Troy Patterson

Educator, Thinker, Consultant

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A Gentleman in Moscow

August 25, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Among the highest praise that I can give a book is when I don’t want the book to end. When I can see that I’m getting close to the end and feel an internal dread that I will be done with the book, I realize that this is book that I like. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Townes is one of those books. I felt a certain sadness realizing that the book was coming to a close. 

This is the story of Count Alexander Rostov. The story relates so much about life, being a good person, a gentleman, a family member, friend and the history of Russia. The story begins in 1922 and continues through the 1950’s. Count Rostov is imprisoned in a Hotel within Moscow. Through this lens, we learn much about the Count, Russia, and many others who pass through the story. 

The story is exceptionally well written. There is much joy, discovery and unraveling throughout the tale. The reader will truly feel as though the characters are real. There is plenty of opportunity to discover sage advice and reflect on decisions that one has made. As the Count says “if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them”. The Count does indeed master his circumstances (with much aplomb), even if those circumstances are entirely unforeseen. 

While the story touches on the history of Russia, these events are referenced but not the focus of the story. The story is really all about the Count and other characters. Instead of being over written, it is refreshing smart. 

I can heartily recommend this book. 

Mountain Moot

Mountain Moot

July 21, 2019 / / 0 Comments

I was part of a team that attended the Moodle Mountain Moot. This is a practical Moot that has been running for 10 years.

All members of the team presented. All of us came away with powerful learning. Amy Gwizdz did a great job of presenting on the use of Moodle at the elementary level. She really focused on solving instructional problems, not just using Moodle. Robert Harrison provided a fantastic opportunity for users to experience the Workshop Module. Chris Kenniburg presented on the Fordson Theme.

Sometimes you really don’t recognize or appreciate the wonders of those that you work with. Chris Kenniburg is one of those folks. Though I do think that I recognize how valuable he is, it is still interesting to be able to see how others see him. He is rightly revered for the work that he has done on the Fordson Theme. It was fun to see Chris receive kudos and praise for his work on the theme. His theme is so popular that he was asked to do another session. (The conference has a block of ad-hoc sessions).

Chris was asked to participate in the additional ad-hoc session. It was interesting to me to remember and revisit why we made some of the decisions that go into the Fordson Theme. Lots of people make requests for the Fordson Theme. These are usually additional features that they want. For example, one person requested blocks that collapse and expand. This reminded me of why we wanted blocks limited in the first place. I sat down and discussed this with the requestor.

My tiny role in developing the Fordson Theme would be in the cognitive focus. Two columns allow the user to be focused on the content (which is on the left-hand side). The right-hand columns need to be limited and extra. Many users have pretty much trained their brain not to really look at that right-hand column as that is usually “ad” space.

So, the discussion with the requestor for blocks that collapse focused on why and how are blocks used. If you are using blocks for significant information, should that be some kind of change? That way, your brain knows that it is switching tasks and looking for something. His response was interesting. He hadn’t actually thought about the process, he was just used to having tons of information.

I was discussed how the theme is really focused on the student experience. Students need to know what to do next. The [Fordson Theme] tries to always keep that in consideration. Students shouldn’t have to work hard to know what to do.

The Mountain Moot had a wonderful cast of presenters. Emma Richardson had a couple of wonderful sessions that I attended. She has such great knowledge and a wonderful attitude. Emma co-presented with Amy Tessitore. Amy is another wonderful resource. Michelle Moore always provides great tips. She is a wonderful resource for Moodle, and for training.

I also presented at the conference. My presentation was Glossary Lollapolooza. I had a full house. The feedback was very positive. (Though, one of the biggest “take-a-ways” for folks seemed to be when I gave them the tip that you could double click on an activity to select it and open rather than clicking on it and then scrolling down to the “Add” button). At least one person was impressed with the effect of spotlighting something on a screen.

I asked a few people what they wanted to get out of the session as they were entering. I was able to touch on those in the presentation.

I am now considering how we could get more classroom teachers involved though. The conference was wonderful, lots of rich learning. The one thing that I think is missing though is classroom teachers. Specifically, K-12 classroom teachers. I shall continue to ponder that.

