18 December 2008, 19:10

Hi All... 

I created four simple Mahara screen tutorials for our students and staff. They are posted on TeacherTube, but I also linked to them directly off one of our blogs, http://edutonica.blogspot.com

They are very basic and an attempt to on my part to get more students and staff interested in using Mahara.

 If you find they are useful, feel free to share :-)

 

 

18 December 2008, 20:22

It's interesting that you use the word "web site" for Views - you're not the first person to suggest that, and you probably won't be the last! From a usability point of view, it seem to make sense...

What do other people think about this?

BTW: we also have thought before about the word 'artefact' - users don't really care that all of their information is 'artefacts' that can be put in a 'view' - they care more that their 'stuff' can be put on a 'web site'. Any thoughts? 

19 December 2008, 19:48

These tutorials were meant for middle school students (USA) and their teachers. They are not very familiar  with this type of tool.  I wanted to use language that they would relate to, but at the same time introduce new vocabulary, which may not be too familiar to them...such as "Views" and "Artifacts." When I hear the word artifacts, the first word that pops into my mind is "ancient." Probably just my unique association with the word artefact... :-)  However, it is a word that middle school students and teachers don't use too often, so it might catch on just because of its uniqueness. :-)  We are right before a bit of a holiday break, and our use of Mahara by our staff and students has been very light up to this point. ...Primarily because we have not officially implemented it. I am curious to see if the students will take an interest into this resource while on winter break...without any teachers assigning it to them...

20 December 2008, 13:35

Hi John,

I like your tutorials a lot, it's a nice way for students when they are working at home. It's more personal if they can hear their own teacher explain to them, which I think makes it more realistic... 

Which software did you use to make the tutorials? Camtasia?

For the MOSEP Project ( www.mosep.org) also a number of tutorials were produced by Wolf Hizensauer, have a look here.

Here is a website which provides Podcasts in German on all features of MAHARA

 

23 December 2008, 15:55

Hi Sigi :-)

I did those screen captures on a Macintosh using iShowU. (http://www.shinywhitebox.com/index.html). They were done in Quicktime and then loaded up into the TeacherTube site. I was actually surprised how well they looked full screen after uploaded into TeacherTube.

Cheers!

20 December 2008, 12:38

Hi Nigel, I must admit that we in Germany have also been struggling a lot with the very sophisticated word Artefact, and even though we explained the teachers what this could  possibly all include, they find it strange ... well, its just all kind of stuff ;-)

To name a view a website is not a very bad idea at all, because after all, that's where MAHARA goes almost static once it is published... a lot easier to understand for folks than "VIEW"... but dont worry, once they understand what they are supposed to do, it's no more a problem.

18 December 2008, 22:53

I like the tutorials! I was planning on doing something similar for the school I'm trying to get onto a Mahara system. Most of the teachers there are "slightly" afraid of the internet in general, so I've got my work cut out for me.

In regards to the "web site" vs. "view" discussion. I'd like to see them called "Pages." I don't know that you could really call them sites (although if you could link views to other views as has been mentioned, then I suppose you could). But considering its a portfolio at heart, pages makes more sense to me.

As far as a new name for the artefacts... Not sure. Maybe just call it the "portfolio archive" and the artefacts just become "items" or something?

18 December 2008, 23:21

If we add the ability for Views to have multiple tabs/subpages, then I guess they would become "websites" in their own right. But yes, as they stand right now, they'd make sense as web pages.

19 December 2008, 5:51

From my point of view I don't really like the word 'artefact' in this context and tend refer to them as 'their resources' when explaining to the students. The term 'view' seems fine and is, to some extent, indicative of what it is - in my mind. at least!