New version of MovableType

I finally bit the bullet and upgraded MovableType, the CMS software/blogging system I use for IT from the venerable 2.661 version to the spiffy new current 3.2.2 version. All seems to have gone well . . . except my template and stylesheet are thoroughly bolloxed. I’ve made a termporary switch to the “old” ones, rather […]

Calendars

I’ve been interested in online calendars in support of teaching and learning for years. In the nineties I used Excel and Claris Organizer to create sign up sheets and calendars for my students. Pretty much every LMS claims to have a calendar tool, but I’ve yet to see an LMS with a decent, usable, publishable, […]

MacInTouch on CMS

There’s what looks like a very useful discussion of CMSs on Macintouch. It’s mostly written from a Mac OS X perspective, but many of the points are platform agnostic.

On Grading and Spreadsheets

I freely confess that numbers and I do not get along as well as, say, letters and I get along. I started using a spreadsheet for grading calculations very early on in my teaching. In a graduate pedagogy class I noticed a lot of concern about the numeric and mathematical aspects of grading. For instance, […]

Better CMS

I’m mostly putting this here so I can easily point to it for people: Jeffrey Veen on Making a Better Open Source CMS. Each time I look at the latest CMS or (more often) LMS, and that includes Moodle and Sakai, I think of Veen’s remarks:
Ultimately, a content management system should be designed to empower […]

Open Source Courseware Sand Box

Brad Choate mentioned the Open Source CMS site, which offers a way to take a look at a variety of open source PHP and MySQL CMS and LMS systems without having to install them yourself first. Some of these strike me as viable alternatives or supplements for WebCT and Blackboard. I’m especially intrigued by Moodle.

About Wikis

I blame David Chess, who made a passing reference to the Wiki Pedia in his Log. I’ve looked at Wikis before, of course, and even posted about them, but the Wiki Pedia is the first time I really got to participate. The part that I find most fascinating about Wikis is the way the community […]

SCORM and Modules

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article about standards for courseware and CMS allowing “mix and match” development:

For the first time, evolving technical standards for software are making it possible for colleges to customize distance-learning programs by easily mixing online-learning software from multiple companies.

This is of course exactly the approach to a CMS system […]

Blackboard coaxing WebCT users to Defect

In this press release BlackBoard urges WebCT users to come to the mother ship with promises of “conversion kits.”
You know they aren’t doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, which makes me wonder just what kind of “conversion” and support they are offering. I’m not going to speculate about why and what a […]

CMS Crises, or Opportunity?

Yesterday, my interest in blogs and CMSs got a lot sharper; WebCT announced a deadline for ending licensing for 3.1x, the version we use on E-Campus. We’re going to have to decide what to do. We do have lots of alternatives, but it means my research and personal interest in CMSs and blog tools is […]