Note: This is a follow up on questions that came up during Classroom 2.0 LIVE! I’ve organized them into broad categories/themes, and responding to them over time. I encourage those of you who are knowledgeable (or have an opinion/angle) to speak up in the comments. In this entry, I respond to some of the issues mentioned in the USABILITY theme. Thanks to the Classroom 2.0 LIVE Folks!

USABILITY
chriswherley: i have been looking at Ning, but feel Moodle would be better for teachers and students. Ning seems easier to use though.
Response: After a hiatus with Moodle, I’m jumping back into it and moving all our content into it. It’s been fun and surprisingly easy. The question I have to ask myself now is NOT, “What’s easiest for me to use and maintain?” but rather, “What’s easiest for those I’m hoping to empower and take ownership?”

A few questions to ask about using Ning:
1) How easy is it to backup a Ning you’ve created if you decide to walk away from Ning?

2) How easy is it for you to setup a Ning on your own server if you do decide to walk away?

3) Does Ning have an education only location that at least has the obligatory “.org” label so that it won’t be blocked, unlike the “ning.com” that is in some districts?

4) How many administrators can you setup on a Ning?

If you’re OK with the responses to these questions, then, Ning may be the way to go. It sure doesn’t hurt to try, does it?

Brad.Schmicker: I’m using Moodle with my 5th graders but the page looks so plain. Is there any way I can brighten it up, make it look more interesting?
Response: You bet! While you’ll have to learn how to code Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)…wait, not that excited about that? Well, try these free themes.

Elena: ive heard you need a dedicated server would need to learn how to do that
Response: It’s definitely worthwhile to have your own server, but if by dedicated you mean, “only Moodle,” not necessarily. In fact, we have active Moodles running on servers that do other things. The servers we buy are about $6-7K each. You can also take advantage of a Moodle hosting solution.

Beth Still: Is anyone using the wiki inside Moodle? What are your impressions?
Response: My first impression of the Moodle wiki was negative, but it’s gotten better with each subsequent version. I wish there were an easy to follow tutorial on using wikis in Moodle written from MY perspective (experienced with wikis). I may write it to match my teaching style. In the meantime, watch this 2 minute video from the Human Blog.

Rebecca: Does Moodle allow for external links? I’d like to be able to link out to the easier to use wiki – rather than use the wiki on moodle. Has anyone tried that?
Response: Yes, not a problem to link out. Just add a link to a web page.

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