Moodle Permission Overrides

Moodle Permission Overrides

July 14, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Moodle permissions allow users to control what different roles can do. This is usually set by the Moodle Administrator. However, teachers can override the defaults to create powerful learning opportunities.

There are a large number of permissions that can be adjusted here. You should be careful with many of these. However, in the right cases, these can free a teacher to empower students. For example, the permissions can allow a teacher to allow the students to rate the following activities:

  • Glossary entries
  • Forums
  • Database activities

Glossary.

Frequently, I like to allow students to rate Glossary entries. I use Glossary entries in a variety of ways (like having students find the best YouTube video that explains a specific learning objective). This way, the students are doing to vetting for me.

By default, only teachers, non-editing teachers and those with higher permissions can rate Glossary entries. However, each teacher can change this by Course level (if you are sure that you always want students to rate Glossary entries) or by activity level (if you just want students to rate entries on one Glossary.

Course Level Permission Change

  • Go to the Participants panel
  • Click on the Gear in the top right corner. Then select “Permissions”.
  • Search for “Glossary”
  • After the ratings section, click the + in the “Roles with Permission” column.
  • Select “Student” (or whatever term you use for “student”)

*There is no need to save the selection.

Activity Level Permission Change

Very similar to the process above. Make sure that you are in the activity that you want to change the permissions on. Then click on the Gear at the end of the name of the Activity.

Follow the same path as above (starting at “select “Permissions”.)

Moodle Links within Text boxes

July 12, 2019 / / 0 Comments

I love Moodle. However, there are a couple of things that drive me crazy. One of those things is the way that links appear in text boxes. These text boxes can be the Feedback box in a rubric, a glossary context box, etc.

Frequently, text links in those boxes show no visual cue unless/until there is a mouse rollover. Let’s look at an example. I’ve highlighted “Step by Step instructions from Master Moodle”, then picked the link button and pasted the appropriate link. However, looking at it, nothing really looks different.

However, this can be easily fixed. Simply add the CSS code for color and underline in the href.

Huh? you might say. (Or, you might say “but of course, that’s how I always do that). With Moodle, you can edit the code. Simply click on the More button:

More button is the first button, downward arrow…

This will disclose the full toolbar. You are looking for the Code button, the last one on the second row of the toolbar:

Now you’ll be presented with the code behind the text:

<p></p>
<h3>Glossary</h3>
<p>This one is probably my favorite way for students to introduce themselves. Set up a Glossary, and then let the students add in information. Each student would enter their own name as the “term” and then whatever information that you want as the definition.</p>
<h4>Important Notes:</h4>
<ul>
    <li>Easy to set up</li>
    <li>Easy for students to enter their information</li>
    <li>Can be used with the&nbsp;<em>Random Glossary Block</em>&nbsp;to display a student name for other students in the “side bar”</li>
    <li>No automatic grading (but can be graded)</li>
    <li>All students can include pictures</li>
    <li>Entries can be approved by the teacher before the other students can see them</li>
</ul><a " href="https://mastermoodle.com/2018/10/20/comic-say-hi/" target="_blank">Step by Step instructions from Master Moodle.</a>&nbsp;
<br><br>

Find the link that you have already created. This should be fairly easy since it will have an “href=” in the text. After the <a , but before the href=, paste the following code:

style="color:#0000FF;text-decoration:underline;

Thus: 

<a " href="https://mastermoodle.com/2018/10/20/comic-say-hi/" target="_blank">Step by Step instructions from Master Moodle.</a>

becomes:

<a style="color:#0000FF;text-decoration:underline; "href="https://mastermoodle.com/2018/10/20/comic-say-hi/" target="_blank">Step by Step instructions from Master Moodle.</a>

Here the color is blue and the text is underlined. Now it will look like this:

Now it looks like a link that users can click on.

Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment

June 24, 2019 / / 0 Comments

What do you use for Formative Assessment? A survey was sent out listing fourteen (that’s rigtht 14!) options. Now, this was just one survey, there are several of these out there.

