed my relationship with my blog. I’m posting much more to my blog, knowing that I get an increased audience opportunity by also going to Mastodon.

Basically, I post to my blog and everything flows to Mastodon. I use the Mastodon Autopost plugin. This allows me to control whether a blog post goes to Mastodon or not (via a simple checkbox in the side panel). I installed this prior to the ActivityPub plugin being available. Plus, the ActivityPub plugin wants to use the name on my admin account, which is not my name, and I haven’t found an easy way to change that. Autopost works for what I want.

However, when I post, if I use the built-in Featured Image to set a featured image, the ALT-Text doesn’t stay with the image. That is, I’ve entered the ALT-Text for the image within the Media Library, but that ALT-Text doesn’t make it to Mastodon.

I frequently use a Featured image plugin that allows you to use a URL as the featured image. This is my preference since I don’t have to take up space on my server. If I use the Featured image plugin, I can click the Preview button and see the image, PLUS, I get an ALT-Text box. I can enter ALT-Text here and it will travel to Mastodon.

Mastodon has a culture of providing ALT-Text. I want to be a good citizen, respectful of users who need ALT-Text, and do the right thing.

So, this may be a tip that the Featured image plugin will allow you to provide ALT-Text (remember to click the Preview button to be presented with the ALT-Text box). OR, this might be a request to know if there is a way to get ALT-Text to travel from WordPress to Mastodon.

Moodle

On Friday, I upgraded Moodle as the newest version fixes an issue with the Lesson Module. Great. Except, the site crashed during the upgrade cycle.

Great! Time to do some research. I headed over the Moodle Forums to see if this was a known issue. Yep. Yep, it is. That led to a Bug Report. Here I got enough information to get some things running again. I tried deleting different plugins, and adding them back in. No full fix, but I had access to my site.

Then, I flew too close the sun. I used the “uninstall” link from the Plugins Overview page, and broke everything.

Drats.

I’ve been able to return access to my site. I don’t have everything fixed yet though.

I found an article on enabling “disable auto update” while installing. This involved uncommenting out a specific command in .config.php file. For me this was line 457:

$CFG->disableupdateautodeploy = true;

It is commented out. By uncommenting it (removing the //), it has allowed by site to update.

After doing this, I can uninstall plugins from the Plugins Overview page.

By deleting the // at the beginning of the line (those symbols comment out the line, which means that the program won’t run that command), the command is active and, tada!, I can complete the upgrade process.

So, a partial fix. I can now uninstall plugins, but I can’t install them. I’m going through to uninstall plugins that could be the problem, but I’m not completely convinced that this is going to solve the problem. At least the site is back up and available.

52 Frames Week 3

This week in the 52Frames photo challenge, Black and White was the theme. The bonus was to use film. I was out on the bonus. I had several black and white candidates that I took. I tried to get a shot of the trawler that was beached in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I couldn’t get any good pictures there, but I did a lighthouse picture.

Ideally, I think that I could’ve gotten something with more contrast. I’m not unhappy with this one though. I think the pure white of the lighthouse and building works.

52 Frames

As noted earlier, I’m participating in the 52Frames Photo Challenge. This is my Week 2 submission:

An iron post in a river with the numbers (25 & 30) to mark the level of the water. Water is rushing by and blurred via a long exposure.

The subject was a new technique. I picked a long exposure to convey the power of the water. I like the framing with the water levels marked at 25 and 30 feet.

Running Your Own

Ben Werdmuller, who is brilliant, has a great write up, Running your own site painful. Hosting Nazis is worse. Seriously, this is a GREAT article. Please go read it (and then come back here).

He makes important points about social media, where your stuff is hosted, options for discoverability and more. He focuses on writers, but so much is equivalent to educators.

