mguhlin

#Moodle on a Bus – Conversations #playingwithmedia

Does Moodle remain a viable option for school districts and educators, whether they be in business or K-12 or higher education? And, can this Moodle use go mobile? Conversations are starting up again!

Image Source: http://www.elect.mrt.ac.lk/computer_in_bus.jpg

Once again, Moodle is starting to come to the front burner in my experiences with K-12 and adult learners. For awhile there, it looked like Moodle might not survive but with a new RedHatLinux server in process to get setup, this course management system has gotten a new lease on life. To be honest, we’re using the heck out of our Mac server and with thousands of users hitting it at once, it was starting to buckle under the pressure.

This past weekend, though, have involved Moodle conversations. For example, the folks who make Moodle-based Microsoft Office courses (PC-PAL SOLUTIONS), asked me what it would take to run Moodle on a bus. What a neat concept! For rural areas in some states (in the U.S.) it’s hard to get internet access. But you can always run your own local area network, setup a Moodle server and have people connect to it. The folks who need the training on productivity tools really don’t have access to the cloud…they are dependent on learning MS Office as their suite of choice.
Although I’m comfortable setting up a Moodle server on Windows, a question kept nagging at me:

If I have a server on a local area network–but the LAN is not connected to the internet–how can I assign it a domain name rather than just the server IP address? Imagine a server on a LAN travelling around in a bus with no outside Internet access but a network accessible. Computer users inside the bus access a moodle running on a server in the bus. 

I had some excellent responses from Rusty Meyners (Eustace ISD in Texas) and Gavin Henrick via Google+. Gavin wrote:

Firstly the name of the server in the workgroup should work for example my local server is on 192.168.1.3 but responds tohttp://ubuntuserver/ or http://192.168.1.3/
you can of course use the local host resolution to point at the domain (which is a nice easy quick fix if its a few desktops only)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)
or you could run a local domain name server which all machines include for resolution. As it is a limited set, sounds like a forced domain via hosts file is a good choice (but remember to reconfigure the apache server / moodle to recognise the domain. rather than just IP.Depending on your configuration, apache may work fine (if not running multiple virtual domains) so try it first 
But for the Moodle configuration config.php probably looks like
$CFG->wwwroot = ‘http://192.168.1.3/moodle‘;
if you change (like i can) to http://ubuntuserver/ some other domain, this line must be edited, as Moodle 2 will complain if u access from any other domain and bounce you to correct one.
It would show a message like
“Incorrect access detected, this server may be accessed only through “http://192.168.1.3/moodle” address, sorry.Please notify server administrator.”(and then redirects)

When you get excellent responses like this, wow, that’s gold! Thanks so much, Gavin and Rusty! Dean Mantz also wrote (via Twitter):

 1390  dmantz7: @mguhlin I would think that matching a domain name with server IP will allow you reach it. At least that is how I access mine w/o logins.

Other conversations took a less technical journey, such as the one prompted by Wes Fryer via Twitter:


41 s  3924  mguhlin: @crafty184 love to hear about why you left Moodle. Is it the @wfryer walled garden position expounded in #playingwithmedia or what? 8-> · Reply · RT
1 m  3924  mguhlin: @crafty184 @roblyons have you done an inventory of the learning experiences you want to introduce your students to, and matched the tool(s)? · Reply · RT
4 m  3924  mguhlin: @crafty184 @roblyons You have to find the tool that best matches the needs of your learners and your’s as a “learning experience designer.” · Reply · RT
5 m  3924  mguhlin: @roblyons @crafty184 Hmm…Wikis are one option, as these folks have demo’d: t.co/93YHzyy (and many others). Why limit yourself? · Reply · RT
35 m  10k  wfryer: @mguhlin excellent, thanks 🙂 · Reply · RT
1 h  728  roblyons: @crafty184 @mguhlin so what’s the solution then? I’ve been helping build an online course for Spring 12 & have no LMS · Reply · RT
1 h  2108  crafty184: @mguhlin I’ve abandoned moodle. · Reply · RT
2 h  3924  mguhlin: @wfryer t.co/UfA5vMC · Reply · RT
9 h  10k  wfryer: @mguhlin what’s the link to your best/most updated site for Moodle training resources?
I’m going to explore Wes Fryer’s perspective in Playing with Media, his new ebook, a bit more. I want to see what I can push back on!
8->

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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