What happens in a survey like this? Users usually will vote for their favorite – obviously. But what counts as their favorite? How many of those voters are really, intimately aware of the strengths and weaknesses of all fourteen options?

For those that are aware of the fourteen options, what did those users give up by researching and trying out all fourteen options? Teacher time is limited. Given that teachers not only need to develop lesson plans, create relationships with students, grade work, spend time with friends and family and so much more, who has time to review fourteen different formative assessment tools?

The reality is that few educators have the time and attention to really review that many options (and there are more that could have been included). That time would be much better spent developing skill in high quality formative assessments. Educators would be much better served delving into a high quality tool that allows for a variety of formative assessments. It isn’t quite as “shiny” and “sparkly” as looking at a bunch of “new” tools, but it can pay off in more focused student learning. Instead of reaching for broad strokes of surface learning, educators should develop some depth to the learning process.

Are you interested in the 14 options?

  • Answer Garden
  • Crowdsignal
  • Formative
  • Gimkit
  • Google Forms (the ultimate “winner”)
  • Kahoot!
  • Mentimeter
  • Padlet
  • Plickers
  • Poll Everywhere
  • Quizlet
  • Seesaw
  • Spiral
  • Other

Interesting, one of the comments included:

…isn’t as hackable by high schoolers like…

Out of the 14 choices, my favorite (Moodle) is not listed. Moodle does a great job with Formative assessment. However, there really isn’t a sales force pushing the product. Oh, and an educator may have to learn a bit about Moodle.

I’m really not against using paid, commercial products. I do think that we should understand why something is free.

Most of all, I believe that teachers and students are worth a little bit of effort to utilize tools that can effective and not merely “shiny” objects that don’t really impact learning.

Weekly Review

May 4, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Shoe buying

So, let’s say, hypothetically, that you are buying shoes. Someone says “What size are those?” Then proceeds to say, “I ordered and paid for those.”

Now, understand that you’ve been shopping for a bit. You’ve tried on a few pairs. These shoes were just in the bin. You’ve spent quite a few minutes trying on shoes. The other person has likewise been there for a while. Not a word.

Where does the outrage over “I deserve this over you” foster and grow? These were not special shoes for a special occasion. Rather, these were pretty generic shoes.

Now, we could’ve said, “Go ahead, take these”. But we didn’t. Quite frankly, I didn’t see any reason to. The other person wasn’t polite about this. There wasn’t a friendly discussion. Just the accusation that somehow we were taking something 1 that she felt the right to.

Hamilton – Round 2

I ushered for Hamilton a second time. Not only was it just as enjoyable as the first time, but even better. The second time (my third time seeing the play), I picked up additional nuances. If you haven’t seen the play and have a chance to see it, go.

Pens

I have a couple of fountain pens. I enjoy them tremendously. I really like using the proper tools. A fountain pen just feels different. Writing becomes more a joy.

I took a few minutes to clean out my pens. Sadly, I didn’t re-ink them all. (I really use them on a limited basis. No need to have a ton of pens inked.) I generally keep three pens inked and ready to go. I carry these three pens in a wonderful pouch that one of my daughters made for me.

Sometimes it is simple things that bring joy.

Badge

Moodle badge

I earned a badge. I have been participating in the MoodleNet project. I have come to understand how important and powerful badges can be.

Read Seed

I’ve had the opportunity to work with Justin Hunt on Read Seed. Actually, one of my co-workers has done most of the work. It fun to be a part of a great project. Read Seed will allow teachers to markup the reading of students.

Here’s roughly how it works. A student reads a passage in Moodle (we integrate with Moodle, but it can work outside of Moodle as well). The teacher gets to identify the passage. The student works independently reading the passage. Read Seed will then grade the passage using Artificial Intelligence (AI). The teacher get the recording of the student and the grading of the AI. Then, the teacher can also mark up the types of mistakes that the student is making. This is great and powerful stuff.

Read Seed is currently available for free for 365 days. You read that right – 365 days free. Check it out.

1 Turns out, these were not the shoes that said person thought that she had ordered. Still, no need to be rude.

Titles and Headings

Titles and Headings

April 25, 2019 / / 0 Comments

ADA compliance is something that we should be working toward. I’ve trained many users on creating ADA compliant documents, but there is at least one thing that is really hard to explain. The difference between Titles and Heading 1.