I’d say his wonderful article is relevant in two ways for educators:

  1. Parent/Community Communication
  2. Educational Resources.

Parent/Community Communication

Parent/Community communication is a challenge in education. All schools have a website and post to the website. However, people don’t generally know when or if to check the website. As social media took off, schools transitioned to posting on social media, mostly Twitter (now called X) and Facebook. Schools also posted to Instagram. Lots of schools also send out emails and texts.

As Ben Werdmuller points out, schools don’t have control over Twitter (X), or Instagram. So, while schools benefit from the audience of those social media sites, schools are also at the mercy of their decisions and plans. So, if a platform were to allow Nazis to post (and promote those posts) the school may be appearing to support those kinds of activities. However, this gets complicated as lots of parents/community members may use the site and maybe they do not see the Nazi posts. or maybe the site gets sold and goes out of business. Now schools have to redirect parent/community members to a new site(s).

A website based upon a domain that you own means that you have control over that. By owning a domain, schools have control over who gets to post and what things look like. However, that means that schools have to develop and promote the site.

Parents/Community members usually find other social sites “easier to use”. They really don’t have to do much. This is a big strength, and a big weakness. They may or may not see specific things. Facebook has gone through many periods where they were/are tightly controlling what people see, what gets promoted (thus seen).

Ideally, parents/community members would set up their own RSS feeds to follow. However, realistically, they aren’t going to do this. (Even though RSS is actually very easy to use. I personally use NetNewsWire). It is a mindset that needs to be developed.

So, schools post to websites, X, Facebook, and Instagram. They may be re-evaluating that as sites change, though given the amount of issues that have come up with Facebook and haven’t resulted in people moving away says that it would take a lot for people to actually move to another platform.

Educational Resources

I see similar issues with Educational Resources. Quizlet is a pretty popular flashcard creator. Recently, I’ve heard that they refuse to sign a DPA (Data Privacy Agreement). Thus, some schools are moving away from allowing access to the site. Some teachers are upset. They have spent years creating resources.

This is really part of a common issue though. Most educational resources need to collect money in order to continue to provide services. Thus, educational resources are constantly adjusting things to make sure that they can stay in business.

Long ago, I was talking to someone and used the phrase “you are always investing in someone – either yourself or someone else”. (I know this because that person repeated it back to me in a future meeting.) Lots of educators have bought into (via their time, and work) an educational resource or ten.

Schools also purchased a variety of resources through the ESSR funds (COVID relief). That money has come to an end. School budgets will be getting tight again. There is the possibility that schools won’t be able to fund all of the educational resources that they have over the last few years.

The alternative though is open-source. Open-source has the advantage of being controlled by the district. It is not free, there are some costs involved in hosting, configuring, and updating. However, it is much, much more affordable. Open-source software tends to not be as pretty as commercial resources. Plus, open-source software tends to be more powerful, but less focused. So, there is some learning involved by the teacher (you are always investing in someone – either yourself or someone else“). If educators would come together and create and share things, the effect could be extremely powerful.

So, what are some examples?

Both of these are open-source and powerful. H5P allows users to create Flashcards and much more. Both have platforms available to share work. Even more powerful for me is that both can allow students to create resources.

So, what’s going to happen is that some educators will switch from one commercial product to another. Teachers may be upset and frustrated that they have lost a bunch of work. They will then switch to another commercial product. That will work for a while until a business model changes, free accounts become too limited to be useful, or something else. They will get frustrated. They will move to the next product.

What a powerful world it would be if the students were doing the creating. What a powerful world it would be if educators took control of educational resources. What a powerful world it would be if educators were sharing, and adapting resources.

AI Training

I have shared my work, both writing and visual, openly for the most part. (There is a part of me that secretly hopes to publish something that becomes wildly popular and makes tons of money.)

I’ve been thinking about this lately in terms of AI. AI has scraped the web for data to create models. There are several lawsuits currently in place trying to resolve some of the issues around collecting and using data.

There are a couple of theories around the issue of collecting and using data to train models.

