iSean

well, my semester starts in a little over a week and i still haven’t decided on the tools i’ll use. i was really hoping phpBB version 3 would be out, but they released a release candidate 4 in late July and i doubt that the final version comes out in the next week. i’ll wait until next week to decide, but i fiddled with an earlier release candidate and i really like what they’re doing with this upgrade. i am probably going to use the RC 4 even though it isn’t a final version. ah well.

drupal is up to version 5.2 and i’ll likely be using it for my classes this semester. i’ve used it a few times in the past and it’s a nice replacement for most of things that Blackboard does, but i really need a gradebook module to fully break free from Blackboard. i thought one was being made last summer as part of the Google summer of programming or something like that, but here we are a year later and i haven’t heard about it being ready yet. i might check out drupaled.org’s drupal release that is customized for educators. that means that they’ve set it up to install with extra modules already included that help educators use drupal more effectively in their classes.

i plan to take a few days early next week and explore some other potential tools that could supplement the tools above and make for some better online learning for my students. for what it’s worth, i am scheduled to teach 3 online courses this fall.

Technorati Tags: CMS, phpbb, drupal, lms, ed tech, technology in education