In coded HTML, Titles are specified. Headings similarly specified. Titles and H1 are functionally similar, but have different purposes in HTML. When writing this by hand, each page written in HTML should have one H1 which functions as the page title. (The title tag is written out but not displayed).

Here is an example of the HTML and the result:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en"> <head>     <title>Testing Heading Code</title>     <meta name="generator" content="BBEdit 12.1" />
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is Heading 1</h1> In Wordpress, the Title is tagged as a Heading 1. <i>The Title Tag is handled outside a post, in the Theme appearance settings.</i> </body>
</html>


(*Notice that the browser tab has a different name (“Testing Heading Code”) than the  “Title” (“This is a Heading 1”) on the page.

Impact

Basically, title tags appear in search engines, defines the title in browser toolbar, and provides the title for the page when bookmarked. It also becomes the link that the user clicks on in search engine results. (H1 tags normally do not appear in search engines.)
H1 tags are what the end user will see on the web page. 

Very few people hand code pages that are displayed on the web. Almost everyone now uses a visual editor. Most use WordPress or are posting a document written in Google Docs (or Microsoft Word, etc).

ADA

This is all important because titles and headings are used by screen readers. This allows those with visual acuities to access material on the web. The use of headings is part of the ADA guidelines.

WordPress. 

By default, the Title entered is an H1, so users just need to know to start with H2. I’m not even sure why H1 is really available1 (except that you could have a theme that treats the post title different – ie. not an H1). 

Google Docs

This one is harder. There are style sheets for a Title and a Heading 1. If you don’t use the Title style, ADA checkers will flag the document as not having a Title. If you use a Title AND a Heading 1, ADA checkers will also flag that have more than one Heading 1. 
I don’t see a way to get to Document Properties (where you can enter a Title), without using an external ADA checker2. 

Citations

Just to make this even more interesting, headings are used in properly formatted papers. APA has a five level system of headings (plus a Level 0 which equates to a Title Heading). Thus, APA has a somewhat similar structure, but allows for multiple Heading 1 uses.

Conclusion

It really seems to me that we have a single construct trying to meet the needs and perspectives of many different situations. HTML was originally designed and structured (it is, after all, a highly structured approach) to meet a specific environment and use case. As the web was developed, the use case changed. Documents and accessibility became important. The landscape and users of HTML have fundamental shifted.

WordPress seems to have addressed this situation with the latest version of Gutenberg.

1 If you use the Gutenberg editor, H1 is not available in the visual editor. So, maybe this is being addressed and solved.

2 Grackle Docs is an extension that does really nice, complete ADA checking.

Motives

Motives

April 19, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Should I care about your motives? What if I’m a teacher and you are offering me a service? Should I care then?

Teachers are consider parents in the eyes of the law. Teachers can act “in loco parentis” (in place of the parent). This means that teachers are making decisions for parents.

Teachers want to take advantage of popular tools. Teachers want to provide students with as many powerful opportunities as possible. These days, many of those opportunities are offered online. What if we don’t understand why that tool is being offered?

Privacy

Facebook has been in the news many times of the past several years. Facebook offers a “free” service. That is, Facebook doesn’t charge users for an account. Yet, Facebook is worth billions of dollars. Obviously, they are making money somehow. Do we, as consumers, understand what that means? Do we understand the power of information that Facebook has? Do we understand what Facebook is doing with that information?

Examples

Facebook has been in the news many times for privacy issues. Here are a couple of examples:

It turns out that Facebook has manipulated the emotions of their users (successfully) by changing the information that users saw. The Atlantic has a nice write up.

For one week in January 2012, data scientists skewed what almost 700,000 Facebook users saw when they logged into its service. Some people were shown content with a preponderance of happy and positive words; some were shown content analyzed as sadder than average. And when the week was over, these manipulated users were more likely to post either especially positive or negative words themselves.

Facebook also shared private messages of users with some companies as well. Those messages were shared with more than 150 companies.