  1. Data used for training AI models is just like a human accessing the data. If a human reads something that helps inform the human moving forward. Likewise, AI should be able to “read” something and use that to create things.
  2. The data provider should have the right to approve or deny the use of that data. These rights would include payment if requested.

Jeff Jarvis falls into the camp that any data can be used for training. His argument largely falls into the bucket of this is how things have always been done and how humans have been doing things forever. Additionally, information is free, but the value comes from the expression and analysis of that information.

Others fall into the camp, the data is “stolen”. For things behind a paywall for example, should the AI pay a one-time fee to completely copy everything and use that forever? The structures that have been put in place were put in place long before AI was making a difference, but there has long been controversy around similar issues.

The AI providers have made an interesting argument that they can’t afford to pay for all the data. (Apparently, in many cases AI companies have used pirated copies of data.) That is, I can’t become a millionaire unless I get your data for free. (I need to find the link to this)

Anyway, my thoughts are a bit more emotional at this point. I create and share things that I intend for other humans to use (or me – because sometimes I search for something and find that I did the write-up on how to do it). I want to help people. Similarly, I’ve shared photos under the construct that people are looking at them.

So, I’m not sure how I feel about things that I’ve created being used to train an AI model. One could argue that the result of the training is used by humans, so it’s really no different. Yet, somehow, at least right now, it feels different.

Snowplow Parents

The New York Times recently posted an article (apparently a subscription is now required) about online grades and “Snow Plow Parents”.

What is a “Snow Plow” parent? According to Parent:

…a snowplow parent removes any obstacles in their child’s way. This type of parent does not want their child to experience any discomfort or problems, so the parent intervenes and fixes it for their child.

I remember “Helicopter Parents”, those parents who hover over their children. I remember that when my own kids went off to college, there were a few parents who actually moved to the college town that their kid was attending.

Snow Plow and Helicopter parents are related. Both take on way too much of their child’s life.

I found the article interesting and insightful. There is a definite bias early on in the article about the “dangers” of online grades being available for parents, which is balanced out later in the article. (Thus, it is important to read the whole article.)

Really, the article ends up focusing on the importance of students developing agency and responsibility. Oh, and how some parents are taking that away from kids.

Part of the advice is about making sure that parent’s connection with kids goes beyond grades:

…parents shouldn’t want conversations about grades “bleeding into every conversation you have with your kids. That does a disservice to your relationship, and it does a disservice to your child.”

A big focus of the article is about kids developing executive functioning.

“Part of executive functioning and personal management is understanding what’s the right time and place to have a conversation versus not. And so students do need to develop that,” she said.

The article even addresses a couple of interesting issues:

At its heart, the issue is that too many parents see their children’s grades as the ultimate reflection on themselves and their parenting.

and

There were kids, he said, who were “incredibly skilled at gaming the system” — grade grubbing rather than achieving anything intellectually.

In the end, the author admits that it’s not all negative.

… not every teacher I spoke to had a negative experience with online grade books. Some said that the technology made their lives easier and improved communication with some parents. Even the teachers who pointed out the unseemly behavior of some parents and students stressed that it wasn’t a majority who abused the system.

I find this an interesting time to be a parent (just like all the other ones in history). Parents today deal with social media, connectedness, information overload, pressure to be successful, and on and on.

I don’t think any of this is really new, but it is new for each parent. Also, the number of parents who are truly “Snow Plow” is pretty minimal (still makes it rough for those particular kids).

So, what about online gradebooks? These can be beneficial. However, it is also important to establish how grades work in the classroom early on in the year (or now). Set out expectations of when work will be graded. Communicate how grades are calculated. Take advantage of the power of the gradebook. I have found online gradebooks to have much more good than negative. The article even points this out. Remember, no matter what system that you use, you could have a lot of these same issues. Many of these are “people” issues, not technology issues.

If you are a parent of a child under 18, do your best. Help them grow. They’ll make mistakes. They’re human. Don’t be a Snow Plow.

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