If your computers are on for much of the day, you might want to consider downloading the BOINC software and choosing one or more projects. There are many projects out there, so look through them and add the ones that fit your view of helping out.
Here’s a video of just one of the projects out there (and it has 5 different applications)!:
You can run multiple projects and set the percentage of time for each.
Makoto Rich has an interesting article on how reading has changed and is changing. Questions to consider as you read:
Do you have kids? Have you ever thought about what they’re (not) learning? Sir Ken Robinson has a few thoughts on the matter. This one is highly recommended whether you have children or not.
I just added an entry on Hans Rosling. Here is a link to the absolutely amazing tool he developed to visualize data. It’s all self-explanatory, but, just in case, go to the bottom of the page and choose the data you want to look at. Click play and sit back and enjoy. If you hover over any of the circles, the country will display.
I understand google bought the software in 2007, and you can add to the database if you have relevant data.
Hans Rosling has a fascinating presentation at the TED site. Not only does he use actual data to talk about the economic and social changes rapidly occurring in the world, but he does it with beautiful graphics. 
Enjoy!
May 31st and June 1st was the annual JALTCALL 2008 conference, held in Nagoya, Japan (well, not really in Nagoya since it was a long way outside of Naoya). It was a good conference, except for the transportation; I’ll try to add my notes at a later time.
I talked about using moodle’s quiz module to assess students’ vocabulary levels and learning. There was a nice turnout. I was busy, , so I didn’t do an actual count. I would have to say that between 20 and 25 people were in attendance. I heard some good questions beforehand, so I had an idea of the diverse audience.
If you download the handout and presentation from the link above, you can get a good idea of what I talked about. I had about 25 minutes of material to talk about, and with the questions that came up during the talk, 40 minutes flew by.
The quiz module is an extremely powerful tool. Now combined with the completely overhauled gradebook, you can allow students to keep track of their progress right along with you. See you on the forums.
Are you using moodle with your English students? Do your students read books as a part of their program? If you can answer yes to both of those questions, then I have put together a database module (free registration required) for moodle that allows students to keep track of their reading. You can get it by clicking here.
Currently, students will need to input their own student ID number, so you can search by student, but there is a fix in the works to have searchable student information added from moodle’s own database. Film at eleven. Thanks go to Tom Robb for giving me lots of helpful advice. 
I recognized the name, but I didn’t make any connections until I was part way through the presentation. Hey, I live in Japan and don’t have much time for watching TV or movies, okay? Anyway, he’s an interesting guy, and has left his mark on a lot of TV and movies. Check it out.
Jason Cole and Helen Foster have written the second edition of their book Using Moodle
Cole and Foster start off with an explanation of what moodle is and the philosophy behind both its software development and its educational design. The book moves on to setting up moodle accounts and courses; then it adds information on adding course content and managing a moodle course. The major modules are discussed, most of these have their own chapters with detailed information on setting them up and creating effective activities. Unlike the Rice volumes, however, Cole and Foster include separate chapters for the assignment, blog, and database modules.
If I had to choose one out of the three books (obviously I didn’t have to ), I would get this one. It has a good balance of the basic for new users and solid suggestions for more advanced users to create useful activities. Unfortunately, with last week’s release of 1.9, it’s time for a third edition of Using Moodle.
Rice’s Moodle Teaching Techniques
There is a complete run-down of how forums can be used to open up dialogues with individual students or bring students together in relevant course discussions. Chats, extremely processor-intensive in my own experience, can be used to bring a ‘guest speaker’ to a course or help students with course questions. Quizzes can be used for self-assessment of course material or checking learning under timed conditions. Lessons can introduce new content, check understanding, and provide remediation. Wikis can be created and uploaded before class time with course outlines which students can then augment with their own notes, a process Rice calls “guided note taking.” Several other modules are discussed and each one has at least one clever approach to the teaching/learning issue. All in all, this could be a very useful book for someone who needs some ideas for their moodle installation. Check it out.