These are but just a coule in many privacy issues that revolve around Facebook. It’s turning out that your data is pretty powerful when it can be tied directly to you.

Facebook is just an example that most people are familiar with. Lots of companies are tracking and/or collecting data. The question is how do we understand this change. One thing that we can understand is that TV has always been free 1. TV was free because advertisers paid for the content. Those advertisers did research which kind of told them who the market was, but not individuals.

Services

So, let’s say that I offer a teacher a service. This is a great service that offers to help with classroom discipline. I offer it to all teachers for free. Why is it free? Should teachers know or care?

There are costs associted with all services. There are server costs, development costs, bandwidth costs, etc.

How does the company pay for those services? Generally, there are three broad categories of programs that are offered to teachers (and others). (I’ve written about this previously in Free vs Free vs Paid.

  • Passion project
  • Open Source
  • For profit

Passion projects

These are sites/applications that are paid for and shared by an individual (or group of individual) who do so as a hobby. Generally, they want to share with the world. This blog is an example. So is Middle School Matters, the Middle School Matters Podcast, and a few other projects that I’m involved in. I pay for the domain names and hosting because it’s my hobby. I’m certainly not alone in this.

Open Source

Open source projects are similar to passion projects. Really similar. Many open source projects start or exist as a passion project. The difference is that open source allows individuals (or companies) to change, enhance, or develop the project as well.

For profit

You pay to access or use a service. Here the model is pretty straight forward. You are paying so that someone can make a living.

Free

Teachers need to be aware that not all free sites are equal. Some are passion projects. Most are not. Many are not. Many are funded by Venture Capitalists. What does a Venture Capitalist do? A Venture Capitalist invests in a product with the intent of making money. How do these companies make money? Frequently, it is by selling the information that they collect.

Summary

So, should teachers care about the motives of those providing a service? I believe that we should. I believe that we should be making intentional choices. Gone are the days when advertisers marketed to a vast group of people. Now, we stil are not sure where and how the information being collected about us will be used. Now, I’m not in the “tin hat crowd”. However, I do think that we should be discussing and making thoughtful decisions about the services that we are offering.

1: At least until cable TV came in and we started paying for TV. Cable provided additional channels. Importantly for this discussion, that was a revenue model that allowed those channels to exist – even though they also showed advertisements.

Weekly Review

April 14, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Opening Day

The Toledo Mudhens opened up the season. We had to dress more like a football game than a baseball game, but there is a certain excitement to opening day. It’s always important to dress in layers and keep your toes warm. Misson accomplished on that.

We made the better part of a day. HomeSlice pizza for dinner. A short walk over to the “Welcoming Tent” (for a free brew).

The game itself was a winning effort by the Mudhens. All in all, a very enjoyable, albeit cold, start to baseball season.

Hotel Mumbai

We went to see Hotel Mumbai. This is a powerful movie. This is based on the real life 2008 attack on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai. The hotel was part of a coordinated attack throughout India. The attack was carried out by teenagers who were trained to kill and die.

Lights

Ah, the joys of home ownership. A set of lights that I had installed decided to give up the ghost. A quick trip to the attic, replacing the canisters and re-wiring did the trick. Now, all of the lights once again light.

Weekly Review

April 4, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Weekend Off

Well, due to a not so nice stomach issue, I pretty much didn’t do much all weekend. It is amazing how quickly a physical illness and dampen your mental focus and mood.

Italian Film Festival

We went to the opening night of the Italian Film Festival USA this week. I absolutely enjoyed the premier film (Benedetta Follia-Blessed Madness). I found the movie to have a nice mix of comedy – not too low brow nor too high brow. There was a message of living life, but not overdone. The cinematography was very well done. Yes, there were some plot holes, but I didn’t mind the twist at the end.

Home Repair

I’ll be replacing a couple of lights fixtures in the house. A couple (yes, two) of the ceiling fixtures are no longer working. Into the attic and replacing I go.

Magazines

Apple made the news for debuting Apple News+. This is a service that focuses on magazines. My library offers access to RBDigital. This gives me access to many magazine through the library. Since it is through my local library, it comes with the nice price of free.

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